Mark D. Dankberg	Chairman of the Board, CEO	view bio
Richard A. Baldridge	President, COO	view bio
Ronald G. Wangerin	VP, CFO	view bio
H. Stephen Estes	VP Human Resources	view bio
Kevin J. Harkenrider	VP Operations	view bio
Steven R. Hart	VP Chief Technical Officer	view bio
Keven K. Lippert	VP General Counsel and Secretary	view bio
Mark J. Miller	VP Chief Technical Officer	view bio
Gregory D. Monahan	Senior Vice President	view bio
Thomas E. Moore	Senior Vice President, President ViaSat Satellite Holdings	view bio

 

 

Mark Dankberg is Chairman, CEO, and a co-founder of ViaSat Inc.

 Mr. Dankberg co-founded ViaSat Inc. in 1986 and has led the company's rapid growth. He has held the position of Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer since inception.

Mr. Dankberg began his career with the Collins Radio Division of Rockwell International, and at Linkabit Corp in San Diego, where he held positions in engineering, technical management and business segment management.

Under his leadership, ViaSat has consistently been one of America’s fastest growing technology companies. As a start-up, ViaSat was selected to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing private companies three times. After listing on the NASDAQ exchange in 1996 ViaSat has been recognized multiple times by leading business publications including BusinessWeek, Forbes, Fortune, Business 2.0, Red Herring, and others as one of America’s best and fastest growing technology businesses.

Mr. Dankberg has been recognized as an Entrepreneur of the Year in San Diego in 2000, as the Satellite Industry Executive of the Year in 2003, and received the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) Aerospace International Communications Award in 2008. He is an acknowledged industry expert in aerospace, defense and satellite communications, has co-authored several military standards on satellite networking, and holds a number of patents in communications and satellite networking technologies. He has participated on Department of Defense advisory panels and was invited to testify before a Congressional committee on high technology growth companies and IPOs.

Mr. Dankberg has also been an invited speaker on communications technology, entrepreneurship, and executive management at several universities including Rice University, NYU, and University of California at San Diego. He was a founding member of the board of directors of the San Diego Telecom Council (now CommNexus), and served on a San Diego County Regional Economic Advisory Board. In addition, he has been invited to serve as a judge several times at the local and national levels for the Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year program.

Mr. Dankberg earned BSEE and MEE degrees from Rice University and is a member of the Rice University Electrical and Computer Engineering Hall of Fame.

 

 

Richard Baldridge is President and COO of ViaSat Inc.

At ViaSat his duties include corporate responsibility for all day-to-day operations of the company's five operating groups, five subsidiaries, and investor relations.

Mr. Baldridge came to ViaSat from Raytheon Corporation where he was vice president and general manager of its Raytheon Training Systems division. With over 4,000 employees in the division, his responsibilities included day-to-day management including marketing, legal, and overall management, in addition to finance.

Other recent experience includes roles as chief operating officer, CFO, and VP of finance and administration for Hughes Information Systems and Hughes Training Inc., before the divisions were acquired by Raytheon in 1997. Mr. Baldridge also held various senior management roles within General Dynamics Corporation.

Mr. Baldridge graduated with a B.S. degree in business administration, and an emphasis in information systems from New Mexico State University, Las Cruces, where he is a member of the NMSU School of Business Hall of Fame. He serves as a director of Jobs for America's Graduates.

 

Steve Estes is Vice President, Human Resources at ViaSat Inc.

Mr. Estes first became part of the ViaSat team with the acquisition of several commercial divisions of Scientific-Atlanta in April 2000. Steve was vice president and GM of the Satellite Ground Systems business, now the Antenna Systems group.

In 2003 he joined with two partners in an entrepreneurial startup, then sold his ownership to return to ViaSat in his new role in late 2005.

Mr. Estes began his career as an electrical design engineer, moving into various management positions in engineering, program management, sales and marketing, and general management for companies that included Scientific-Atlanta, Loral (now part of L-3), and AEL Cross Systems (now part of BAE).

Mr. Estes holds a BS degree in Mathematics. In addition, he earned an Electrical Engineering degree and an MBA with a concentration in finance and marketing from Georgia Tech.

 

Kevin Harkenrider is Vice President, Operations at ViaSat Inc.

