Leadership

David C. McCourt
Chairman

For over 25 years, David C. McCourt, has been an innovator, entrepreneur, and business leader across the construction, communications, and media industries. He has founded or bought 10 companies in 3 countries and is widely recognized as a transformational force in the telecommunications business. The Economist described him as having “impeccable credentials as a telcom revolutionary.” In 2009, he formed Satellite Holdings, a partnership between his private investment firm, Granahan McCourt Capital and The Edgewater Funds as a vehicle to acquire and consolidate companies in the satellite industry. Having completed 3 acquisitions in 2009, Satellite Holdings has quickly and quietly become the world’s leader in satellite communications terminal equipment. Mr. McCourt serves as Chairman of Satellite Holdings, and its operating entity Skyware Global. He describes satellite technology as “the most underappreciated opportunity in the next phase of telecom”.

Mike Barto
Chief Operating Officer

As a Partner and founder of Promontory Point Partners, LLC, Mike Barto has advised clients on strategy, profit improvement, personnel, budgeting, cash flow management, and debt & equity sourcing.  His experience in the manufacturing sector is vast, including 9 years in the Hardware industry and 5 years in the Housewares industry.  Before founding Promontory Point Partners, Mr. Barto served as VP of Sales for a $300MM manufacturer of housewares which was a division of a $7B global holding company.  Mr. Barto has experience in all channels of distribution, vendor negotiations, inventory management, representative management, forecasting, profit analysis and production planning to name a few.  Additionally, he has extensive experience internationally, integrating an acquisition in Brazil, global sourcing, and developing sales management and distribution in Europe.  Mr. Barto has spent extensive time in Asia, sourcing products, tooling and assembly operations.  Mr. Barto has an undergraduate degree from Northern Illinois University and has a Masters of Business Administration degree from DePaul University Kellstadt Graduate School of Business in Chicago.

Mike Morgus
Chief Financial Officer

Mike Morgus has over thirty years in Finance and Accounting with over twenty of those years in senior management and executive roles. Mr. Morgus obtained his BS, Accounting, from Clarion University of Pennsylvania and is also a Certified Public Accountant. He most recently worked for Patriarch Partners Management, a privately held $5 billion global equity investing firm in New York City. Prior to that, he worked with The Marmon Group, a privately owned, $7 billion international association of manufacturing companies. Mr. Morgus has extensive financial operations experience in the manufacturing industry, and has worked with both management teams and investors in developing the tools to measure and track business performance. In addition to understanding the treasury functions, as well as financial planning and analysis, Mr. Morgus also has strong technical understanding of accounting and GAAP. Early in his career, he served as an auditor for one of the large public accounting firms which providing a solid foundation as his career grew into financial operations roles.

Mr. Morgus has served as Chief Financial Officer of Skyware Global since November 2009.

Joel Bjerke
Executive Vice President, Operations

Joel Bjerke has broad experience in manufacturing operations, procurement and logistics management in a variety of industries.  Mr. Bjerke has a Bachelor's Degree in Mechanical Engineering, Master's Degree in Manufacturing Engineering, and Master's Degree in Business Administration from the University of Michigan.  For the past five years, Mr. Bjerke has served in interim executive assignments with Fortune 500 companies, including Chief Operating Officer and General Manager for a Florida-based manufacturer, Corporate Vice President of Operations across ten divisions for a multi-national construction company, and Corporate Vice President of International Sourcing for a $17B manufacturer, conducting product development in Asia.  Prior to this, he held an executive role managing purchasing, supply chain, and operations for Pulte Homes Corporation.  He began his career as Manufacturing Engineer for EDS Corporation, before moving on to management roles within the DaimlerChrysler organization.

Mr. Bjerke has served as Executive Vice President, Operations of Skyware Global since the summer of 2012.

Allan Kennedy
Vice President, Engineering

Allan Kennedy has over 25 years experience in the satellite systems industry and his unique background of both technical engineering and business development has been essential to Skyware Global as the company continues to grow its technical offerings as the world’s only design manufacturer of complete ODU solutions.

Mr. Kennedy has a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering as well as a Master of Science in Pressure Vessel Design Degree both from Paisley College of Technology. He spent his early career years with Babcock Power Limited as a Design Engineer and Senior Design Engineer responsible for the design and analysis of nuclear reactor pressure vessels. Mr. Kennedy spent the next 10 years moving up through the ranks of Andrew Corporation, from Senior Mechanical Engineer to Products Line Manager of antenna products in Europe to starting a new Business Unit which designed and manufactured small diameter integrated antennas for the cellular market. His last few years with Andrew were spent creating another new Business Unit that developed and manufactured consumer broadband antennas. Mr. Kennedy joined Raven Group in 2004 as Commercial Manager, and was promoted to Head of Antenna Engineering of Skyware Global in the Summer of 2010.

Steve Beaumont
President - EMEAA

Mr. Beaumont is the President of EMEAA (Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia)  Steve has over 25 years experience as an energetic, focused executive in technology, media, telecommunications, consumer goods and manufacturing, and has worked with some of the world’s most distinguished companies, including the UK’s BBC, ITV, BBSat, Spain’s Telefonica, Globecast, Gillette, and Parker Pen.     Steve has most recently worked for EMC UK, where he served as an Executive-in-Residence focused on turnarounds and business development.    Prior to this, Mr. Beaumont served in CEO and Managing Director roles for companies in the video-over-the-internet space where he was heavily involved with sales, marketing, operations and business development.  Early in his career, Steve served as General Manager for Gillette Corporation, running the worldwide brand as Group Marketing Director, and eventually becoming Managing Director for all of Gillette’s stationery product groups for Africa, Eastern Europe, Middle East and India.   In these management roles, Steve was not only responsible for direct sales and the management of distribution partners, he also oversaw research and development, and manufacturing operations.

Ron Schiltmans
Technical Director

Ron Schiltmans is a renowned electronics engineer with over 25 years experience and a holder of 6 patents in microwave design for satellite communications. Following his graduation from Utrecht Polytechnic where Mr. Schiltmans earned a BSc degree in Telecommunications in RF and Microwave design, he went to work for Philips electronics, where he moved up the ranks from Electrical Engineer, to Development Engineer to R&D Manager. In 2006, with the backing of Philips Electronics, Mr. Schiltmans co-founded Skyware Radio Systems GmbH, an R&D company specializing in microwave products. Skyware Radio Systems GmbH joined the Skyware Global group of companies in May of 2009, when Satellite Holdings acquired the company. Mr. Schiltman’s serves as Skyware Global’s Head of Electronics Engineering.

Dr. David Geen
Vice President, Tactical Ground Systems

After receiving his BEng (Hons) in Communications and Electronic Engineering in 1992 (Newcastle, UK), Dr. Geen completed his PhD, which was entitled Hybrid Mode Feed Horns for Reflector Antennas @ 20/30GHz. He began his career working in the USA designing bespoke feed chains for large Earth station antennas. Dr. Geen has more than 15 years of experience in the design of communication systems for terrestrial and satellite applications. David has spent the last nine years managing the development of VSAT, broadband and DTH antenna terminals, with particular emphasis on high volume, high performance equipment for the enterprise and consumer markets.