RaySat Names Executive Team to Lead Company's Foray Into In-Vehicle Satellite TV Industry

MCLEAN, Va., Nov. 3/Satnews Daily/ ¾ RaySat, Inc. has announced its U.S. presence by naming the top executives to lead the company in the booming field that allows SUVs, RVs, trucks and other passenger vehicles to receive rear- seat television and music programming via satellite.

Yoel Gat, previously chairman and CEO of Gilat Satellite Networks Ltd., has been named chairman. Dan DiFonzo, formerly assistant director of Comsat Labs has been appointed chief technical officer and former Ernst and Young partner, Liav Even-Chen, as chief financial officer.

"We have our financing in place and now we have an experienced and market-savvy leadership team to launch our new products that will revolutionize the vehicle entertainment marketplace," said Salameh, commenting on the appointments.

An industry veteran of more than 14 years, Salameh previously served as president and CEO of Telmex North American Ventures. He also served as chairman and CEO of Prodigy Communications Corp., where he grew revenues from $20 million to over $300 million in two years and transformed the company into one of the largest consumer DSL Internet service providers in the U.S. He also spent seven years at MCI Communications and at Telmex where he gained experience in consumer and business markets.

As a co-founder and CEO of Gilat in 1987, Gat took the company from zero to over $500 million in sales by 2000. For his vision in bringing satellite Internet technology to the mass market, he was named one of Time's Digital Dozen for 2001.

DiFonzo's vast satellite technology expertise encompasses more than 30 years. He headed his own satellite consulting company, Planar Communications Corp., for more than 14 years. At Comsat Laboratories he pioneered and managed many aspects of satellite antenna and communications technologies. He also served as vice president and general manager in Comsat's Systems Division, which provided satellite systems and network engineering, earth stations systems integration and satellite construction monitoring.

CFO Even-Chen formerly was with Ernst and Young, where he worked in California's Silicon Valley before making partner in 2001, providing him invaluable experience in the financing of high-tech companies.