Telesat announced today that Erwin Hudson, one of the industry’s most accomplished executives in the field of satellite-enabled broadband networks, has joined the company as Vice President, Telesat LEO, reporting to President and CEO, Dan Goldberg.
Mr. Hudson will be based at Telesat’s headquarters in Ottawa and direct the development and implementation of Telesat’s planned advanced, high throughput, low latency, global LEO constellation. As previously announced, Telesat has obtained priority ITU rights on a global basis to LEO Ka-band spectrum and has developed an innovative (patent pending) constellation design and system architecture. In addition, Telesat has procured two prototype LEO satellites that are scheduled for launch later this year as part of the test and validation phase of its LEO initiative.
Mr. Hudson has had a long and distinguished career in the satellite industry. A highly experienced communications engineer, he was Chief Technology Officer of WildBlue, an early satellite broadband provider later acquired by ViaSat, that began building its U.S. subscriber base using Ka-band spot beam capacity on Telesat’s Anik F2 satellite. Prior to WildBlue, Mr. Hudson was a senior executive at Space Systems Loral and was Director Satellite Communications at TRW Space & Electronics. He recently led the ViaSat team that NBN Co selected to provide the ground infrastructure for the satellite portion of Australia’s national broadband network. Mr. Hudson holds a number of patents and his innovations, technical and commercial, have driven the growth of satellite broadband in markets around the world.
“Erwin is a tremendous addition to the Telesat team and I’m delighted to have someone with such vast technical and commercial experience in the design, implementation and operation of satellite-enabled broadband networks leading Telesat’s game-changing LEO initiative,” said Dan Goldberg, Telesat’s President and CEO. “Telesat has a long and successful track record of bringing the most advanced and innovative communications services to the market and our cutting edge LEO program springs from that same pioneering spirit. The Telesat LEO constellation is precisely the network architecture satellite users are demanding and I have every confidence that Erwin will contribute significantly to its success.”
“Telesat has been a leader in the satellite services market for decades, in no small part owing to the depth of its engineering resources and expertise and its unrelenting focus on customer service,” said Erwin Hudson, Vice President, Telesat LEO. “The highly innovative Telesat LEO constellation design will bring massive improvements to the broadband user experience in terms of network capacity, speed, cost, security and resiliency. I’m excited to be joining the highly talented group of individuals at Telesat working to transform broadband service delivery to users – whether on land, at sea or in flight – around the world.”
About Telesat (www.telesat.com)
Telesat is a leading global satellite operator, providing reliable and secure satellite-delivered communications solutions worldwide to broadcast, telecom, corporate and government customers. Headquartered in Ottawa, Canada, with offices and facilities around the world, the company’s state-of-the-art fleet consists of 15 satellites plus the Canadian payload on ViaSat-1 with two new satellites under construction. An additional two prototype satellites are under construction and will be deployed in low earth orbit. Telesat also manages the operations of additional satellites for third parties. Privately held, Telesat’s principal shareholders are Canada’s Public Sector Pension Investment Board and Loral Space & Communications Inc. (NASDAQ: LORL).
