The IET Seminar military satellite communications systems 2008 

Peter Dingley

Director of Business Development and Strategy, Astrium Services

Over 25 year’s international experience in the Space industry in both space and ground systems with a proven track record in business development, general management, programme management and systems engineering. Peter has worked for British Aerospace, Siemens Plessey and Astrium, largely UK based, but has also worked in Italy, Canada and Australia.  He has recently led the successful recovery of the PMS modem development programme for the Skynet 5 project.

Stuart Eves

Principal Engineer for Military Systems, Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL)

Dr Stuart Eves joined Surrey Satellite Technology Limited (SSTL), in January 2004 as a principal engineer for military systems , after more than 16 years in various space related posts for the UK MoD. This included time spent working on both communications and surveillance satellites, in both a research capacity, and as part of the UK's Defence Intelligence Staff (DIS).

Stuart is the 'Godfather' of the highly successful Topsat imaging satellite programme, which has been awarded the Silver Medal of the Royal Astronomical Society. The engineering model of the satellite is now in the re-vamped space gallery at the science museum, whilst the satellite itself continues to operate after two and a half years in orbit.

Stuart has an MSc in Astrophysics, a PhD in constellation design, and has been a fellow of the Royal Astronomical Society for 17 years.

Rick Greenwood

Space Director, Paradigm Services Ltd

Rick joined EADS in Jan 2003 becoming the PSC Engineering and Operations Director in Aug 2003. Following the re-organisation of Paradigm Secure Communications and Paradigm Services Ltd in June 2005 he became the Space Director.

Prior to joining EADS, Rick was the Technical Manager in the DPA SAT IPT, on secondment from DERA. In this role he was acting as the technical lead for the Skynet 5 Design Phase studies let to Astrium and Lockheed, and in developing Skynet 5’s position in the Global Communication Network Architecture with the DPA Integration Authority. During his 5 years at DERA he was also involved in the launch and operations of the STRV satellites, and supporting the Skynet 4 LEOP activities.

Before joining DERA he held spacecraft operational posts with ESA as the Ulysses spacecraft operations engineer at JPL, and with Eutelsat during the commissioning and operations of Eutelsat F2 satellites and new control centre.

Rick started his career in the RAF on a short service commission for 6 years, with his last posting being the Skynet 4 Chief Instructor where he was responsible for the training of the RAF spacecraft control engineers and as part of the launch team for Skynet 4B in 1989.

He is married (Ali) and has a son and daughter.

Andy Stroomer

Project Director, Paradigm Secure Communications

Andy has almost 20 years experience in the satellite communications industry, with a background in systems engineering and project management, including development of satcom prospects in Europe and Japan.  He was responsible for the Skynet 5 programme within Astrium from 1994, leading the project through architecture definition, feasibility study and international collaborative phases, and into its current form as a PFI service based procurement.

With the formation of the Paradigm team in 2000, Andy continued his central role in contract closure and programme development, initially as Head of Business Development and more recently as Project Director.  This role builds on an extensive knowledge base for the Skynet 5 programme and established relationships with all major players.

In addition to his responsibilities for Skynet 5 delivery, Andy is now responsible for strategy for the wider  Astrium Services business, driving business growth across Communications, Navigation and Earth Observation services.

Andy is married with 3 children and enjoys most sports including golf and hockey.

Dr Taj A Sturman

Communications Systems Engineer, EADS Astrium Ltd

 Dr. Taj A. Sturman, MEng, MPhil, PhD, CEng, MIET, MIEEE, has been engaged in modelling,  analysing and evaluating various aspects of communication systems, both civil and military, for over fifteen years. He is currently involved in SATCOM technology with a specific bias towards the development of a pioneering MILSATCOM system.   Previously he led a pan-European team which provided a complete evaluation of SDR for Ofcom; this study on SDR is freely available from the Ofcom web-page and has been cited in a broad range of recent SDR-based reports from various sectors world-wide.

Tim Tozer

Head of the Communications Research Group,University of York

Tim Tozer is Head of the Communications Research Group in the Department of Electronics at the University of York, UK.  In addition to teaching and lecturing, he manages a range of research activities in wireless systems, especially satellite and terrestrial broadband, VSATs, and High Altitude Platform (HAP) based communications.  He is a named author on over 200 publications, and also presents widely at international workshops and conferences.  Previously he worked for DERA on satellite systems design.

Tim is a member of the IET SatSys PN Executive Team, and the Chair of COST297 which addresses HAPs and their applications.

Lloyd Wood

Space Initiatives Manager, Global Government Solutions Group, Cisco Systems

Lloyd Wood is a Chartered Engineer and a space initiatives manager in Cisco Systems' Global Government Solutions Group, where he has responsibility for Cisco's first router in orbit. Lloyd spent some years contributing to the Internet Engineering Task Force and modifying IOS, Cisco's router software... so he's gone on to fly his own code in space. Lloyd gained his PhD from the Centre for Communication Systems Research at the University of Surrey, where he researched inter networking and satellite constellations.