Maxar appoints Chris Johnson to Lead Space Programs

Westminister, Colo., May 3, 2021--Maxar Technologies today announced that Chris Johnson will join the company as Senior Vice President of Space Programs Delivery (SPD), effective May 24. Johnson most recently served as president of Boeing Satellite Systems International, Inc., where he was responsible for strategy, capture, development and manufacturing of Boeing’s commercial satellite business.

In that role he led a successful business transformation that reduced balance sheet risk, improved profitability, refined product strategy and modernized manufacturing approaches. Prior to that, Johnson was vice president of Boeing’s commercial satellite services division and held a number defense and intelligence-related engineering management and business development roles at the company. He has a Master of Business Administration and a Master of Science in systems architecting and engineering from the University of Southern California and a Bachelor of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the University of Kansas.

In his new role leading the SPD organization at Maxar, Johnson will oversee design, manufacturing, integration, test and delivery for the company’s portfolio of space platforms and space-based robotics systems. He will lead a team of 1,900 employees at the company’s Palo Alto, San Jose and Pasadena facilities. Johnson succeeds Paul Estey, who has led SPD on an interim basis since January 29, 2021.