SES APPOINTS MARTIN HALLIWELL AS MEMBER OF THE MANAGEMENT COMMITTEE IN CHARGE OF COMMUNICATIONS TECHNOLOGY

Société Européenne des Satellites S.A. (SES) is pleased to announce the appointment of Martin Halliwell to the position of Director of Communications Technology and Member of the Management Committee.

In this newly created executive function, Martin Halliwell will be responsible for SES' global broadband satellite technology developments (ASTRA-NET and BBI - Broadband Interactive System) as well as for the engineering and operational activities of SES' existing analogue and digital networks in Europe. ASTRA-NET is SES' pioneering satellite multimedia platform, which, based on open standards, offers high-speed Internet and multimedia transmissions to PC's. ASTRA-NET platforms are currently operational in Europe and the Asia/Pacific region, with a number under construction to achieve global coverage. SES will launch the Broadband Interactive System (BBI), its two-way satellite communications system, later this year. The BBI system is now being tested before its commercial introduction as the world's first commercial Ka-band satellite return channel system.

Martin Halliwell reports directly to Romain Bausch, Director General and Chairman of the Management Committee of SES. Comments Romain Bausch: "Martin has more than 20 years of experience in Operations and Engineering on terrestrial and satellite communication systems. For more than 12 years at SES, Martin has played a leading role in the technical development of SES' analogue, digital as well as broadband activities. Martin's appointment to this new position will further strengthen SES/ASTRA's continuing development of a global broadband communications system."

Martin Halliwell, a 41 year British national, came from Cable & Wireless Plc. when he joined SES in 1987 in the position of Earth Station Engineer. Following several managerial career steps within the SES Technical Department, he was promoted to the position of Deputy to the Technical Director. In 1997 Martin Halliwell was appointed Technical Director of ESM (now SES-Multimedia), and in 1998 to the position of General Manager Global Multimedia Networks. Martin is married with one daughter.

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