DULLES, Va., Nov. 13 ORBITAL IMAGING CORPORATION
(ORBIMAGE) announced a corporate management restructuring today.
Lt. General
(Ret.) James A. Abrahamson, a member of the ORBIMAGE board of directors since
1998, was named Chairman of the Board.
General Abrahamson directed the Air
Force’s Strategic Defense Initiative for many years and, after retiring from
the Air Force, served as a senior executive at Hughes Aircraft Corporation and
served as Chairman of Oracle Corporation.
“The company believes we have both
the assets and the spirit to recover from our recent satellite loss and we
expect to succeed in this exciting marketplace,” said General Abrahamson, who
also serves as the Chairman of Stratcom International.
Gilbert D. Rye, who
was promoted from President and CEO to Vice Chairman, will work closely with
General Abrahamson on strategic initiatives for the company.
Matthew O’Connell, General Counsel and Chief Operating Officer of Crest
Communications Holdings, New York City, was named Acting President and CEO.
Mr. O’Connell, who also sits on the Board of Directors, has over 20 years
experience in media mergers, acquisitions and corporate finance.
He has also
held senior positions at Sony Warner Network, a joint venture of Sony and
Time-Warner, Cablevision Systems Corporation, a publicly-held cable television
company, and Osborn Communications Corporation, a publicly-held radio and
television station operator.
Mr. O’Connell said, “Now that ORBIMAGE has
reached agreement with its investors on a restructuring of its debt, the
Company is well positioned to move forward to next year’s launch of OrbView-3
and to benefit from the increased demand for high quality satellite imagery.”
In connection with the restructuring, Armand A. Mancini was promoted to
Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer.
About ORBIMAGE:
ORBIMAGE is a leading global provider of Earth imagery products and
services, with a planned constellation of four digital remote sensing
satellites.
The company currently operates the OrbView-1 atmospheric imaging
satellite launched in 1995, the OrbView-2 ocean and land multispectral imaging
satellite launched in 1997, and a worldwide integrated image receiving,
processing and distribution network.
Currently under development, ORBIMAGE’s
OrbView-3 high-resolution satellite will offer one-meter panchromatic and
four-meter multispectral digital imagery on a global basis.
ORBIMAGE is also
the U.S. distributor of worldwide imagery from the Canadian RADARSAT-2
satellite.
ORBIMAGE currently offers one-meter high-resolution panchromatic imagery
of major U.S. and international urban areas through its OrbView Cities
catalog, available at http://www.orbimage.com .
In addition, ORBIMAGE
distributes imagery from Canada’s RADARSAT-1 satellite and Russia’s SPIN-2
satellite.
ORBIMAGE also offers the SeaStar Pro Fisheries Information
Service, which provides fish finding maps derived from OrbView-2 satellite
imagery of the world’s oceans to fishing customers worldwide.
More information about ORBIMAGE can be found at http://www.orbimage.com .
This press release shall not constitute an offer to sell or the
solicitation of an offer to buy any securities nor shall there be any sale of
securities unless and until such securities have been registered under the
Securities Act of 1933 or an applicable exemption from the registration
requirements in the United States or any state in which such offer,
solicitation or sale would be unlawful.