SES names new chief services officer and CTO

Satellite operator SES has named John Baughn to the new position of chief services officer, heading up a new global customer services unit. The operator has also named Ruy Pinto as chief technology officer to lead an integrated global technology team.

John Baughn

SES said it was streamlining customer support and services by forming a global services delivery team under the leadership of the new CSO, following the 2017 reorganisation of the business into two market-facing units, SES Video and SES Networks.

The CSO role The newly created CSO position consolidates all customer support and operational delivery, logistics and services related resources across the video and data businesses.

Baughn was formerly EVP of global services at SES Networks.

Pinto, formerly deputy CTO and chief information officer, has been appointed to succeed Martin Halliwell as CTO.

He will head SES’s global technology organisation including all technology functions currently within the business units and will also retain the leadership of SES’s IT and Digital Transformation activities.

Martin Halliwell

Halliwell will remain part of the senior leadership team and serve as a strategic advisor to the CEO until his planned retirement in May 2019.

“I am delighted to bring together our engineering talent and responsibility for our customer services under such strong and experienced leaders. As the demands of our markets evolve, these two teams, configured to serve our customers across both business units, will ensure that we stay ahead. Unifying the technical team and creating a consistent customer facing organisation will allow us to offer world class customer experiences around the world, strengthen our focus on successful end-to-end delivery and place business success for our customers at the centre of our focus,” said Steve Collar, president and CEO of SES.

“I would also like to thank Martin for his enormous contribution to the success of SES for over 30 years. Martin is a true pioneer who was responsible for so many ‘firsts’ for SES, for so much that we have achieved in space and I cannot thank him enough for his leadership, dedication, innovation and achievement as our CTO. Martin’s new mission is retirement and we wish him every success in that endeavour.”