Speakers

Robert Bednarek
President and Chief Executive Officer

Robert Bednarek is the President and Chief Executive Officer of SES WORLD SKIES and is a Member of the Executive Committee of SES. Mr. Bednarek was appointed in July 2008 to lead SES AMERICOM, in addition to SES NEW SKIES . Prior to assuming management of the new company, Mr. Bednarek was President and CEO of SES NEW SKIES since October 2006.

Mr. Bednarek came to SES NEW SKIES from SES where he served as Executive Vice President Corporate Development as well as a Member of the Executive Committee. Robert Bednarek joined SES in 2002.

Under Robert Bednarek’s leadership, SES NEW SKIES has had two consecutive years of record revenue growth, resulting in a historically high fill rate of 75% across the NSS fleet. In addition, he has successfully led the company with the successful procurement of three new satellites, representing a significant increase in the company’s fleet capacity.

Before joining the SES Group, he worked for PanAmSat, where he last held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Technology Officer. Prior to that, Rob was the co-founder and partner of a Washington DC based technology-consulting firm, Rubin, Bednarek and Associates, specializing in communication systems engineering and technical regulatory matters. He previously served as deputy chief scientist for the US Corporation for Public Broadcasting (CPB).
Mr. Bednarek is currently a board member of the non-profit Space Foundation and is on the Board of Directors of SES ASTRA.

Steve Collar
Senior Vice President Market Development

Steve Collar leads the Market Development team at SES WORLD SKIES. In this role, Mr. Collar is responsible for overall leadership of SES WORLD SKIES’ efforts to expand its satellite and service portfolio, including the design of new spacecraft and products. In addition, he oversees the company’s long range strategic planning activities in close cooperation with other SES entities. Mr. Collar joined SES NEW SKIES in 1999 and was instrumental in the design, configuration and procurement of all of the company’s new satellites. As Vice President of Asset Management and Development from 2003-2007, he was responsible for the commercial optimization and management of the satellite fleet, including the pricing of capacity and allocation of transponders to markets. He was also involved in the development and management of the company’s value-added video and IP products.

Prior to joining SES NEW SKIES, Mr. Collar spent eight years at the satellite manufacturer Astrium, formerly Matra Marconi Space, working in a variety of roles including Payload Architect and Payload Manager on satellites such as Astra 2B, Intelsat 10 and the Eutelsat Hotbird series.

Gerson Souto
Senior Vice President Commercial Services

Gerson leads Commercial Services of SES WORLD SKIES and is responsible for the management of existing satellite capacity and service offerings; asset/yield management, product management, business analysis, contingency and transition planning; marketing communications and press relations.

He joined SES in 1998 and came to SES NEW SKIES in 2007. Previously Gerson worked at Intelsat and prior to that, he worked as an engineer at Embratel, a Brazilian telecommunications long distance carrier.

Gerson holds an MBA from George Washington University in Washington, D.C., an MA in Telecommunication Systems from the Pontifical Catholic University in Brazil, and a bachelor’s degree in Telecommunication Engineering from the Federal Fluminense University in Brazil.

Scott Sprague
Senior Vice President Global Sales

Scott J. Sprague leads the company’s global sales team located throughout ten regional offices around the world. His primary responsibilities include generating revenues across all SES WORLD SKIES’ products and services, providing additional senior level customer interaction, and assessing and developing alternate sales channels.

In his tenure at SES NEW SKIES, Mr. Sprague has led the team responsible for doubling the company’s sales revenues and successfully building a diversified portfolio of business serving enterprise, media and government customers around the globe.

Under his management, Mr. Sprague has built up a customer capture team global structure consisting of sales directors, sales engineers and customer account managers. This customer-centric approach has been credited with contract renewal rates going from to 38% to 85%, as well as a subsational increase in revenues from key accounts. Furthermore, the customer capture team approach has reduced the delivery cycle time to service.

Mr. Sprague joined New Skies from KPNQwest, where he was Vice President of Enterprise Sales. Prior to KPNQwest, he was Vice President of Channel Management for Infonet Service Corporation, where he provided leadership to a European-based channel management team. Mr. Sprague, in his more than 20 years at AT&T, also held a range of senior sales positions, including General Manager of Technical Sales in the provider services division.

Mr. Sprague holds an MBA in International Business from Western International University and a BS degree in Business Administration from Illinois State University.

Bryan McGuirk
Senior Vice President Sales North America Media

Bryan McGuirk is responsible for building and maintaining SES WORLD SKIES’ leadership in media and entertainment distribution throughout the U.S. Mr. McGuirk leads a seasoned team of specialists and professionals who provide high-quality satellite-based service solutions to varied media customers in North American markets.

He has extensive experience with business and sales issues associated with developing media-based businesses. He was President of California-based OpenTV. In addition, he had executive and management responsibilities at TViFusion, NBC Television Network, and Turner, launching CNN, TNT and Cartoon Network in Asian markets.

Mr. McGuirk received his B.A. in Managerial Economics from Union College in Schenectady, and his M.B.A. from Emory University in Atlanta. He is active in many industry associations, and in the past has served as a board member of the Interactive Television Alliance and the Cable & Satellite Broadcasting Association of Asia.

