Steve Collar has resigned from SES and is set to embark on a new adventure on 1 July. Archive photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

Steve Collar has resigned from SES and is set to embark on a new adventure on 1 July. Archive photo: Matic Zorman / Maison Moderne

Luxembourg-based SES, the world’s leading satellite operator, announced on Monday 12 June that its CEO, Steve Collar, is stepping down with effect from 1 July. He is leaving to take up a new challenge, not in the satellite sector.

“As CEO, Steve successfully led SES, leaving the company in a strong position for the future with differentiated multi-orbit capacity, a world-class set of customer solutions, a streamlined, market-focused organisation and a strong balance sheet strengthened by the execution of C-band clearing.” The balance sheet drawn up by SES chairman Franck Esser is clean and unmistakable: in five years, has accelerated on O3BmPower, his satellite constellation capable of delivering fibre from the sky, and cleaned up the financial books on the back of compensation received to free up US spectrum for 5G.

After twenty years of loyal service, the CEO of SES will “pursue other professional and personal projects,” according to the issued on Monday. The British national will not be moving to another satellite operator, according to initial information.

He is leaving operational management to his chief technology officer, Ruy Pinto, until a successor is appointed. The company’s CTO since 2019 after 25 years at Inmarsat, it was Pinto who drove SES’s differentiation of multi-orbit capabilities and cloud integration from a technology perspective.

“I am delighted to be leading SES and working with our teams around the world through a transition period, progressing SES into a phase where we will continue to grow on a strong value creation trajectory for our stakeholders, executing strongly, simplifying our business and optimising our cost base,” said Pinto.

Good financial results expected

This spectacular resignation comes at a time when SES admitted at the end of March, after months of rumours, that it had entered into . For the moment, there is no indication that these discussions will go anywhere.

In the first quarter, the group confirmed its forecast of sales of between €1.95bn and €2bn this year, with adjusted Ebitda of between €1.01bn and €1.05bn.

Last week, SES announced the availability of its network for AWS Modular Data Center, which will enable the US department of defense to easily deploy modular data centres managed by Amazon web services (AWS) in locations where infrastructure is limited.

This story was first published in French on . It has been translated and edited for Delano.

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