Mike Greenley Explains How MDA Space's Landmark Year in 2023 Unfolded

The key moment in the MDA Space story in 2023 took place at SATELLITE 2023, when MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley met with Telesat CEO Dan Goldberg. The meeting would lead to MDA Space securing the contract to build Telesat’s much anticipated Lightspeed LEO satellite constellation. It was a signature point in a banner year for the company, with strong numbers, contract wins, and a strategic acquisition.

The recently rebranded MDA Space is on a strong growth clip and could be worth $1 billion Canadian dollars this year. It is for these reasons that MDA Space CEO Mike Greenley was chosen as the Satellite Executive of the Year for 2023. In this interview, Greenley shares the background on the Telesat deal, as well as some of the other key events for MDA Space in 2023.

VIA SATELLITE: Congratulations on winning Satellite Executive of the Year award. What does this mean to you personally and the company?

Greenley: I am honored to receive the award but it really is a reflection of what is happening in the company. It is also a recognition of the repositioning of MDA Space as a pure play global space company and the efforts the entire team has made in the last four years to scale the business.

To become a pure play space company is a choice and we have made a lot of choices as we have gone through the last few years. We have chosen to invest in our next generation of technologies and we can now see those new investments turning into new products and technologies in the marketplace that are driving significant orders and driving significant growth. It is nice to see that being recognized by the community. Inside the company we can really feel the momentum and a positive sense of accomplishment after the last four years.

VIA SATELLITE: When you became CEO in 2020, what were the initial challenges for the company? Did you feel as though the company needed a reset or a cultural change?

Greenley: It definitely did not need a cultural change — there is a great culture at MDA Space. I started six years ago as group president of MDA when it was part of Maxar. So for 2018 to 2019, I was doing that, which included the divestiture of MDA to a group of Canadian investors. We became a standalone company in April 2020.

Since then, we have focused on a handful of strategic things. First, we wanted to invest in the future. We invested in our next generation Earth Observation satellite constellation, MDA Chorus. We invested in a new commercial robotics product line which we have just announced - MDA Skymaker, and we invested in our digital satellite product – MDA Aurora.

The second thing was to invest in the infrastructure of the company to make sure it was scalable. It was very clear that we were going to have a significant amount of growth. We had a very strong pipeline straight away, and a lot of people started calling. So, we wanted to make sure the business could scale and we put a lot of effort into making this happen.

Third, it was about execution. As those orders came in, we had to execute. We have doubled in size in the last three years. We have gone from 1,700 people when I started to 3,000 people now. We went from a CA$400 million ($293.7 million) business to a CA$800 million ($587.3 million) business. For 2024, we are giving guidance of CA$950 million ($697.5 million) to CA$1.05 billion ($770.8 million) in revenues. As we have scaled and grown, we have had to really focus on execution which the teams have done an excellent job on.

VIA SATELLITE: How have your experiences at L3 and General Dynamics helped shape your leadership style?

Greenley: My leadership style has been shaped by my history. The first decade of my career was in small business, and the last 20 years have been in large publicly-traded companies. So I get to draw on experience from both. You get the ‘go for it’ agility of driving strong growth in a smaller, startup type business. Then I had to learn how to adapt that growth mindset into large publicly-traded corporations. I think that diversity of experience has served me well in MDA Space where we were a high growth privately-owned company for a year and a growing publicly-traded company over the last three years, so I have been able to use all of those skills.

As MDA Space continues to grow, we have a strong global presence from our Canadian headquarters, but around 40 percent of our business is in the United States. At General Dynamics, CAE, and L3Harris, I was part of leadership teams that routinely operated across the Canada-U.S. border. Holding leadership positions in these large publicly-traded corporations doing business in the aerospace and defense sectors has been very helpful in shaping how I operate in multiple markets today.

VIA SATELLITE: We have to talk about the Telesat deal. It was one of the most stunning deals of 2023. How did this deal come to fruition?

Greenley: We were always involved in Telesat Lightspeed. For probably six to eight years we pursued that constellation as part of different teams and industrial consortia. Over the last three years, as we spent more time developing our digital satellite product, we talked to all the constellation companies about digital technology and what it would mean to have a software-defined, dynamic beam-forming satellite. This included Telesat. But, it didn’t really stick in early discussions, and it wasn’t ready for prime time.

Our engineering teams were in technical discussions about the Direct Radiating Array (DRA) in late 2022. In March 2023 at SATELLITE, I had a conversation with Dan Goldberg. I said to him, “We think we are there now with our product, and the timing is right. We feel that other constellations are going to be buying this product. Would you like to see what that would look like for your constellation?” That kicked off commercial discussions, and eventually we announced the deal in August 2023.