Dolores Martos
Vice President Sales Latin America and the Caribbean

Dolores is the Vice President of Sales for Latin America & Caribbean at SES WORLD SKIES, responsible for sales activities and strategies in Latin America and the Caribbean. Ms. Martos joined SES NEW SKIES in early 1999 after an eighteen-year career at Intelsat where she held the position of Regional Sales Director in charge of Latin America sales and marketing activities. Prior to her role in Sales and Marketing, Ms. Martos held various managerial positions in the System Planning and the Operations Divisions. Ms. Martos also worked for the Venezuelan Telecommunications Company (CANTV) where she was responsible for planning activities and commercial relationships with foreign correspondents.

Ms. Martos holds a degree in Electronic Engineering, mention Cum Laude, from the Simón Bolívar University in Caracas, Venezuela.

Samantha McCloskey
Vice President of Special Events and Occasional Use Services

Samantha is responsible for organizing and managing SES WORLD SKIES’ worldwide ad hoc and occasional-use services for broadcasters, news agencies, and government customers.

Ms. McCloskey earned her undergraduate degree from the University of California Berkeley, and was in the Master’s program at the University of Colorado’s Graduate School of Communications.

Sergy Mummert
Vice President of Strategic Satellite Development

Sergy is a part of the SES WORLD SKIES Market Development organization, where he develops new custom payloads for dedicated clients. In addition, he manages the relationship with DISH Network and Echostar as well as the commercial aspects of Ciel Satellite (SES’s Canadian affiliate) and QuetzSat SRL (SES’s Mexican affiliate).

Prior to joining SES in 2002, Mr. Mummert held various Business Development roles, with over 12 years of experience, including: Manager, Business Development-Hughes Aircraft Company; Senior Manager, Business Development - DIRECTV International, Inc., and Co-founder/Director of Business Development for Astrolink International LLC.

Mr. Mummert holds a B.A. in International Commerce from San Diego State University and a Master's of International Management from the Thunderbird School of Global Management.

Jurandir Pitsch
Vice President of Market Development, Latin America and the Caribbean

Jurandir is the Vice President of Market Development, Latin America region, at SES WORLD SKIES.

Mr. Jurandir Pitsch is based out of the São Paulo, Brazil office. Mr. Pitsch has an engineering background and has held several positions in the satellite industry in the Brazilian market in companies like Telebrás and Comsat. He joined SES NEW SKIES in 2002 as a Senior Sales Director for Latin America.

John Finney
Executive Vice President of Global Sales and Marketing

John leads O3b Networks’ global sales and marketing efforts. Prior to joining O3b Networks, he served as Regional Managing Director for Ciena Corp, where he was responsible for Northern Europe, Russia and the Middle East.

Prior to Ciena, Mr. Finney held a number of International Vice President positions from 2004 to 2007 with Alcatel-Lucent, including responsibility for the Vodafone business unit. He later served as Vice President of International Accounts for the Northern European region.

From 1999 to 2004, Mr. Finney served as a founding member of Huawei Technologies’ European team. With Huawei, he secured major contracts across Europe, the Middle East and Africa as the company’s Vice President of Mobile Solutions for the EMEA region. Early in his career, Mr. Finney worked for the UK Foreign Commonwealth Office and T-Mobile UK.

George Alatsatianos
Director Sales Engineering (Americas)

George is responsible for the Sales Engineering group supporting Media and Enterprise Sales in North and South America at SES WORLD SKIES. He joined SES AMERICOM Sales Engineering in 2000, and has more than 25 years of engineering and project management experience in the satellite and broadcasting industry.

Mr. Alatsatianos holds a B.Sc. (Hons) degree in Electrical and Electronic Engineering from University of Wales in the UK and he has been published in technical journals.

Julian Gonzales
Product Manager

Julian works as a Product Manager at SES WORLD SKIES, responsible for managing a portfolio of satellite and terrestrial value added solutions. Prior to joining SES in 2004, Mr. Gonzalez had more than 10 years of experience as Director of Voice Products at Verestar, Director of Network Engineering at Publicom Corporation, and Operations Engineer at Americatel Colombia.

Mr. Gonzalez has a Bachelor of Science in Electronic Engineering from the Pontificia Universidad Javeriana in Bogotá, Colombia; and a Master of Business Administration with a Finance Specialty from Nova Southeastern University and a Marketing Specialty from Florida Atlantic University.

Richard Lamb
Director of Media Development

Richard has been with the company since 2000, having started in the television broadcast industry more than 20 years ago. At SES WORLD SKIES he is responsible for many aspects of the strategic approach to the international broadcast community and for the development of media growth opportunities worldwide.

Mr. Lamb holds a degree in Electronics & Communications Engineering and came to The Netherlands having previously worked for the BBC and Reuters Television in London.

Nihar Shah
Strategic Market Development Director

Nihar is responsible for strategic planning, market intelligence, and analysis at SES WORLD SKIES. Mr. Shah joined the company in 2003, moving to The Hague from the Washington, D.C. area, where he held positions with the space consulting firm Futron and the United States Agency for International Development (USAID).

Mr. Shah holds a Masters degree in International Science and Technology Policy from the George Washington University and a Bachelor of Science degree from the University of Delhi.

Aslan Tricha
Director of Market Development

Aslan is responsible for the data segment development and enterprise strategy, globally. Mr. Tricha joined SES NEW SKIES in 2001, and has served in various functions in market and product development, he is currently the Director of Market Development at SES WORLD SKIES. Mr. Tricha previously worked for Verizon in the Data Solutions group.

Mr. Tricha holds a degree in Business Administration from the University of Maryland.