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Thunderbird alumnus David Bagley dreamed of space as a boy but never imagined he would play a key role in the launch of the world’s largest commercial satellite.
“I have always been a space nut,” says Bagley, who graduated from Thunderbird School of Global Management in 1986. “I’ve always had that bug but never knew it would play out like this.”
As senior vice president of corporate development for ICO Global Communications, Bagley had front row seats April 14 for the launch of the company’s groundbreaking telecommunications satellite in Cape Canaveral, Fla. After consumer trials in North Carolina and Nevada this summer, the satellite will soon deliver 10 to 15 channels of live TV to vehicles all over the United States — along with roadside assistance and interactive navigation.
“Going to Cape Canaveral is a little like going to Yankee Stadium if you’re a baseball fan,” says Bagley, who brought his wife, Renée, and their four children, ages 7 to 16, to the launch. “They just had a blast.”
Bagley says the satellite will fill a telecommunications void in the United States, and subscribers quickly will fall in love with the technology.
“The same TV you watch at home you will be able to watch in your car,” he says.
The two-way system combines satellite and ground communications capabilities, which means subscribers will have no gaps in coverage. “The whole United States map is filled in,” Bagley says.
He says the interactive navigation and roadside assistance features also will be popular. A family on a road trip, for example, will be able to access directions to the closest public restroom or the closest fast food restaurant. Subscribers also will be able to receive live weather and traffic reports.
ICO Mobile Interactive Media, or “ICO mim™,” was conceived in 2005, and Bagley says the company is already planning follow-up satellite launches to add capacity and to build redundancy into the system.
“We’ve got a lot of work ahead of us,” he says.
ICO is a small company with about 55 employees, but Bagley says the team pulled off the satellite launch by working closely with the “best of the best” vendors.
These vendors include Space Systems Loral, who built the satellite, and Lockheed Martin, who launched the satellite on an Atlas 5 rocket. Other partners in the project include Alcatel-Lucent and Hughes Network Systems.
Bagley, 50, grew up along the U.S. West Coast and attended Pacific University in Oregon. He says he came to Thunderbird for his MBA because he wanted to experience the world as a global manager.
That dream was fulfilled when a Thunderbird alumnus recruited Bagley to Southwestern Bell nearly 20 years ago. Since then, Bagley has traveled to more than 40 countries on nearly every continent.
He also worked at AirTouch, Vodafone and IPWireless before joining ICO in July 2002. The company is based in Reston, Va., and Bagley lives and works in the east Bay Area of California.
Over the years, Bagley has seen plenty of change in the telecommunications industry. “Cell phones were still in their infant stage when I started,” he says.
He says consumers in the future will see the Internet everywhere they go, and batteries that power portable devices will be improved until battery life becomes a nonissue.
Regardless of these advances, Bagley says companies will still need careful planning and innovative thinking to thrive.
“Technology without a business plan is nothing,” he says.
More online
Take a virtual tour of the ICO Mobile Interactive Media system and watch a video of the satellite launch at www.ico.com.
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