NewSat Announces Appointment of Don Brown as Senior Vice President Strategic Planning

NewSat Limited  announced the appointment of Don Brown as Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning. The appointment of Don to the NewSat leadership team will further support and enhance the Company’s transition from a teleport operator into a global satellite operator.

Don has over 20 years’ experience in satellite communications, with significant expertise in government solutions and defence systems. Don began his satellite career in the Satellite Systems Division of Federal Express Corporation, subsequently working for American Mobile Satellite Corporation and Quincy Jones’ Qradio, before his role as Vice President of DoD Systems at PanAmSat’s G2 Satellite Solutions. More recently, Don was the Vice President of Hosted Payloads and Business Development for Intelsat General Corporation. At Intelsat General, Don led the team which won the $350 million UHF hosted payload contract with the Australian Defence Force, as well as the IP Router in Space (IRIS) hosted payload contract with Cisco. Don is a co-founder of the Hosted Payload Alliance.

As Senior Vice President of Strategic Planning, Don will lead NewSat’s strategy and long-term priorities, from strategy formulation and market intelligence, to business case creation and financial analysis, through to the execution of complex cross-functional and cross-region projects. In this newly formed strategic role, Don will provide leadership and expertise to support NewSat’s continued growth and expansion.

Jabiru-1 satellite project update
NewSat advises that the Company’s strategic growth initiative, the Jabiru-1 satellite project, continues to achieve key milestones towards launch in 2015. The resident Jabiru engineering team in Newtown Pennsylvania, USA, along with CTO, David Ball and Lockheed Martin, recently completed a series of technical interchange meetings regarding key satellite subsystems. The meetings demonstrated excellent progress and construction continues on schedule for satellite delivery and launch in 2015. Critical Design Review (CDR) remains on schedule to be conducted before the end of 2013.

In commenting on the appointment of Don Brown as SVP Strategic Planning, NewSat Founder and CEO, Adrian Ballintine said: “Don Brown is a fantastic hire for NewSat, and enables us to have an industry veteran driving our strategy and focus for the future. He will no doubt address critical business opportunities and challenges, to shape the strategic agenda for NewSat, and in doing so capture growth opportunities across segments, products and regions.”

“With a blue chip satellite-pedigree, Don comes from one of the world’s largest satellite companies. Additional to his 20 plus years of satellite experience, Don is also a subject matter expert and thought leader across government and defence communications. Don served on the Satellite Task Force of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee to the President of the United States. The management team looks forward to working closely with Don, who will be a driving force for NewSat’s future direction and transformation into a global satellite operator.”

In commenting on his appointment as SVP Strategic Planning, Don Brown said: “It is an exciting time at NewSat. Over the years, NewSat has built a formidable teleport business with a worldwide reputation for excellence in satellite solutions. More recently the Company has successfully funded its first satellite Jabiru-1, which is scheduled to launch in 2015. With the Jabiru-2 hosted payload launching in the next six months, and a plan for more satellites utilising the eight orbital slots, it is a pivotal time for NewSat to focus on strategy development and execution. Working together with Adrian and the team, I am confident we will continue to provide a sustainable future path of long-term growth for NewSat.”