VIA SATELLITE: So, the genesis that finalized that deal came at SATELLITE 2023?

Greenley: Yes, it did.

VIA SATELLITE: Did you view this as a transformational deal for MDA Space?

Greenley: It is a transformational deal from many perspectives. It was a transformational deal for Telesat because it enabled their project to proceed. It allowed the business case to close and all the financing to work. It allowed Telesat Lightspeed to officially move forward with next generation digital technology.

It is also a transformational project for MDA Space. With Globalstar, we had moved into the satellite prime position in very strong competition. But, to now do so with a digital satellite at this scale of a large constellation, that was definitely a transformational moment. In addition, because that product — MDA Aurora — is our standard digital satellite product, Telesat Lightspeed gives us a 200-satellite anchor customer which is an extraordinary opportunity when launching a new product. So, it is transforming how we conduct our business from an engineering perspective and from a manufacturing perspective when we go into high volume production around a common product. The Telesat Lightspeed contract allowed us to kick-start all of that.

I also think it is transformative within the commercial satellite constellation sector. Because once one constellation goes digital, everyone needs to investigate it. It threw the switch so people can truly explore digital satellites as the basis for their constellations moving forward. Telesat Lightspeed was the first to cross that line.

VIA SATELLITE: When you came out of that meeting with Dan at SATELLITE 2023, did you think you had a chance of pulling off that deal?

Greenley: I felt there was a chance. We were already there on the team with the earlier configuration of Telesat Lightspeed, so it was a great opportunity to try and put something on the table that would make it work in a different way. I was optimistic. I believed in our team. I believed in the product. I had seen the response of other proposals that we had been able to provide to other constellation operators. So I was optimistic that I could get Dan’s attention.

VIA SATELLITE: 2023 also had some other notable achievements. You announced late last year you were starting work on a new NGSO constellation. What is the significance of this?

Greenley: That unnamed customer is our third constellation opportunity, valued at a minimum of $750 million for at least 36 MDA Aurora satellites. We have an authorization to proceed and that work is going well. We are working to finalize that contract in 2024.

VIA SATELLITE: Why was the acquisition of SatixFy’s Digital Payload division such an important milestone for the company?

Greenley: The relationship with SatixFy is important for a number of reasons. First, the acquisition of their digital payload division gave us more digital payload engineering capacity. Second, we are going to use their chips in some initial digital satellite solutions. This means that the engineers with the most experience using the SatixFy chips to build digital payloads are now part of MDA Space. That made our team stronger, and de-risked projects like Telesat Lightspeed. So, that was a key strategic move. It also expanded our MDA Space team in the United Kingdom, giving us a larger footprint with specialized and well-rounded space engineering skills in that market. We hired 890 people in MDA last year, primarily in Canada, but the acquisition gave us a stronger overall footprint on the digital payload side, particularly in the U.K. We have just moved into a larger facility in Stevenage, and have another team and facility in Manchester. Together with our existing facility in Harwell, this larger footprint and presence will help our ability to hire people in the U.K.

VIA SATELLITE: What are your expectations for Chorus? How do you see the opportunities for the company in EO?

Greenley: Chorus is an important milestone for the company. Radarsat-2 continues to be a very healthy satellite and we have a strong loyal customer base, primarily defense and intelligence customers that count on the services and the imagery that Radarsat-2 provides. Chorus will ensure continuity of our relationships with those defense and intelligence customers around the world and that is super important to us.

Chorus is also going to expand that customer base. When talking to potential customers in the market, the need for commercial Earth observation services is clearly increasing around the world. When you see organizations like the U.S. Department of Defense saying they won’t build things if they can buy the data instead, that is a very strong signal to the market. They are not alone — a number of countries are interested in strong EO services. So, Chorus will enable us to expand the breadth of our business globally.

In addition, Chorus is a two-satellite constellation with a broad area C-band satellite and a trailing high resolution X-band satellite. With our constellation design, we will be able to detect things in a broad scan from the leading satellite, and then zoom in to do more detailed identification with the second satellite. That tipping and cueing in the same orbital plane in the same constellation is very unique - not many have done that. We are really excited to be able to do that and pride ourselves on having a fully taskable satellite that can do tipping and queueing in real-time.

Chorus also provides a foundation for us as the market increasingly goes multi-sensor. We do a lot of multi-sensor fusion now and see opportunity to use Chorus as a platform for future growth. With a 15-year timeline, it is a great platform for future consideration.

We are really excited about Chorus and the opportunity to further expand our EO business following our launch, which we have announced for the fourth quarter of 2025.

