Executive Leadership
United By a Vision
LightSquared was established in mid-2010 by an experienced team of global telecommunications executives and investors with the vision of revolutionizing the wireless experience in the United States. The company is committed to achieving this through a wholesale-only open wireless broadband network and a combination of terrestrial and satellite technology—both of which represent firsts in the nation.
LightSquared executives have extensive experience in the telecommunications industry across all disciplines, including specific experience in broadband technologies and wireless network deployment. LightSquared is actively recruiting additional high caliber professionals to join its management team.
Interim Chief Financial Officer
Dion Oglesby
Dion Oglesby serves as Interim Chief Financial Officer and Vice President of Finance for LightSquared, where he is responsible for the daily operations of a 15-person team including accounting, legal, and treasury. He will oversee the development and implementation of budgeting, forecasting, and the financial controls process and lead the diligence and negotiations for strategic investors, vendor financing, and debt raise. Recently, he oversaw the merger integration of SkyTerra Communications, Inc. with LightSquared.
Dion has more than 15 years of experience in restructuring, investment banking, and lending, including as Vice President in the High Yield Capital Markets Group of Credit Suisse First Boston. He has worked in a wide variety of industries ranging from aerospace to utilities, with a particular focus on asset-intensive industries including telecommunications, transportation, healthcare, and manufacturing.
Dion was previously a Director in the Restructuring and Turnaround Practice for Huron Consulting Group. He applied his restructuring acumen to supporting interim management, operational turnarounds, financial restructurings, divestiture transactions, and liquidations.
Dion received his Master of Business Administration degree from the Harvard Graduate School of Business and his Bachelor of Science from Illinois State University.
Senior Advisor
Drew Caplan
Drew Caplan serves as a senior advisor to LightSquared’s CEO Sanjiv Ahuja regarding technical, spectrum, and other industry matters. He previously served as CNO for LightSquared and SkyTerra Communications prior to its acquisition by LightSquared.
A 25-year veteran of the telecommunications industry, Drew consulted from 2005 to 2007 with venture capital and private equity firms investing in telecommunications and technology companies, including serving as Executive in Residence for Columbia Capital.
From 1996 to 2005, he founded and led Nextel Communications’ national engineering organization, responsible for development, engineering, planning, and deployment of new technologies, products, and services, highlighted by the introduction of Nextel’s nationwide and international Push-to-Talk feature. He was also responsible for managing all aspects of Nextel’s interconnections and purchases from other carriers.
Prior to joining Nextel, Drew served in progressive engineering, operations, and product development roles with MCI Communications from 1983 to 1995. As a founding member of MCImetro, MCI’s CLEC startup, he oversaw the launch of the company’s first services, building out 20 markets. He also authored and delivered significant portions of MCI’s testimony in state and federal hearings surrounding the Telecommunications Act of 1996.
Drew holds a Bachelor of Science, cum laude and with honors, in Economics with Computer Science and Mathematics concentrations from Georgetown University.
Chairman
Sanjiv Ahuja
Sanjiv Ahuja is the chairman of the board of LightSquared.
In 2007 Sanjiv founded Augere, a company delivering affordable, genuine wireless broadband to underserved customers in developing markets such as Bangladesh and Pakistan. He is also the founder and chairman of Eaton Telecom, a telecommunications infrastructure company with a presence in 12 African countries.
From 2004 until 2007, Sanjiv was chief executive officer of Orange.
Interim Co-Chief Operating Officer and Chief Financial Officer
Marc Montagner
Marc Montagner is the interim co-chief operating officer and chief financial officer for LightSquared. In this role, Montagner is responsible for the company’s daily financial operations and oversees investor and bondholder relations.
Prior to joining LightSquared, Montagner was managing partner of Dupont Circle Partners, a mergers and acquisitions advisory firm specializing in the media, technology and telecommunications industries. Before joining Dupont Circle Partners, he served as executive vice president, sales, marketing and strategy for SkyTerra, LightSquared’s predecessor company, where he worked on the regulatory, technical and business issues associated with re-purposing SkyTerra’s satellite spectrum for terrestrial use.
Previously, he was managing director and co-head of the Global Telecom, Media and Technology Merger and Acquisition Group of Banc of America Securities where he advised a number of companies during acquisitions. Montagner was also senior vice president, corporate development and mergers and acquisitions for Sprint Nextel Corporation, where he was responsible for all M&A activities for the company, including the $70 billion merger between Sprint and Nextel. Prior to Sprint Nextel, Montagner was a managing director in the Telecom and Media Group at Morgan Stanley. Montagner started his career in the telecom industry at France Telecom.
