Q&A Orbit Technology Group A new era for Orbit Avi Cohen is the new President and CEO of Orbit Technology Group. Since joining the company in December 2008, he has already seen profits rise. Helen Jameson was fortunate enough to speak to Mr. Cohen at CommunicAsia 2009 and find out about his background, the company's latest developments, and his hopes for the future. Question: Mr. Cohen, congratulations on your new position with Orbit. Can you begin by giving us some details on you and your background? Avi Cohen: I have been in the technology industry for about 29 years. In terms of education, I have a Masters degree in electronic engineering and flight physics. Before Orbit, I spent two years with a company called ECI Telecom. ECI is a large provider of telecom infrastructure and I was the Chief Operating Officer. In the two years I was there, we restructured the company and made big changes to the way it was organised. That is the reason I came on board. The company was worth about US$700 million. Prior to that I was in the semiconductor business for 12 years with a company called KLA-Tencor. This is a US public company. I was there for 12 years and I became a Corporate Officer and a Group Vice President. I had seven divisions that reported to me, and about $700 million worth of business. When I left the company in 2006, sales were $2.5 billion. I do have experience of large companies. You will probably be surprised to hear that before I joined KLA- Tencor in 1995, I spent nine years in a company that I started myself in 1985 in the telecom business. I sold the company in 1991 to a silicon valley company. That was eventually sold to Lucent and the pieces are still there somewhere. I have now been with Orbit for six months and it has been fun. Question: Can you tell me more about the new train antenna system and have you seen a good level of interest in it? Avi Cohen: First of all, I should emphasise that this antenna was designed especially for trains. This is not something we adapted for trains. It was developed over a few years of working together with partners in Europe, and the product was then tested over the period of a year on a train system in Europe. The product was completed and introduced at Satellite 2009 and at about that time we also received a first order for over 50 systems from a large train operator in Europe. This is a French company that is planning to install the system on trains to provide Internet services. If you are sitting on a train that is going at 400kmph for four hours and you want to do some work, this is ideal. There are other options available such as cellular, but if you are travelling at high speed you suffer a great deal of disruption as you are very dependent on coverage but this is not the case with satellite and it is the perfect solution for 40 w w w.satellite-evolution.com | July/August 2009 orbit Q&A.p65 40 16/07/2009, 15:23