Satellite Executive of the Year Nominees for 2025

For nearly all of Via Satellite’s 40 years, Satellite Executive of the Year has recognized outstanding leadership in the satellite industry. The list of winners over the years reflects those who have shaped the industry since 1988. This year’s nominees represent companies ranging from satellite communications, technology, imagery and sensing, to manufacturing. A number of this year’s nominees are recognized for their work on sovereign space solutions.

The winner of the award will be determined by a public vote combined with the votes of the Via Satellite editorial board. The winner will be announced during the Via Satellite awards luncheon on Wednesday, March 25, during SATShow Week in Washington, D.C. Voting is open online from Feb. 23 to 12 p.m. on March 24 and can be accessed at satellitetoday.com/vote. Here are the 2025 Executive of the Year nominees:

Adel Al-Saleh, CEO, SES

While the SES/Intelsat combination had been off and on, Adel Al-Saleh moved decisively within months of taking the helm at SES to execute the deal. It was no small task to bring the two of the largest Geostationary Orbit (GEO) operators together, with SES going through a multi-national regulatory process. With the successful close of the acquisition in mid-2025, Al-Saleh began to chart the future of SES, creating a new brand identity for the company to move forward. He debuted the “meoSphere” — a network-of-networks concept that will bring together existing assets, the IRIS² constellation, and next-generation satellites in a software-defined, flexible platform. Also in 2025, SES saw the launch of two new Medium-Earth Orbit (MEO) satellites to increase capacity on the O3b mPOWER constellation.

Under Al-Saleh’s leadership, SES has championed innovative space companies across the space ecosystem. It will work with manufacturing startup K2 Space on upcoming MEO pathfinder missions. Also in 2025, SES signed to be the first commercial customer for Impulse Space Helios kick stage mission, ordered a GEO servicing mission from Infinite Orbits, and partnered with Cailabs to test space-to-ground optical links. Also part of that future vision, SES is coming onboard as a strategic shareholder in the new direct-to-device venture formed by Lynk Global and Omnispace.

There is still much for Al-Saleh to prove post-acquisition. While SES raised the full-year outlook for the combined company in its most recent financial results, the increase missed market expectations, and the operator has seen credit downgrades. SES faces steep competition alongside much opportunity, particularly as European governments call for sovereign solutions and the telco ecosystem looks to integrate more closely with satellite. With this backdrop, Al-Saleh is a dynamic voice in the industry, bringing a fresh perspective from his background in telecoms. He is recognized for taking bold action to acquire Intelsat and set the future agenda for the combined company.

Dr. Debra Emmons, VP and CTO, The Aerospace Corporation

The Aerospace Corporation had a banner year in 2025 and continues to be one of the technology standouts in the space industry. Fueling this rise has been Vice President and CTO Dr. Debra Emmons. One of the highlights of 2025 for Aerospace was the launch of DiskSat satellites in December, in partnership with U.S. Space Force Space Systems Command and NASA. Each DiskSat is a circular, flat spacecraft 40 inches in diameter and one inch thick – similar to a small coffee table. Each has an electric propulsion system to allow for orbit changes and maintenance. Its lightweight and unique shape aims to improve the power-to-mass ratio, and its material, shape and layout improve the potential for rapid manufacturing.

Under Emmon’s leadership, a team of Aerospace experts designed and developed both the DiskSat concept and its spacecraft. DiskSat made the transition from a breakthrough concept to an operational, flight-proven satellite platform. Aerospace also entered into licensing agreements with commercial partners, with additional agreements in progress – positioning DiskSat not as a one-off government prototype, but as a scalable, adoptable platform for broader ecosystem use. Another one of Emmons’ initiatives was to launch Solution Accelerator, an office that streamlines rapid, mission-ready solutions for government customers through collaboration across defense, civil and commercial space. In 2025, Solution Accelerator directly informed updates to U.S. policy for cislunar operations, providing analysis that shaped national guidance on flight safety and debris mitigation as missions expand beyond GEO.

The company is also at the cutting edge of developments of AI in space. Aerospace is leveraging AI, connecting across government and industry, to enable more data-driven insights that support mission-critical decisions. Emmons championed enterprise-scale adoption of secure generative AI, accelerating engineering workflows, software development, and decision support while maintaining mission assurance and trust standards. A flagship public-facing initiative was Spoon Bender, an orbital threat wargame that brought together government, industry, academia, and AI developers to explore contested-space scenarios. Emmons technical leadership has been instrumental in keeping Aerospace a leader in providing new technology to government.

John Gedmark, CEO, Astranis

Astranis co-founder and CEO John Gedmark was an early voice in looking to smaller GEO satellites to disrupt the business model of satellite connectivity. 2025 marked a critical year for Astranis as its technology fits into the focus on sovereign space capabilities. In August, Astranis reached a pivotal milestone, demonstrating the success of its MicroGEO satellite platform in orbit when two satellites for in-flight connectivity provider Anuvu entered service. Astranis has carved out a name in the sovereign satellite space, earning the trust of governments and regional operators for dedicated satellites. Its MicroGEO model makes owning a GEO satellite more accessible to regional telcos, allowing them to target bridging the digital divide. In 2025, the company secured an award from Taiwan’s largest telco Chunghwa Telecom, which ordered the first communications satellite to be exclusively dedicated to Taiwan. And Astranis recently followed this up with a sovereign satellite order from MB Group in Oman.

Astranis has strong momentum for defense communications applications as well, evidenced by being named to the Protected Tactical Satcom-Global (PTS-G) Space Force program for anti-jam military satcom capabilities from smaller form factor satellites. Also in 2025, Astranis further expanded its portfolio with the mobile deployable network solution Vanguard, geared toward defense and disaster response, working with Kymeta, Satcube, and Persistent Systems.

