Perfero Advisory LLC

This past week, the United States and the global space industry lost one of the founding fathers and accelerators of Commercial Space, Bernard L. Schwartz, who died at his home on 12 March 2024 at the age of 98.??Super active throughout his life it is no surprise that he was publishing articles on major matters of industry, economy, politic and society as recently as August 2023.??Vigorous and fully engaged!? Early on in my 10 years at Loral I had the great pleasure of working at the company unbeknownst to him as a young executive in my early 30s -- surrounded by a fantastic entrepreneurial culture.??In time, I had many professional moments with him amidst the growth and challenges of the Loral business and then also years after he departed Loral.??He was truly special, provocative and inspiring.? Prior to the mid 1990s, space was an entirely intergovernmental sector.??Countries owned nearly all activities in space.???Bernard, along with figures like Rene Anselmo founder of Panamsat, Christopher Vizas/John Puente of Orion Network Systems and Charlie Ergen of Echostar, amongst others, began to change that.??In 1992, Bernard divested of military electronics and went all-in on space with his new, foundational commercial space company, Loral Space & Communications.??Bernard’s Loral founded GlobalStar, bought and owned spacecraft manufacturer Space Systems/Loral (from Ford Aerospace at acquisition, today Space Systems - Maxar), invested deeply in commercially-owned GEO satellites including ownership of Loral Skynet (nucleus fleet bought from AT&T in 1997, but mature global fleet eventually split between partial sale to Intelsat and then a Telesat acquisition, 2005-2008), created??Xtar (X-band satellite services) and created early-on Internet-over-satellite company, Cyberstar.? Bernard harnessed all of this commercially and assertively for the good of the United States government and economy, for connecting people globally, and for the global space industry, at large -- although not without fault or peril.??And, outside of space his investment in philanthropy was just as deep in his home of New York City – well beyond the focus of this post.? It was his entrepreneurial vision for commercial space, his bold steps to seed and advance it, and his unique and deeply motivating managerial “way” to help us drive it, that will continue on through the diaspora of people who worked with him and through his successes in Commercial Space.??The icons of today’s New Space industry – both large and well-known as well as emerging young new space companies – have arisen in part out of his investment, vision and legacy. Bernard was given the Satellite Executive of the Year Award in 1996 by Via Satellite.??On the eve of Satellite 2024, the timing of these two events is worth noting and appreciating.? Thank you very, very much, Bernard. #space #spaceindustry #satellite2024 #satcom #aerospace #spacenews #viasatellite #sspi #satellite #newspace

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