SAN DIEGO, April 4, 2000 – International Launch Services (ILS) announced today the appointment of four new senior executives to its management team. Dr. Eric Novotny has been selected as the new Vice President of Marketing and Sales; Michelle Lyle has been named Vice President of Corporate Affairs; Phil Slack has been appointed Vice President and Chief Financial Officer, Finance and Risk Management; and James Youdale will serve as Vice President of Commercial Launch Programs.
Dr. Novotny will assume overall responsibility for worldwide commercial and government sales for both the Atlas and Proton launch vehicles. He also will lead all marketing activities for new ILS products and services. Novotny has held various senior management roles, most recently as Vice President and General Manager of international operations for ORBCOMM Global Data Communications, a low earth orbit system operator.
Prior to joining ORBCOMM, he served as Vice President, Europe, for Hughes Electronics, where he was responsible for the company’s telecommunications and space sector businesses headquartered in Brussels, Belgium. Novotny also has served in a number of regulatory and marketing positions with COMSAT Corporation, including Vice President, Marketing and Sales, for COMSAT’s Technical Services Division. In addition, he was a commissioned officer in the U.S. Air Force.
“Eric has demonstrated his ability to lead global marketing and sales activities around the world and will be a valuable asset to the company as we continue to grow our business as the world leader in commercial launch services,” said Dr. Mark Albrecht, President of ILS.
Lyle, formerly with Iridium LLC, will have overall responsibility for media relations, marketing communications and customer relations. While at Iridium, she played a highly visible role in managing all aspects of communications and was instrumental in establishing a global network of strategic communications between corporate and regional partners around the world. Prior to joining Iridium, Lyle served as Director of Communications for Arianespace, where she was responsible for public relations, marketing communications and special events.
“Michelle’s extensive experience in international communications will be vital to our organization in today’s challenging and competitive environment,” said Albrecht. “We are delighted to welcome her to our senior management team.”
Slack, who gained the majority of his experience in business management and contract administration during his 11-year career at The Boeing Company, will serve as CFO for ILS. In his most recent position with Boeing, he held overall responsibility for the business management activities for the company’s Delta Launch Services & Program Development unit. He also gained his initial experience in contract administration working for the Northrop Corporation, and in sales and marketing for a privately-owned precision component manufacturer.
“Phil’s expertise in financial management/analysis and contracts management/administration, among other skills, will be critical to ILS as we move forward in offering new strategic solutions to our customers,” said Albrecht.
Novotny, Lyle and Slack will report to Dr. Albrecht.
Youdale, who comes to ILS from Arianespace, will be responsible for overseeing day-to-day mission management activities for all ILS commercial missions and providing program and technical support for new business efforts, reporting to Dennis Dunbar, Vice President and Chief Technology Officer of Program Management and Technical Operations. During his 12-year career at Arianespace, he worked at both the organization’s Washington, DC and Evry, France operations, most recently serving as Vice President of Programs. Youdale also spent ten years with the Space and Defense Division of Aerospatiale, holding a variety of engineering and management positions for several international satellite programs.
“James brings a wealth of experience to ILS, along with a strong commitment to both mission success and customer satisfaction,” said Dunbar. “His experience and commitment will no doubt be instrumental in realizing ILS’s key initiative to set an industry-leading, world-class standard of service for our customers.”
International Launch Services (ILS) is a joint venture stock company established in 1995 to market two of the world’s premier launch vehicles, the American-built Atlas and the Russian-built Proton. ILS is owned by Lockheed Martin Corporation, Khrunichev State Research and Production Space Center, and Rocket Space Corporation Energia.
ILS is headquartered in Reston, Va., with additional offices in San Diego, Denver and Moscow.