There's a new president of the Board of Directors of Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) who was appointed by by a vote of the Board of Directors. The new president, Thomas Van den Driessche is Chief Executive Officer of Newtec. Mr. Van den Driessche will work closely with Board Chairman David Myers, President of the Communications Sector for Peraton, to continue the growth of SSPI’s membership beyond traditional GEO communications into LEO, MEO, Earth observation, optical communications and on into a new era of the space economy, that will include a more global footprint.

Thomas Van den Driessche

With hundreds of thousands of people working in member companies, the organization represents a USD 400 billion market in 2018. The ambitious state of the industry was reflected by USD 7 billion new capital injections in 2018 and is forecast to grow to a USD 1.1 trillion industry in the next 20 years.

Other current board members represent Blue Origin, Boeing, CBS, Ericsson, Eutelsat, Globalstar, Hughes Network Systems, Kymeta, OneWeb, Planet, SES, SpaceX, Speedcast, SSL, the Spaceconnection, Viacom and Viasat.

Mr. Van den Driessche stated that SSPI represents the business of space; the commercial space industry that, every day, takes bold risks in launching capital-intensive missions to create a big return. Not because it is easy to do, but because it is hard and disruptive. The ambitious visions of SSPI’s member companies are creating a new future for humanity. Planet-wide wireless solutions that connect every single inch of our world. Mapping and understanding all of Earth’s surface and atmosphere, to make humanity’s footprint on Earth as efficient as it can be. Building the commercial space economy that will ultimately employ a million people in space. Every day, they are making a better world from outside the atmosphere.

Thomas Van den Driessche has been active in the broadcast and satellite markets for the past 20 years. He has spent 12 of those with Newtec, where he started as director of sales and business development, and at year's end of 2016, he was made CEO.