SES Government Solutions announces new leadership team

SES Government Solutions (SES GS), a wholly-owned subsidiary of SES, has announced a series of appointments to form a new senior leadership team that will support recently-appointed President and CEO, David Fields.

The announcement follows the company’s $450m acquisition of DRS Global Enterprise Solutions (GES) from Leonardo DRS.

The new leadership team reflects the newly-combined organisation and its expanding differentiated value proposition. 

Ben Pigsley has been appointed as Senior Vice President for Defense Networks, whereas Jim Hooper is the new Senior Vice President for Space Initiatives.

Ben has over 30 years of experience in telecommunications, including service in the United States Army for 21 years. He joins SES GS after 15 years at DRS GES, most recently as the Vice President for Growth and Strategy. Ben brings extensive Army, special operations, and telecommunications industry experience to deliver large-scale Department of Defense tactical networks, engineering, and business management solutions. Ben will lead business development efforts: leveraging and expanding SES GS satellite communications and networking capabilities to deliver next-generation solutions to the Military Services, Combatant Commands, and other Defense Agencies.

A defence and aerospace industry veteran, Jim began supporting military and NASA space programmes when he joined Teledyne Brown Engineering in 1995. He then managed space, defence, and intelligence programmes at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) for 12 years. Since joining SES GS in 2010, Jim has led sales and business development programs for both US and Allied Governments to include hosted payloads, complex solutions, new satellites and satellite constellations. In this new role, Jim will continue to develop and deploy solutions for new satellite programs, hosted payloads, and delivery of satellite communications services for US Government customers and industry partners.

Speaking about the appointment, David Fields, President, and CEO of SES GS, said: “The vast experience and values of Jim and Ben give me extraordinary confidence in SES GS’ ability to fulfil our commitment to provide best-in-class satellite network solutions to our US Government and Department of Defense customers. The organisational announcement of our Defense Networks and Space Initiatives focused leadership is an important building block in our journey and positions us to define a new era of SATCOM excellence as we expand our end-to-end services and capabilities to not only meet the needs and requirements of our customers of today and tomorrow but to exceed their expectations.”