Gedmark has also championed investing in U.S. manufacturing; the company builds satellites out of its factory at Historic Pier 70 in San Francisco. After facing setbacks over the years with the partial failure of its first satellite Arcturus, and issues with the UtilitySat as well, 2025 was an important year of execution and growth for Astranis. Under Gedmark’s leadership, Astranis has stayed the course, bringing new energy to GEO and expanding its capabilities.

Rafal Modrzewski, CEO, Iceye

The Iceye effect is very real. It was hard not to go to a defense and space event and not have multiple people reference Iceye as a shining example of how to do business in global defense markets. Under the leadership of CEO and co-founder Rafal Modrewski, the Finnish synthetic aperture radar (SAR) company saw momentum in 2025 that went above and beyond. The company has been signing deals at such an impressive clip that it is hard to keep up. In 2025, just as an example, it did deals with the likes of Royal Netherlands Air Force, the German Armed Forces, the Portuguese Air Force, and the Finnish Air Force among others. It is bringing the benefits of satellite data to customers all over the world. Iceye also worked

with Ukraine to make sure it has access to cutting-edge satellite capabilities. Iceye is a trusted partner across Europe and the Finnish company is now seen as a major player on the overall satellite data landscape. Modrzewski is seen as a visionary and one of the most important leaders in space data in Europe. Iceye is at the intersection of sovereign space adoption in Europe, with this trend driving many of its partnerships, including a recent collaboration with Swedish Space Corporation (SSC) to enhance sovereign space capabilities for Nordic and NATO security.

However, it is not just in the defense market where the company excels. Iceye has made deep inroads into the insurance and emergency management industries. For example, in July last year, Iceye launched a new product, Flood Rapid Impact (FRI), a product that delivers automated, near-real-time flood data for emergency managers, energy and utility organizations, insurers, and banks. As the impacts of climate change cause more disruption, the dependence on space technologies will no doubt become greater. Companies like Iceye can offer solutions to genuinely make a difference.

Melanie Preisser, Executive Vice President, York Space Systems

York Space Systems made its name by beating out defense primes to win key awards for the Space Development Agency. But more importantly than winning the contracts, the space startup has delivered on those awards. Under the leadership of Executive Vice President Melanie Preisser, York Space Systems had a record year of mission execution in 2025. The Colorado-based company had four missions launched in 2025, including launching 21 data transport satellites for the SDA’s Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA) Tranche 1 (T1) Transport Layer. In 2025, York became the leading provider to the PWSA in terms of spacecraft in orbit, number of contracts, and range of mission types. “Melanie played a critical role in ensuring these missions were executed flawlessly — on schedule, on budget, and aligned to customers’ operational needs. Her impact spans programs, customers, and mission outcomes,” CEO Dirk Wallinger said in her nomination, speaking to Preisser’s impact.

Preisser is credited with managing York’s programs for reliable and repeatable success, while prioritizing speed, affordability, and operational resilience. York’s 2025 missions also included BARD, a collaboration with NASA and Johns Hopkins APL; the Dragoon mission for SDA which was delivered on an accelerated timeline; and experimental national security mission Tyndal. Preisser is also credited with telling the story of York’s strong backlog and continued growth trajectory in defense technology and commercial growth, working to prepare the company for the initial public offering (IPO) in early 2026 that raised nearly $630 million.

Preisser joined York Space Systems in the early days of the company in 2019. She brings deep military and government experience to her role at York and formerly served both as an Air Force acquisition and space officer and advised the Under Secretary of Defense for Acquisition, Technology and Logistics. She is credited with building the relationships with agencies and key officials in the U.S. government and international customers and partners. The strength of York’s government business and mission success shows that Preisser’s leadership has made York a trusted space manufacturer for defense missions.

Raycho Raychev, CEO, EnduroSat

Bulgaria, a small nation of less than 7 million people, is the home of space innovation poster child EnduroSat. Under the leadership of CEO Raycho Raychev, the satellite manufacturer has caught the attention of the industry by delivering satellites at a rapid pace and performing above and beyond expectations. The company builds satellites for small to mid-sized satellite constellations for private communications networks and Earth Observation capabilities. The company is growing fast. EnduroSat’s workforce has almost doubled from 180 to over 350 engineers in the last year. Not only that, it has almost doubled its revenues from 2024 to 2025. It is an impressive company that punches well above its weight. It has delivered more than 60 satellites and its customers include IBM, Vyoma, Neuraspace, and others.

Its roots are in Sofia, Bulgaria, but EnduroSat has expanded in the last year and a half to the U.S., France, and Germany. It also has offices in Italy and Luxembourg. It recently opened a new manufacturing center in Sofia to scale its manufacturing capacity. At the end of 2025, the company was in the final stages of building state-of-the-art assembly lines. These lines will incorporate robotization and automation to streamline the assembly of satellite buses, eliminating production bottlenecks and giving EnduroSat the ability to accelerate the speed of assembly and testing. The new facility is designed to produce two ESPA-class satellites per day. For the last two years it has produced almost 200 satellites. The new capability has the potential to accelerate EnduroSat’s production pace by around 600 percent.

2025 was a big year for the company, not just from a revenue and growth perspective. It launched its next-generation ESPA-class satellites, called FRAME, a modular and cable-less design that aims to allow the satellite bus to be assembled within a day. The company closed two strategic investment rounds — a $48 million round led by Founders Fund and a $104 million round backed by Riot Ventures, Google Ventures, Shrug Capital, and the European Innovation Council Fund. VS