Mr. Harkenrider is responsible for all manufacturing, purchasing and supply chain, and quality assurance activities for all ViaSat business areas in both commercial and government markets.

He joined ViaSat in October, 2006 after four years with Computer Sciences Corporation (CSC) where he served as Account Executive responsible for its $644 Million/7-year Information Technology Outsourcing contract with the County of San Diego. Bringing over 25 years of operations experience to ViaSat, he has held numerous senior management positions at General Dynamics, BAE Systems, and Computer Sciences Corporation.

His previous roles include vice president of operations, vice president of material, and vice president and program director. His work has produced successful planning, management, growth and execution of large production programs such as the MD-11 and F-16 ATE. Some of his achievements include implementing significant cost reduction processes, resulting in on time equipment delivery at increased margins.

Mr. Harkenrider holds a BS in Civil Engineering from Union College and an MBA from the University of Pittsburgh. He is a member of Tau Beta Pi, the national engineering honor society, and is active in the Union College Alumni Club. He also serves as treasurer on the board of directors of the non-profit Palomar-Pomerado Health Foundation, a charitable organization that raises funds for this local hospital district.

 

Steven R. Hart is Chief Technical Officer, and a co-founder of ViaSat Inc.

As CTO, he provides technical direction across the company in areas of networking, architectures, software, and information security. He works with a diverse set of ViaSat business areas to drive innovation and strategic positioning, and supports business development activities, with technical support in product concept development, customer relations, and proposal activities.

Mr. Hart is a co-founder ViaSat Inc. and has helped lead the company’s rapid growth from three people in 1986 to a global company of nearly 2,000 employees today.

Mr. Hart has over 25 years of experience in design, development and engineering management for digital communications and networking equipment. He has provided leadership in many ViaSat product areas, helping it grow from individual “black-box” products to integrated network communication systems. He also led the development of new satellite networking algorithms and directed the creation of the ViaSat Information Security business.

Prior to joining ViaSat, Mr. Hart was a staff engineer and manager at Linkabit, worked as a computer security analyst at the Merdan group on various projects for the National Security Agency and the Navy, and served the U.S. Air Force as an imagery intelligence specialist for four years.

He has authored numerous technical papers in satellite networking and computer and communications security, and holds patents for inventions in these areas.

Mr. Hart was named the 2004 Outstanding Executive by the UCSD Jacobs School of Engineering for his dedication to ensuring the highest quality in education for its students through close ties with San Diego’s high tech industry.

Mr. Hart holds a B.S. in mathematics from the University of Nevada, Las Vegas and an M.A. in mathematics from the University of California, San Diego.

 

 

Keven K. Lippert is Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of ViaSat Inc.

Mr. Lippert manages the company's legal department, providing wide-ranging legal support to its business operations, including corporate, employment, government and commercial contracts, real estate, intellectual property, international, legal compliance, litigation, mergers and acquisitions, financings, and securities law.

Prior to moving into his new role in April, 2007 he was Associate General Counsel and Assistant Secretary since joining ViaSat in 2000.

Mr. Lippert has also played a key role in leading the legal team for the company's acquisitions. Beginning in 2000, he has been instrumental in due diligence, negotiations, and structuring of acquisition agreements for ViaSat subsidiaries US Monolithics, Efficient Channel Coding, Enerdyne, Intelligent Compression Technologies, and JAST Antenna Systems.

Prior to joining ViaSat, Mr. Lippert was a corporate associate at the law firm of Latham & Watkins LLP from 1997 to 2000.

Mr. Lippert holds a J.D. degree from the University of Michigan and a B.S. degree in Business Administration from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Mark J. Miller is Vice President, Chief Technical Officer, and a co-founder of ViaSat Inc.

Mr. Miller is a co-founder ViaSat Inc. and has helped lead the company’s rapid growth. Before its initial public offering in 1996, ViaSat was named three times to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing privately held companies. Since then, the company's continuing superior performance qualified it as one of the BusinessWeek "100 Best Small Corporations," as one of the "200 Best Small Companies in America" by Forbes, and for position number eight on the Business 2.0 list of "100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies." Most recently ViaSat was named to Red Herring magazine’s "Small Cap 100" for 2005, recognizing innovative technology and smart business models that nurture growth and profitability.

