Rigolle out at SES
March 15, 2011
From Chris Forrester in Washington
Mark Rigolle, formerly SES’ chief financial officer, and more recently CEO at O3b where SES has an important 34 per cent stake, is not rejoining the satellite operator. This is directly contrary to a statement issued by Rigolle as part of his hand-over to O3b’s new CEO.
Rigolle successfully supervised the raising of $1.2 billion in equity financing for Jersey-based O3b (which stands for the “other 3 billion”) and is a new satellite constellation designed to bring connectivity to the Equatorial regions of the world. O3b will start service in 2013.
On February 16th O3b, in a statement, said it had appointed Steve Collar as its new CEO. Rigolle’s statement in the release said: “Having completed the financing of the business, I am pleased to be returning to SES with O3b on a solid footing to move forward.”
Romain Bausch, president/CEO at SES, declined to supply further background, saying only that Rigolle’s comments were made in a personal capacity.