SSPI

In this Making Leaders podcast, we hear from Steve Spengler, Former CEO of Intelsat (now retired). Over a 36-year career in the space and satellite industry, Steve Spengler has dedicated himself to providing critical services to places in the world and people on the move where other telecommunications technologies cannot reach. He joined Intelsat in 2003 and served in a variety of executive roles, including sales, marketing, strategy and business development. Appointed CEO in 2015, he assumed leadership at a major inflection point for the world’s first satellite company. He oversaw the 2016 launch of the first satellite in the global Epic fleet that brought high-throughput architecture to C-, Ku- and Ka-bands, vastly increasing Intelsat’s capacity to meet exploding needs for satellite data. Through strategic investments and alliances, he expanded the company into flat panel antenna technology, LEO communications, in-flight broadband and other verticals. After years of fighting the mobile industry over access to spectrum, he changed course and proposed the sale of C-band frequencies to mobile carriers, igniting a complex regulatory and political process that led to the current C-band repack in the US. His final act before announcing his retirement was the emergence of Intelsat from Chapter 11 bankruptcy as a newly capitalized company that had shed a substantial portion of the debt heaped on it by former private equity owners and is prepared for its next wave of growth.

In this Making Leaders podcast, we hear from Professor Robert Twiggs, Emeritus Professor – Astronautics at Morehead State University. Prof. Twiggs is best known in the space and satellite industry and academia as the “Father of the CubeSat” for his co-development of the CubeSat reference design and P-Pod Deployer for miniaturized satellites at Stanford University, alongside Professor Jordi Puig-Suari of California Polytechnic University at San Luis Obispo. His design has become the de-facto industry standard for Pico satellites since its development in 1998, with over 1,600 successful launches to this day. Prof. Twiggs has also developed and co-developed other original concepts, including the CricketSat, CanSat, ThinSat and the PocketQube for educational applications in space. Learn more about Prof. Twiggs at https://www.sspi.org/cpages/hof-twiggs

The bombs falling in Ukraine have raised major geopolitical issues in Asia. One in particular will seriously impact the future of the commercial space industry. Taiwan’s significance to the world’s supply chain, high-value technology base, microprocessors and the civil life and laws upon which democracy depends are not always considered when we casually ask, “If Taiwan Goes, What Else Goes With It?” Could the industry be a casualty of a Chinese invasion? In this podcast, based on the May 2022 edition of the New York Space Business Roundtable, our guests describe what is really at stake. The conversation is moderated by SSPI’s Lou Zacharilla and NY Space Alliance Founder Joseph Fargnoli, with a special report by SpaceNews reporter Jason Rainbow.

Guests for this podcast include:

• Dr. Ting-Jung (TJ) Liang, Principal Engineer, Long Range Communications Technology, Industrial Technology Research Institute, Taiwan
• N. Darius Sankey, PhD., Managing Director, Innovation Acceleration Capital
• Dr. Robert Spalding, Co-CEO, Q-Networks, author, STEALTH WAR: HOW CHINA TOOK OVER WHILE AMERICA’S ELITE SLEPT (Portfolio; 2019)
• Thomas Yen, CEO & Co-Founder, Tensor Tech

How do satellites support supply chains for humanitarian efforts? Satellites can help to facilitate the communication that enables humanitarian agencies and regions to establish corridors and logistics chains, while monitoring the effort, managing data, chronicling refugee flight and resettlement. In this fifth episode of the Untangling the Supply Chain podcast, David Myers, President and CEO of UltiSat, and David Meltzer, Secretary General of Global VSAT Forum, join SSPI’s Lou Zacharilla to continue the discussion of how satellites have and continue to support supply chains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after major disasters and in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

How do satellites support supply chains for humanitarian efforts? Satellites can help to facilitate the communication that enables humanitarian agencies and regions to establish corridors and logistics chains, while monitoring the effort, managing data, chronicling refugee flight and resettlement. In this fourth episode of the Untangling the Supply Chain podcast, David Myers, President and CEO of UltiSat, and David Meltzer, Secretary General of Global VSAT Forum, join SSPI’s Lou Zacharilla to discuss how satellites have and continue to support supply chains in the Democratic Republic of the Congo, after major disasters and in the ongoing conflict in Ukraine.

Communication and earth observation satellites play an essential but too-little-known role in managing the world’s supply chains.  The solutions call on spacecraft in every orbit, carrying every payload and operating in every commercial frequency band. They also call on the ingenuity and determination of experts in engineering, manufacturing, operations and analytics to provide the crucial data and communications that help their customers keep the world supplied. 

In this podcast, based on the May 12 Webinar: Satellite Solutions for Supply Chain Woes, SSPI's Robert Bell is joined by Matt Desch, CEO, Iridium Communications, Inc.; Nicole Robinson, President, Ursa Space Systems; and Jean-Michel Rouylou, Head of Enterprise and Broadband, ST Engineering iDirect to discuss satellite’s vital role in world trade and the global opportunities the industry’s unique technologies are able to tap.

As the manufacturing of rockets and spacecraft moves from one-at-a-time craft work to rapid iteration and assembly-line production, it is changing the talent needs of employers. What changes are taking place? What new career paths must be laid out to attract the best-qualified workers? And how does the company itself need to be re-imagined for a new world? In this second episode of Untangling the Supply Chain, Brad Laird, VP of Engineering at NXTCOMM and Damon Tolley, Director of Human Resources at Airbus OneWeb Satellites join SSPI’s Robert Bell to explore the shifting role of talent in a fast-changing business.

When Airbus OneWeb Satellites began mass production of the OneWeb satellite constellation, it had to develop and manage a global supply chain that could operate at unprecedented speed to make possible the manufacturing of two satellites per day. In this podcast, Airbus OneWeb Satellites Chief Supply Chain Officer John Meikle joins SSPI's Robert Bell to explore how that chain was linked together and kept running – and how it copes with the major disruptions of 2020.

The fourth episode of the Satellites & Ukraine podcast series features a conversation with Nick Reese, Deputy Director for Emerging Technology Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security. In a conversation with SSPI Director of Development Louis Zacharilla, Nick shares his view of where we are in the current climate of war, cyber-threats and the future of government’s relationship to the space & satellite community.

Nick Reese is the Deputy Director for Emerging Technology Policy at the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He is the founding supervisor of a new policy team focused on emerging technology issues in the geopolitical context. Before this role, he served for 1.5 years as a Senior Cyber Policy Analyst for the DHS. Nick began his career as a Supervisor and Operations Specialist in the U.S. Navy, a position he held for 9 years. He went on to serve as a consultant for the Strategic Intelligence Group and a National Security and Technology Expert and Branch Manager for the U.S. Intelligence Community. Nick is a graduate of Saint Leo University and Old Dominion University, where he received his Master’s degree in International Relations and Affairs.

The third episode of the Satellites & Ukraine podcast series features a conversation with Nick Burrett, Senior Sales Manager at Speedcast. In a conversation with SSPI Director of Development Louis Zacharilla, Nick discusses the role satellites have played in maintaining vital communications during wartime in Ukraine.

Nick Burrett is Senior Sales Manager at Speedcast, a position he has held for 4 years. Before joining Speedcast, he spent 5 years as a Sales Manager at SES. Nick has held senior sales positions at CETel GmbH and Telesat Canada, and served as Senior Account Manager for both Telia International Carrier and GlobeCast. He began his career in the industry at Taran Microsystems United, where he spent 4 years as Account Manager, before moving on to Sales Manager at ntl Broadcast. Nick has a degree from the University of Bedfordshire.