Gary Donnan will join Eutelsat Communications on 29 October as Chief Innovation Officer, reporting to Chief Executive Officer Rodolphe Belmer.

In response to accelerated growth of its U.S. and Canadian customer base, Riedel Communications has appointed Endi A. Maricevic as service manager for North America. Based in Riedel's Burbank, California, office, Maricevic is providing dedicated customer support as well as managing Riedel's service operations. He reports to Jake Halverson, Riedel North America operations manager.

SATConsult, a member of the Euroconsult Group, has announced the appointment of David Chégnion as managing director. In this capacity, David will succeed Mustapha Elriz who founded the company in 2006 and has served as its CEO since this date. Mustapha will continue to have a close relationship with the company, remaining a major shareholder and holding a position of Member of the Senior Advisory Board.

The maritime market for the satellite communications industry continue to grow according to a recent report by NSR. NSR forecasts that the maritime atcom market  will generate US$36 Billion in cumulative revenues through 2027. Driven by the migration of unconnected vessels to MSS, MSS customers to VSAT, and VSAT vessels to even higher throughputs, revenue growth will approach 7% from 2017 – 2027.

To shed light on the strategy behind China's global satelllite marketing efforts, Satellite Markets and Research caught up with Mr. Fu Zhiheng, Executive VP of China-based satellite launch services provider Great Wall Industries.

Maxar Technologies has announced that Mike Gold, vice president of Regulatory and Policy at Maxar and General Counsel of its Radiant Solutions business, has been appointed to serve as a representative member of the NASA Advisory Council by Administrator Jim Bridenstine, where he will chair the newly formed Regulatory and Policy Committee. As a NAC member, Gold will be part of a group that advises NASA’s leadership on critical issues.

Kacific Broadband Satellites has appointed John Hawker as vice president Sales, Melanesia and the Pacific.

Akash Systems, focused on resolving the explosive growth of data consumption by enabling smarter and lighter satellite systems, has appointed Brian Holz as chief architect.

Comtech Telecommunications announced today that Michael Porcelain, the company’s senior vice president, chief financial officer, has been promoted to chief operating officer.

Porcelain will be succeeded in his role by Michael Bondi, who is currently the company’s vice president, controller. These promotions are effective October 1, 2018.

At the ITU Telecom World in Durban, Satellite Executive Briefing correspondent Roxana Dunnette spoke with INGRID PONI, Chief Director, Multilateral Trade and International Unit of the Department of Telecommunications and Postal Services,  Republic of South Africa.