VIA SATELLITE: You are also working with multiple U.S. primes includingL3Harris on a major U.S. Space Development Agency (SDA) contract. How do you see the balance of government and commercial business for MDA Space going forward?

Greenley: Today, MDA Space is about a 50/50 split between government and commercial. We enjoy a strong position with repeat business in the U.S. Department of Defense Space Development Agency Transport and Tracking constellations. We started in the commercial LEO constellation market as a provider of subsystems, specifically antennas and electronics, through a number of different constellations. But OneWeb gave us volume with an initial 600 satellite constellation for which we were contracted to provide a couple of thousand antennas. To be able to do that at high scale and with high quality we used additive manufacturing to decrease the numbers of parts in the antennas and introduced advanced manufacturing and robotics-based assembly and test so that we could deliver all of those antennas. As a result, we ended up with a very strong standard LEO constellation antenna product for certain classes of antennas. With the U.S. DoD, we are able to provide those at very good value to all of the providers. We are on our 10th or 11th recurring contracts with orders from L3Harris, Lockheed Martin, York Space Systems — all the major providers for the U.S. DoD’s SDA. That has been a really good business for us.

But with respect to satellite systems there are good volumes in the government sector but definitely more in commercial.

VIA SATELLITE: Even though you won the award for the company’s achievements, 2024 has started with some big announcements. Why did you decide to rebrand as MDA Space?

Greenley: It just made sense for us to evolve the brand by incorporating Space in it. It makes it very clear that we are MDA Space and not the Missile Defence Agency or the Muscular Dystrophy Association – there was some confusion. It is a small change but one that has a big impact and importantly still allows us to honor our heritage. We have had a lot of positive reactions and responses.

VIA SATELLITE: You have also announced Aurora – a new software-defined satellite product line. Who do you see as the main target customers for Aurora?

Greenley: The main target customers today are NGSO constellations. MDA AURORA is able to operate in LEO and MEO so it is for those communication customers that are operating there.

VIA SATELLITE: How do you hope to boost the financials of MDA Space over the next two to three years? How will you look to diversify the company’s revenue streams?

Greenley: I think right now the focus is to keep up with the pace and volume of business coming through the door. We have strong continued growth in EO at a slow tick. We have a medium level uptick in space robotics and the MDA Skymaker product line in addition to sensors and rovers, and then a large uptick and interest in the MDA Aurora product and the delivery of constellations. Those growth vectors in the next three to five years means you will see solid revenue growth. We have doubled in size over the last two to three years. We expect we will double again over the next two years, and then we will double again after that organically, just based on demand, and the conversations we are having. We have always said 18 to 20 percent adjusted EBITDA rates. We delivered 19 to 21 percent, which is slightly better than what we stated in our guidance.

We expect that to continue. There will obviously be the opportunity for learning as we productize things more and have repeat deliveries of more standard products, so as the volumes increase, we expect to get more efficient as we go forward. In addition, we will start to see a bit more in services-based revenues. In the EO business, there is more business in analytics and more information products as-a-service to the market. In robotics, we just completed the construction of a new facility, which includes new mission control centers to do robotic operations in space. So we can deliver robotics systems and operational services to customers as part of their mission and space infrastructure, which gives us a path to increase services revenues.

We also expect to see some recurring revenue increases, especially on the satellite constellations. Each of those constellations has the opportunity to expand and order more satellites. Everyone has more slots registered with the ITU than they are using in their initial satellite orders so there is an expansion opportunity with these network customers, in addition to the replacement revenue as people will need to replace their satellites over time.

VIA SATELLITE: What does the next phase/next chapter of MDA Space look like?

Greenley: I’m focused on the current chapter. We will live through the next three to five years of growth, get through the investment phase that we are in right now over the next year or two, and see where we are. At that point, we can begin to be more acquisitive. Like with the SatixFy example, there will be opportunities for us to tighten our technology base. There may be geographic expansion opportunities where we look at other parts in the world to operate in. Those things will be on the horizon for us to consider in the future.

VIA SATELLITE: Finally, you mentioned how pivotal SATELLITE 2023 was for MDA Space. Will SATELLITE 2024 provide some more key moments?

Greenley: Absolutely, but you’ll have to wait to find out how. There were very good conversations at SATELLITE 2024. I am very proud of our team and I hope they are very proud of themselves. When you have been going to SATELLITE for decades, and every year, you are trying to get your meetings with the people that want to build satellites or buy subsystems, and now you are selling full satellites, it’s a big change. It is much easier now to get meetings for MDA Space and those meetings are with much more senior people. So, I love to see the smiles on our team and the joy they are having with our business success. We truly are building the space between proven and possible. VS