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.

The Space & Satellite Professionals International (SSPI) today announced that it will present its 2018 Promise Awards to Jillian Gorsuch of SSL, a Maxar Technologies company, Theodore McDonald of SpaceX and Mike Safyan of Planet. The Promise Awards honor three space & satellite employees or entrepreneurs age 35 and under for outstanding achievement in the early stages of their career.

Kacific Broadband Satellites has appointed Matteo Catanuto as Vice President Sales, New Zealand and the Pacific Region.

AQYR Technologies has announced the appointment of Virgil Russell as their new Director of Sales and Marketing.  He will succeed Rory Eddings who is taking over as AQYR’s Manager of Commercial Sales.

OneWeb, which is building the world’s highest throughput satellite system to enable affordable, high-speed, low latency broadband access for all has  announced the appointment of Adrian Steckel as Chief Executive Officer and Eric Béranger as President and Chief Operating Officer.

To give us an overview of Russia-based satellite operator Gazprom Space Systems (GSS) current position in the global marketplace, Satellite Markets and Research spoke  with Igor Kot, Deputy Director General, Business Development, GSS just before the IBC2018 show in Amsterdam.