Event
Whiting-Turner Business & Entrepreneurial Lecture: Space 2.0
Tuesday, April 5, 2016
5:00 p.m.
Kay Boardroom, 1111 Kim Engineering Building
Pamela Morse
301 405 6266
pmorse@umd.edu
http://go.umd.edu/2016W-TDesch
Iridium operates the largest satellite constellation in the world, and is on the precipice of replacing it with a new, more powerful set of satellites over the next year, launching on SpaceX rockets. A 35-year veteran of the telecom industry and CEO of Iridium through its corporate transformation over the last 10 years, Matt Desch will be speaking on the lessons to be learned from one of the biggest initial failures in the space industry in the late 1990s, to one of the fastest growing and most exciting "NewSpace" companies. Space is undergoing a resurgence of investment and new entrepreneurial approaches, and Mr. Desch will talk about the exciting state of the industry and where it will be going in the future.
Mr. Desch has been responsible for leading Iridium’s innovation and growth, which included taking the company public on NASDAQ in 2009 and launching and financing Iridium NEXT, the $3 billion dollar next generation Iridium satellite constellation set to begin launching in 2016. Since joining in 2006, Iridium has more than quadrupled in subscribers and profitability.
U.S. President Barack Obama appointed Mr. Desch as a member of the National Security Telecommunications Advisory Committee in 2011. The committee provides recommendations to the President and other government leaders on matters of security that relate to the nation's telecommunications infrastructure.
Mr. Desch was named by Washingtonian Magazine as a “Tech Titan” and was a DC-area winner and National Finalist for the 2011 Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of The Year award. He was selected by Via Satellite as the 2011 Satellite Executive of the Year.
He has a Bachelor of Science degree in Computer Science from The Ohio State University and an MBA from University of Chicago, and resides with his wife Ann and Jack Russell “Emmy” in McLean, Virginia.
RSVP: http://go.umd.edu/2016W-TDesch
