Posted: Sat, Feb 22, 2003, 10:38 AM ET (1538 GMT)
Randy Brinkley, president of Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS), resigned on Friday after a two-year effort to right the struggling satellite manufacturer. Boeing did not issue a statement regarding Brinkley's departure, but both Dow Jones and the Los Angeles Times reported Brinkley was immediately replaced by Dave Ryan, deputy general manager of Boeing's space and intelligence systems operations. Brinkley has been head of BSS since March 2001, and had spent much of his time coping with a steep decline in commercial satellite orders, with as few as three commercial communications satellites ordered worldwide in 2002. That lack of sales was exacerbated by quality control problems within BSS, including problems with solar concentrators on the BSS 702 series of large communications satellites. BSS had attempted to deal with problems as well as work on a new generation of communications satellites with antennas and onboard computers that could be easily reconfigured in orbit, but has found little customer interest in such spacecraft to date. Employment at BSS is scheduled to drop precipitously, from 7,500 workers at the end of 2002 to as few a 4,500 by mid-2003. Boeing acquired BSS from Hughes Electronics, where it was known as Hughes Space and Communications, in 2000.
