...to its Board of Directors, effective immediately. Filling new seats created in an expansion of the Board are Mark Rathert, General Manager, Ground Operations (U.S.), SES; Kurt Riegelman, Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Intelsat; Francis Rolland, CEO, GlobeCast UK; and Jose Sanchez Ruiz, Director of Service Operations, Eutelsat.
- Mark Rathert, General Manager, Ground Operations (US) for SES, brings more than 28 years of satellite industry experience, and over a decade of technical leadership experience, to his current position as General Manager, Ground Operations (U.S.). His current responsibilities include director-level leadership of all SES U.S. earth station facilities; including a ground operations, station management, and station engineering organization of thirty-four (34) SES associates. During his SES career, he has held positions of increasing responsibility in the areas of technical operations, systems engineering, transponder planning, broadband engineering, Six Sigma quality, product management, and ground operations management. Mark holds a degree in Electronic Engineering Technology and is both a GE Certified Six Sigma Black Belt and Master Black Belt
- Francis Rolland, CEO of GlobeCast UK, has been a key driver in GlobeCast’s transition from a satellite service company to a provider of content management and delivery solutions. Mr. Rolland joined the London Branch of GlobeCast Europe in 1996 as the CFO, becoming Managing Director in January 2002. Prior to this appointment he was the CFO of France Telecom Network Services, the London subsidiary of Transpac. Previously, Rolland spent 5 years in New York as the financial controller of the Intelmatique operations in the USA
- As Intelsat’s Senior Vice President, Global Sales, Kurt Riegelman is responsible for all of Intelsat’s sales activities around the world, which include providing video, network and managed telecommunications solutions to businesses in approximately 200 countries and territories. As Intelsat’s former Senior Vice President, Americas Sales, Mr. Riegelman successfully led his teams through the challenges of integrating two global sales forces and delivered well in excess of the company’s revenue targets in the first year of combined operations. Mr. Riegelman brings nearly 25 years of experience in the satellite industry to his new WTA position
- Jose Sanchez Ruiz, Director of Service Operations for Eutelsat, the leading European satellite operator and one of the three top operators in the world for fixed satellite services. As Director of Service Operations, he is responsible for oversight of service delivery which covers both Satellite Capacity and Ground Network. He was responsible for engineering and operations of network and platforms, and the development of services combining satellite and ground infrastructure in his previous position. Prior to joining Eutelsat in 2002, he worked for several telecom operators in Spain. As CIO and CTO of a SW company (Optenet), he was responsible in developing security solutions for operators. He also played key role in some of the initiatives to deploy new submarine cables between Europe and the West African coast. José Sanchez Ruiz holds MS in Telecommunication Engineering at the UPM (Universidad Politecnica de Madrid) and an MBA at the EOI Business School
“I am grateful that these senior executives understand the value that WTA contributes to the satellite services business and are willing to give their time and expertise to the association’s leadership,” said WTA Executive Director Robert Bell. “Our Nominating Committee did an excellent job in bringing them onboard.”
In addition to these new Directors, the members of WTA’s Board of Directors include: Chairman M. Brett Belinsky of Arqiva Broadcast & Media; Secretary General Norberto Alvarez Vitale of Teleport Internacional Buenos Aires; Adrian Ballintine of NewSat; Tomaz Lovsin of STN; Bill Tillson of Encompass Digital Media; Serge Van Herck of Newtec; M.N. Vyas of Essel Shyam Communication Limited; and Koby Zontag of RRsat Global Communications.