TAMPA, Fla. — Ramu Potarazu, a former executive at geostationary operator Intelsat, has taken the helm of Lynk Global in the direct-to-smartphone satellite venture’s latest leadership shake-up as it seeks funds to grow its constellation.
Lynk said Nov. 7 that Dan Dooley will resume his role as chief commercial officer after taking over as CEO two months ago from Charles Miller, the company’s co-founder who became chairman of its board of directors.
Potarazu held various positions at Intelsat between 1991-2006, including president and chief operating officer, and was most recently CEO of media management software company EditShare.
Falls Church, Virginia-based Lynk also announced the appointment of Steven Fay as chief financial officer (CFO) to help prepare for its stock market debut by merging with Slam Corp, a publicly listed shell company led by former professional baseball player Alex Rodriguez.
Fay spent the last decade as a founding executive member and deputy CFO of OneWeb, the low Earth orbit broadband constellation owned by Eutelsat of France.
Lynk said the appointments coincide with new capital investments from shareholders but declined to disclose details.
The company has been seeking to raise a $40 million Series B funding round alongside its Slam Corp merger deal, which aims to raise at least $110 million for the constellation.
The amount Lynk would raise via Slam Corp, a special purpose acquisition company, is subject to investor redemptions that have been high for other SPAC mergers in the space industry.
Slam Corp also recently extended the deadline to close the deal by four months to Dec. 25.
Lynk currently has five small satellites in LEO, providing intermittent texting and other low-bandwidth services using radiowaves from terrestrial telco partners in the Solomon Islands, Cook Islands, Palau, and four other undisclosed countries.
The venture plans to deploy 5,000 spacecraft in total and says more satellites would improve coverage and reduce latency, enabling it to make meaningful revenues from helping telcos keep subscribers connected in dead zones.
According to Lynk, the company has secured regulatory approvals in more than 30 countries and commercial service contracts with more than 40 mobile network operators across 50 countries.
Competitors include AST SpaceMobile, which merged with a SPAC in 2021 and recently saw its shares soar following early prepayments from telcos in the United States — and the deployment of its first five production satellites.
SpaceX has also deployed more than 100 Starlink satellites with direct-to-smartphone payloads and is seeking regulatory permission to provide commercial services in the United States and elsewhere.
