Executive Team
Robert T. Osterthaler
President and Chief Executive Officer
Mr. Robert Tipton (Tip) Osterthaler joined SES in 2006 when he became the President and CEO of AMERICOM Government Services. Since then, the wholly-owned subsidiary of SES SA has grown and integrated with other government focused elements within SES to become SES Government Solutions (SES-GS). During his tenure at SES, the U.S. Government business has been transformed from a product oriented sales channel into a solutions-focused independent subsidiary responsible for all aspects of SES’s US Government business, including planning for the next generation of satellites that will be needed by government users. Under his leadership, SES Government Solutions transitioned into a Proxy Corporation structure, allowing the company to broaden its business base to include a wider range of customers and technologies. In 2008, SES-GS entered into a ground breaking contract with the US Air Force to fly the Commercially Hosted Infra Red Payload known as CHIRP, and in 2009, SES-GS did its first ever acquisition, enabling the company to better serves the intelligence community.
From 1997 until 2006, Tip was a Senior Vice President at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC) where his last assignment was Deputy General Manager of the Strategies, Simulation and Training Business Unit, a 2,300 person organization which provides government and commercial clients with advanced modeling, simulation and training solutions.
Prior to joining SAIC, Tip served in the U.S. Air Force for 28 years, retiring as a Brigadier General and Deputy Assistant Secretary of Defense for European and NATO Policy. Earlier positions included Vice Commander of the Air Intelligence Agency and numerous command and senior staff assignments. Mr. Osterthaler is a Command Pilot with over 3,200 hours of flying time in fighter aircraft including multiple models of the F-15 Eagle. Upon his retirement, he was presented the Defense Distinguished Service Medal, the nation’s highest peacetime defense award.
Tip holds a BS in Economics from the U.S. Air Force Academy and an MBA from Texas A&M University. He is also a graduate of Harvard University’s Senior Executives in National Security and National and International Security Management programs, the Royal College of Defense Studies in the United Kingdom, the Air War College, and the Marine Corps Command and Staff College.
John A. (Skip) Strand, CPA
Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer
John A. (Skip) Strand is a graduate of Virginia Tech where he earned a BS in Accounting and was a member of Beta Alpha Psi. After completing his studies at Virginia Tech, Skip began his career in public accounting before moving to the satellite communications industry.
Prior to joining SES Government Solutions in 2009, Skip accumulated over 24 years experience in the satellite communications industry. His tenure includes assignments with the finance organizations of Inmarsat, COMSAT Mobile Communications, Intelsat, and Spacenet. During this period, Skip held a number of Financial Management positions including Director of Accounting Operations at Intelsat and Financial Controller for both COMSAT Mobile Communications and Spacenet.
James Scheimer
Senior Vice President, Corporate Development
Joining AGS in 2007, James Scheimer was most recently Vice President and Senior Scientist for Systems Engineering in the Office of Technology, directing the development of tools for the execution of large enterprise and system solutions programs at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC).
Starting at the Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory in 1978, Mr. Scheimer’s assignments have involved treaty verification, research, system architecture, standards based systems engineering process development, and project management of highly complex operations for diverse U.S. government customers such as Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency, the National Guard, the Defense Threat Reduction Agency, Defense Nuclear Agency and the Department of Energy.
Jim holds both a B.S. and M.S. in Physics and Geophysics, respectively, from Stanford University and a Ph.D. in Seismology from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Rick Minter
Corporate Vice President, Chief Operating Officer
With more than 29 years of experience in Engineering and Operations, Mr. Minter is responsible for all aspects of satellite and terrestrial network solutions design and implementation. Mr. Minter has held many executive positions over the past 15 years, to include Vice President of Teleport Operations and Managed Services Engineering at SES AMERICOM, Vice President of Engineering and Operations at Verestar, Vice President Network Services for XO Communications and Vice President of Global Network Operations and Engineering at Infonet Services Corporation ( BT). Mr Minter also was Senior Manager of Strategic Accounts Implementation for MCI and was Deputy Director of the FAA LINCS Project as well as Skyline VSAT.
Mr. Minter is currently pursuing his MBA at Averett University, has completed a certificate program in International Business from Pepperdine University and has a BSEE from the University of Georgia.
Kent Verner
Corporate Vice President, Deputy General Manager
Kent has been a member of the Executive Leadership Team with SES Government Solutions based in McLean, VA since 2010, with primary responsibility for Business Development and Government Solutions.
Prior to joining SES-GS, Kent was a member of the Executive Team at SES WORLD SKIES, based in Princeton, NJ for the previous twelve years, with primary responsibility for developing and serving globally diverse relationships with clients in the broadcast, educational and entertainment markets.
Before joining SES, Kent was Vice President, GE Capital Strategic Railcar Management, a wholly owned subsidiary of GE Capital Railcar Services Corp, a $6B global leasing and operating subsidiary of GE Capital. During his 16 years with GE Capital, he served in a number of senior roles in Finance, Operations, Sales and Marketing.
Kent earned a Masters of Management degree from the Kellogg Graduate School of Management, where he also was a recipient of the Dean’s distinguished Service Award. He earned a Bachelor of Science degree in Commerce from DePaul University and is a member of both the American Institute of CPAs and the Illinois CPA Society.
Angela Steever
Corporate Vice President, Contracts and Procurement
Ms. Steever joined SES Government Solutions (SES-GS) in March 2008 and currently serves as Corporate Vice President, Contracts & Procurement. In this position, Ms. Steever leads the review, negotiation and administration of U.S. Government proposals and contracts. She provides direct support to the SES-GS Executive Leadership Team with respect to contract and sales strategy, risk mitigation, training and internal policy development.
Prior to assuming this position, Ms. Steever was a Senior Contracts Administrator with Booz Allen Hamilton in McLean, VA from 2001 to 2008. While there, she provided full contract support to various Booz Allen partners, including review of contractual terms and conditions, identification of solutions relative to indemnification and liability, and analysis of funding issues.
Prior to joining Booz Allen, Ms. Steever was a Contracting Officer for the Central Intelligence Agency (CIA). She received her warrant in 1999 and completed her M.B.A. from Marymount University in 2000. During her career with the CIA, Ms. Steever had the opportunity to support all Agency divisions and gained experience with a broad spectrum of requirements. She also served on numerous Source Selection Evaluation Boards and developed RFP requirements.
Peter F. Hoene
Corporate Vice President, Development
Brigadier General Peter Hoene entered the Air Force in 1980 as a graduate of the U.S. Air Force Academy. He is a distinguished graduate of the Air Command and Staff College and the National War College. He holds two masters degrees and served for over 30 years in a wide variety of Space, Command and Control, and Aircraft research, development, acquisition, test, staff and command assignments.
In his last active duty assignment he served as the Defense Information Systems Agency Program Executive Officer for Command and Control where managed a portfolio of Joint and Coalition C2 and Information Sharing programs valued at $1.5 billion. Prior to his DISA assignment he was Commander, 350th Electronic Systems Wing (C2&ISR Wing), Electronic Systems Center, Hanscom Air Force Base, Mass., where he managed a portfolio of 49 command and control (C2), ISR, Space and Cyber programs valued at more than $9 billion.
He now serves as the Corporate Vice President for Development for SES Government Solutions, headquartered in McLean, VA. He works with United States warfighters and other government users to help determine their requirements and offer communications support, hosted payload opportunities, and network solutions. He then communicates those requirements to the SES parent organization to take advantage of existing on-orbit SES fleet capacity, or to influence future satellite designs.
