BeetleSat, a fast-growing satellite technology company in charge of the world's first global LEO constellation optimized for premium point-to-point communications, recently announced the appointment of Patrico Northland as its new CEO.

Yoav Tzurya, BeetleSat director and a managing partner at Jerusalem Venture Partners, said:

Serving as BeetleSat’s Executive President for the last year, we have already seen Patricio drive growth and help achieve significant technical milestones for the business. We are looking forward to celebrating even greater success for the company under his leadership.

Northland’s career  

Northland, who has more than 20 years of experience in communications and space tech, has held various executive leadership roles, including CEO of Eutelsat Americas, CEO of Satélites Mexicanos S.A. de C.V. (SATMEX), and was previously president and CEO of AT&T Latin America.

As CEO of Eutelsat Americas, Northland led the company's public transition after engineering a successful merger with his former company SATMEX in a deal valued at more than $1.7 billion.

“I have successfully led growth initiatives and improved profitability to position five companies for sale, and in all instances been retained as the CEO. Several of these companies have been managed by PE firms and hedge funds, and in each case, I was able to implement turnaround plans resulting in growth, improved brand footprint, and significant gains to company valuations and all stakeholders,” notes Northland on his LinkedIn profile.

Prior to his work with Eutelsat and SATMEX, Northland managed the $1.25 billion merger between FirsCom, a company he founded, with Brazil's Netstream and Argentina's Keytech to create AT&T Latin America (AT&T LA).

Under his leadership, AT&T LA was the first provider to offer seamless broadband to a Fortune 1000 global customer base throughout the Americas.

“I am honored to take on the role of CEO and to advance our mission to become the world’s first LEO constellation operator focused on delivering premium global satellite communications to broadband carriers and service providers,” said Northland after his hiring at BeetleSat. 

Congratulations to #LCDAMember, Patricio Northland, who was named Chief Executive Officer of BeetleSat.

Learn More: https://t.co/riPbhQemdp#LCDAOnTheRise #LatinoLeaders pic.twitter.com/z9F8qBjPTX

— Latino Directors (@LatinoDirectors) April 14, 2023

An innovation leader

On Feb. 24, BeetleSat announced the successful deployment of its very high data rate, lightweight, expandable antenna in space. It was an industry first that marked a major milestone in the development of the BeetleSat Constellation and demonstrated the feasibility of its patented technology.

“Innovation has been at the center of my success, and my ability to understand how new technology impacts markets and technology consumption has influenced key decisions related to product development and brand expansion,” said Northland.

Now in sun-synchronous orbit (SSO) at 550 km altitude, the nano-satellite will provide BeetleSat's public sector customer base very-high-performance satellite communication services.

“With our proprietary technology – an expandable antenna that significantly reduces the overall cost of the satellite constellation– and open network architecture, BeetleSat is leading a paradigm shift in satellite communications that not only allows us to deliver premium service at a fraction of the cost of traditional systems, but also to create new service categories and applications. As CEO, working alongside a world-class management team, I’m excited to scale BeetleSat to serve the growing needs of our customers and to lead a company that is blazing a trail toward a more flexible, open and cost-effective model for the satellite communications industry,” added Northland.