Old School
by Lou Zacharilla
Washington, D.C. May 15, 2019--At Satellite 2019 there was a payload full of exotic, interesting sessions, many flavored for the month and the buzz of the “New Space” era. While our commercial space and satellite industries are undergoing a burst not unlike the roar caused by Mount Vesuvius when it blows, the long hours on the show floor, the stream of panels and the happy chatter at networking events yields an inevitable echo chamber. By the last day we bounce around each other, happily, collegially and more often than not in a state of overload.
But bouncing we are these days!
Everything seems to be touched by satellites. Even the high seas. There was a session on “the IoT of Oceans,” and an homage to the carelessness of disruption called, “Move Fast without Breaking Things.” This sounded more appropriate to our industry, which in the end really doesn’t break so much as breaks through.
We submit to the lure of knowing all for the sake of finishing a Powerpoint presentation. And that’s fine. I heard a lot of this hot air at our amazing SSPI Hall of Fame Induction Celebration, fueled by the entry of OneWeb’s Greg Wyler into the Satellite Industry’s Hall of Fame. OneWeb, which hasn’t made a dime but has generated millions in funding and billions in buzz and good will (read: PR), found its founder inducted where he will be enshrined with others whose paths were of a different era, but whose visions were as noble and whose balance sheets walked the walk — as OneWeb’s no doubt certainly will (and must) do.
We also inducted the leader of a satellite fleet that was once the laughingstock of the financial community but returned to genuine glory, disproving F. Scott Fitzgerald’s claim that there are no “second acts in American life.”
Wrong.
Maybe Fitzgerald, a genuinely great writer but not a satellite guy, was thinking about the upper 10% of Long Island swells who flopped around him, rather than those of us bouncing along the trajectory of a reborn industry. We had gathered inside the Newseum to honor achievement and it was all around us.
FSF for sure wasn’t thinking about Matt Desch, an Ohio guy who leads Iridium and the industry in carefully placed, self-deprecating humility. There is one thing that this buckeye guy proved that never gets old: blocking and tackling still is the way to pay dirt. The grin on Mr. D’s face grew when he the following day he also grabbed the industry’s Executive of the Year award. He remained delightfully sardonic about it all because like a Zen master he knows how things can change in this industry. His is a refreshing approach.
While it was right to honor Greg Wyler for a legacy of achievement and a big dream that he sold to someone who will be either regarded as a visionary or a sucker, it was also right to honor Matt for putting into service a business model that works. There is a fine line between a vision and a fantasy. It often depends on the blocking and the tackling.
Finally, there was Henry Goldberg. His narrative was unknown to many. Yet this Washington mandarin lawyer with the exciting mind has played a larger role in shaping the modern satellite industry than his famous son, one Daniel Goldberg of Telesat. The father played a significant role in the implementation of the “open skies” satellite policy that spawned new satellite-delivered television networks, including HBO, C-SPAN and CNN. As they say, it doesn’t get much bigger or more important than that.
While the industry welcomed these three new entrants, another person worthy of honors got one earlier that day in that relaxed, refreshing and light-hearted luncheon which is World Teleport Association’s annual Teleport Awards for Excellence. This year’s event (the 24th annual) turned into an emotional program because the person who received the honor had no idea it was coming to him.
Legendary inventor William Bartlett Walton did not get into business to make the world better. He did it for the same reason that F. Scott Fitzgerald wrote great books: because he was driven to do it. He also needed to survive and feed a family. Today they call that “old school.”
Bill has been attending the old school for 40 years. What people did not know until he started inventing systems to make antennas warm and cuddly on cold winter nights was that he had done a lot of other things beforehand. But in the satellite industry he not only found his niche, he has dominated it. While “Google me” may be the new campaign slogan for most of the Democratic candidate running in the USA presidential race, or what sales people of other de-icing companies have to tell their prospective customers, Walton Enterprises has simply no peer.
At Satellite 2019 he introduced a new portable radome product to protect terminals from rain, snow, ice, wind and sand. (Someone noted that he could not protect them from my bad jokes. Ha ha ha.)
He has kept his company on top as the leader in satellite earth station weather protection by driving innovation. He doesn’t look the part but he is hip. While the world and the world of satellites have become a mishmash of GEO, MEO, LEO and the antenna regimes on the ground have been running fast to adapt, the man from Oregon, who loves to fish, has kept it Zen-like simple. Like the three guys who made the Hall of Fame later that evening, he grew his business alongside the satellite industry. It is hard to imagine the C-band industry’s ground segment or a teleport industry without his de-icing concepts.
I think what each of these four people share is nothing. But what they agreed on, ultimately, is that the satellite industry is poised for an amazing decade ahead. They became giants because rather than listen to the buzz, they remembered what they’d learned in the “old school.” And unlike USC, you cannot buy your way into it. It is merit based.
View a video of the highlights of the World Teleport Association Awards luncheon at Satellite 2019: http://satellitemarkets.com/walton-2019
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Lou Zacharilla is the Director of Innovation and Development of the Space and Satellite Professionals International (SSPI). He can be reached at: LZacharilla@sspi.org.
