Bruce Cathell
Vice President of Government Operations, Viasat
As vice president of government operations for Viasat, Bruce Cathell is the principal senior executive interfacing to the U.S. government and leads all aspects of Viasat’s defense and aerospace operations in the Washington, D.C., area.
In this capacity, Cathell provides strategic, technical, policy, regulatory, budgetary and trade compliance leadership across all aspects of Viasat’s Government Systems broad products and services portfolio (sales around $700 million per year). Cathell also leads the congressional engagement for Viasat’s government business.
“Bruce is a tremendous asset to Viasat and a key leader on my team,” said Craig Miller, president of Viasat Government Systems. “I don’t think there is anything Bruce can’t do ⏤ his knowledge, experience and skills are one-of-a-kind and have significantly contributed to the outstanding growth Viasat has experienced.”
Cathell has worked on a variety of commercial, DOD and intelligence space programs over his 30-year career. He has chaired associations and served as a board member on multiple associations over the years. He routinely briefs members of Congress and spoke on satellite communications at the United Nations.
Prior to Viasat, Cathell worked at the Office of the Secretary of Defense, where his vast portfolio of responsibilities included program oversight of multibillion-dollar military satellite and terminal programs and all leasing of commercial satellite communications.
Why Watch
Viasat has seen tremendous growth year after year and just recently launched the first of three ViaSat-3 satellites, with the next two satellites being launched later in 2023 and early in 2024. With a data throughput of at least 1 terabyte per second for each satellite, this global constellation will provide massive amounts of capacity and enable significant company growth in 2023 and beyond.
Viasat is continuing to develop new technologies and capabilities in space, cyber security, free space optics and advanced hybrid networks. With the development and deployment of so many new technologies and capabilities in 2023 and beyond, “I will look to Bruce’s leadership to build on our successes and propel Viasat to the next level with significant growth both domestically and internationally,” Miller added.