Summary
Work History
Education
Skills
Affiliations
Languages
Personal Information
Accomplishments
Languages
Timeline
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Ken Betaharon

Ken Betaharon

Summary

Accomplished CTO with extensive experience at Intelsat, leading global R&D initiatives in satellite communications. Expert in satellite communication and strategic planning, driving innovation and achieving over 25 years of operational life for satellites. Proven leader in global collaboration, enhancing telecommunications infrastructure and spearheading successful satellite launches and operations.

Work History

Engineer

Comsat Laboratories
  • Responsible for design and development of many space as well as ground hardware for satellite communications.
  • These included the development of ground station RF filters, High Power Amplifier (HPA) Linearizers, development of solid state power amplifiers (in house as well as contracted outside effort) and switch matrices for satellite beam hopping.
  • Performed propagation studies by measuring weather and atmospheric effects on Ka band spectrum for Geostationary satellites applications.
  • Performed as a team member, In-Orbit performance measurements of several Intelsat satellites after their launch.
  • Comsat Laboratories, the US Governor (representative) of Intelsat, developing various components and elements of the Intelsat global telecommunications infrastructure.

Chief Technical Officer

Intelsat
  • Responsible for conducting internal as well as contracted out, on a global basis, R&D activities for development of satellite communications related hardware and sub-systems for space and ground segments.
  • Responsible for in orbit anomaly investigations and on ground simulation of such anomalies when they occurred.
  • Responsible for development of telecommunications processes for efficient use of spectrum bandwidth and transition from analog to digital means of transmission.
  • Responsible for ITU filing strategy and coordination with other satellite operators.
  • Managed a group of highly talented engineers from numerous countries for supporting engineering activities related to satellite communications to create payload designs and configurations compatible with new technologies and corresponding advances to meet 144 member nations communications requirements.
  • Assisting and actively participating in a fairly complicated agreement with the Indian government (Indian Space Research Organization, ISRO) for joint development and manufacturing of a satellite, manufactured in India and launched on board an Indian launch vehicle for use by Intelsat and the Indian government.
  • In-Orbit Test Director for a number of newly launched satellites, performing tests from several locations around the globe as part of the satellite performance verification.
  • Supporting satellite programs/contracts from inception till delivery and launch from the US and European satellite manufacturers and launch services providers.
  • Managed a large team of engineers and regulatory staff, program management staff and operation staff and supported many BD and sales staff and their activities for daily as well as long term strategy in line with the board of governors and its sub-committees.
  • Such activities included the preparation of the satellite procurement efforts (RFP), proposal evaluation, contract negotiations, contract award, program monitoring, launch contract negotiations, launch vehicle program monitoring and launch support activities followed by in-orbit testing of the launched satellites prior to commissioning these satellites for operation, including any anomaly investigation in orbit, if necessary.
  • In parallel, many state of the art satellite communications payload hardware development on a global basis were carried out in many countries on behalf of Intelsat.
  • Intelsat was a global Inter government organization (IGO) and included 144 member countries.

Chief Technical Officer

Asia Broadcast Satellite
  • After leaving Intelsat due to privatization of the organization, Ken Joined Asia Broadcast Satellite, ABS, as the CTO reporting directly to the CEO helping the organization to grow from a single satellite operator to multiple satellite regional operator with strong market penetration in a very short span of time.
  • Activities included the procurement of several new satellites to add to the single satellite fleet of ABS.
  • Our small team was responsible for the preparation of the RFP for spacecraft as well as launch services, proposal evaluation, contract negotiations, contract award and launch, commissioning and in orbit operation of the new satellites.
  • In partnership with another regional operator, we procured four full electric propulsion satellites (first for our industry) and launched each pair of two on a single launch vehicle successfully.
  • Each one of these four satellites achieved an operational fuel life of >25years and they are still continuing to operate.
  • We also acquired Mabuhay satellite company, a Philippine based operator, and fully and successfully integrated their operation with the ABS operation.
  • Asia Broadcast Satellite, a start-up satellite operator.

Chief Technical Officer

Saturn Satellite Network
  • Recently at SSN, Ken has been involved in the development and the implementation of the High Throughput Satellite (HTS) payloads.
  • He has developed several HTS payloads concepts, mainly using industry available hardware to reduce and/or eliminate high NREs usually associated with such development and provide lower cost solutions for GEO satellites.
  • The HTS payload entailed the design of dynamically steerable multi spot satellite payload using phase array antenna configuration via direct radiators or feed array, and with high frequency re-use scheme, to obtain 100Gbps-250Gbps total throughput.
  • Finally, Ken has also embarked on the development of a LEO constellation concept for 5G, NTN applications with emphasis on low cost solutions for such applications and the associated network development.
  • Saturn Satellite Network, a start-up company focused on developing lower cost GEO satellites.

Education

Master of Science - Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications

University of Maryland
01.1971

Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering

University of Maryland
College Park, MD
01-1969

Skills

  • Satellite communication
  • RF engineering
  • Anomaly investigation
  • Project management
  • Contract negotiation
  • Technical documentation
  • Global collaboration
  • Effective communication
  • Problem solving
  • Strategic planning
  • Innovation management
  • Design troubleshooting
  • Network configuration
  • Systems engineering practices
  • Telecommunications processes
  • Team leadership

Affiliations

  • Eta Kappa Nu
  • Tau Beta Pi

Languages

  • English
  • French
  • Arabic
  • Farsi
  • Hebrew

Personal Information

Citizenship: USA

Accomplishments

  • co-authored several IEEE articles
  • Authored several articles internal to entities for which I worked

Languages

English
Full Professional
French
Professional
Persian
Professional
Hebrew
Limited
Arabic
Elementary

Timeline

Engineer

Comsat Laboratories

Chief Technical Officer

Intelsat

Chief Technical Officer

Asia Broadcast Satellite

Chief Technical Officer

Saturn Satellite Network

Master of Science - Electrical Engineering and Telecommunications

University of Maryland

Bachelor of Science - Electrical Engineering

University of Maryland

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Ken Betaharon