[SatNews] Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. announced three leadership appointments and an...

...organizational structure change that will position operating sectors for improved customer efficiency. Effective January 2, Ball’s Civil and Operational Space business unit will become two separate business units: Civil Space and Technology led by Vice President and General Manager Jim Oschmann; and Operational Space led by Vice President and General Manager Cary Ludtke.

Oschmann will spearhead Ball’s science and technology development objectives for civil customers, while Ludtke will continue his leadership of company programs that include the nation’s civil weather system, the Joint Polar Satellite System, and the Operational Land Imager. A third change includes the appointment of Rob Freedman as vice president and general manager for Tactical Solutions, the business unit previously led by Oschmann.

Oschmann joined Ball in 2004 and has a long history in the industry’s science community, serving on review panels and advisory boards for NASA, the National Science Foundation and the Association of Universities for Research in Astronomy. In the new position, Oschmann will be responsible for programs that include the James Webb Space Telescope, Green Propellant Infusion Mission and Tropospheric Emissions: Monitoring of Pollution.

Ludtke has held numerous positions of leadership in his nearly 30 years at Ball Aerospace. He will continue to develop strategies to expand the company’s commercial and international opportunities while overseeing existing programs including WorldView-3, FalconEye, Sentinel, the Geostationary Environment Monitoring Spectrometer, and the Geostationary Ocean Color Imager II.

Freedman’s aerospace career spans more than three decades. Since joining Ball, he has served in a variety of management roles, most recently as Ball’s director for RF applications and strategic initiatives. He has worked as a program manager, capture lead, business area manager and as an advanced systems manager, and his background includes 28 years as a naval aviator.

Ball Aerospace & Technologies Corp. supports critical missions for national agencies such as the Department of Defense, NASA, NOAA and other U.S. government and commercial entities. The company develops and manufactures spacecraft, advanced instruments and sensors, components, data exploitation systems and RF solutions for strategic, tactical and scientific applications.