Prior to joining ViaSat, he was a Staff Engineer at M/A-COM Linkabit from 1983 to 1986. From 1982 to 1983 he was employed at Cubic defense Systems in San Diego.

Mr. Miller’s main technical interests and active work lie in area of modulation, coding, digital signal processing and multiple access techniques.

He is the holder of various patents and has taught Satellite Communications through the UCSD extension program.

Mr. Miller holds a BSEE degree from the University of California, San Diego and a MSEE degree from the University of California, Los Angeles.

 

Gregory D. Monahan is Senior Vice President, at ViaSat Inc.

Mr. Monahan has served in his current role since September, 2007. As an officer of the company, his current responsibilities include overseeing administration, new facilities acquisition, and a variety of other corporate duties.

Mr. Monahan has helped ViaSat achieve rapid growth. Before its initial public offering in 1996, ViaSat was named three times to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing privately held companies. Since then the company has been recognized for its innovative technology and smart business model that nurtures growth and profitability. ViaSat has achieved listings among the BusinessWeek "100 Best Small Corporations", Business 2.0 "100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies", Red Herring "Small Cap 100", and Forbes "200 Best Small Companies in America".

Prior to joining ViaSat, Mr. Monahan was Assistant Vice President of M/A-COM Linkabit in San Diego from 1978 to 1988.

Mr. Monahan holds a J.D. degree from the University of San Diego and B.S.M.E. and M.B.A. degrees from the University of California, Berkeley.

 

Ronald G. Wangerin is Vice President, Chief Financial Officer of ViaSat Inc.

Mr. Wangerin brings a diverse financial background to ViaSat, including two years with a startup company, three years with a subsidiary of Raytheon Company, and nine years with Deloitte & Touche LLP. Most recently, Mr. Wangerin was VP Treasurer, Secretary and CFO at startup NexusData Inc. Prior to that he was VP and CFO at Raytheon Training and also was a senior manager with Deloitte & Touche.

During his career Mr. Wangerin has worked at both large and small corporations, in both commercial and government environments. His experience includes international business operations, cash management strategies, Oracle MRP system implementation, and mergers and acquisitions. While a member of Deloitte & Touche, he consulted on Raytheon Company’s acquisition of Hughes Electronics Defence Business and Hughes Electronics’ acquisition of PanAmSat Corporation.

At the University of Southern California, Mr. Wangerin was on the baseball and football teams, including the 1985 PAC-10 and Rose Bowl Champions. He earned a B.S. degree in accounting in 1988 and completed his Masters of Accounting in 1989. He is a member of the California Society of CPAs and the American Institute of CPAs.

 

Thomas E. Moore is Senior Vice President and President of the ViaSat-1 Ka-band broadband satellite initiative at ViaSat Inc. He is responsible for leading the team that is developing ViaSat-1, a transformational, next generation platform for satellite broadband.

A technologist at heart and by training, Mr. Moore has spent much of his career involved in the development of video, voice and data broadband technology for the satellite, wireless, and cable television industries.

Until joining ViaSat, Mr. Moore was a principal at TimesArrow, a venture investing firm providing seed capital and management expertise to early stage ventures. 

From 1998 until 2005, he served as president, CEO of satellite broadband service provider WildBlue Communications. A co-founder of WildBlue, he was instrumental in bringing DOCSIS® cable modem technology to the satellite world. During his tenure, the company raised over half a billion dollars from industry leaders such as Liberty Media, Intelsat, NRTC, Kleiner Perkins, Northrop Grumman and Telesat/Bell Canada; built and launched its own special purpose satellite; and deployed a nationwide consumer service.

Prior to WildBlue, Mr. Moore was in senior management at Cable Television Laboratories (CableLabs) a non-profit technology development consortium of the cable industry. In addition to a key role in designing the DOCSIS® global standard, he directed technical development in the areas of quality of service (QoS), traffic engineering, and support for enhanced services such as streaming media (audio/video), Packet Cable™ VoIP telephony, and interactive gaming across cable networks.

Mr. Moore is on the advisory board of the Telecommunications Program and University of Colorado and serves as a founding member of the Colorado Governor’s Innovation Council. He also holds a master's degree in telecommunications engineering (with honors) from the University of Colorado, where his research focused on broadband media access control protocols, Asynchronous Transfer Mode (ATM) and video compression technology. And he earned an MBA with distinction from Harvard Business School.