Interim Co-Chief Operating Officer and Chief Network Officer
Douglas Smith
Doug Smith is the interim co-chief operating officer and chief network officer responsible for LightSquared’s network design, deployment, and operations.
Before joining LightSquared, Doug was senior vice president, engineering and operations for Clearwire, a nationwide mobile broadband WiMAX network. There, he managed the integration of two established businesses and was responsible for the design, deployment, and operation of the Clearwire network.
Prior to that he was senior vice president and chief technical operations officer for Sprint Nextel. From 2005 to 2007 he served in the roles of vice president of strategy and standards; vice president of network engineering; and vice president of the iDEN Quality Assurance Initiative for Sprint Nextel.
From 1999 to 2005, as vice president of national technical support and then operations for Nextel, Doug was responsible for operating Nextel’s nationwide network consisting of more than 20,000 cells serving more than 20 million subscribers.
Prior to 1999, Doug held various engineering and management positions with GTE and Nextel, progressing to the position of senior director of technical services with Nextel in Boston.
Doug holds a Masters of Science in Management of Technology from the Wharton School, University of Pennsylvania; and a Bachelor of Science in Electrical Engineering from Merrimack College.
General Counsel
Curtis Lu
Curtis Lu is the general counsel of LightSquared. Curtis is responsible for advising on all legal matters affecting the company.
Previously, Curtis was the senior vice president, deputy general counsel, and chief ethics and compliance officer for Time Warner. There, he was responsible for overseeing legal support for intellectual property, antitrust, and communications regulatory issues, as well as Time Warner’s ethics and compliance program.
Prior to his joining Time Warner, Curtis served as senior vice president and principal deputy general counsel for Fannie Mae from 2006 to 2009.
From 2002 to 2006, Curtis was senior vice president and deputy general counsel for America Online, Inc. (AOL). At AOL, Curtis was responsible for overseeing legal support for financial reporting, consumer marketing, corporate compliance, public policy, litigation, and regulatory compliance.
Curtis began his legal career at the law firm of Latham & Watkins, where he was a litigation partner. He served as a law clerk to Judge Thomas Clark of the United States Court of Appeals for the Eleventh Circuit and a teaching fellow at Stanford Law School. He received a B.A. from the University of Virginia and a J.D. from Harvard Law School. He currently serves on the Board of Directors of the Asian Pacific American Legal Resource Center and the Council for Court Excellence.
Executive Vice President, Strategy, Marketing and Sales
Frank Boulben
Frank Boulben is the executive vice president for strategy, marketing and sales for LightSquared. In this role he oversees strategy, marketing, and partner development for the first-ever wholesale-only open broadband network that uses an integration of terrestrial and satellite technology.
Prior to joining LightSquared, Frank was global director of commercial strategy for Vodafone Group, where he was responsible for the company’s wholesale roaming business as well as its pricing, customer investment policies, and strategic management. He joined Vodafone in 2007 as new business development director.
Previously Frank was the executive vice president of brand and consumer marketing for the Orange Group, responsible for brand and consumer propositions, market research, product marketing, devices, and commercial planning. He joined Orange in January 2004 as vice president for corporate strategy. Prior to that, Frank spent eight years working for Vivendi Universal in positions for the mobile operator SFR Group and the firm’s Internet division. Frank began his career as a consultant for Corporate Value Associates (CVA), working in Europe and the United States.
Frank also served on the Board of the GSMA during 2005-2006 and was chairman of the strategy committee. He is a graduate of the École Polytechnique and of the École Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées. He majored in network economy and management.
Executive Vice President, Regulatory Affairs and Public Policy
Jeffrey J. Carlisle
Jeff Carlisle is executive vice president for regulatory affairs and public policy for LightSquared, where he is responsible for all domestic and international regulatory and policy matters including those at the FCC, Congress, the Executive Branch, the ITU, and in foreign markets.
Before joining LightSquared, Jeff served as vice president of regulatory affairs for SkyTerra Communications. Before joining SkyTerra, he served as vice president, international public policy and government relations of Lenovo, the global computer manufacturer. Jeff headed Lenovo's Washington office from 2005 until 2008.
From 2001 to 2005, Jeff served as deputy chief and then chief of the FCC's Wireline Competition Bureau. At the FCC, he managed the development of the Commission's policies on broadband and competitive entry into the local exchange market, and he was the architect of the Commission's policies on Voice over Internet Protocol (VoIP) and bankruptcy of common carriers. From 1995 to 2001, he practiced law at O'Melveny & Myers and independently, starting as a transactional attorney and then specializing in broadcast and telecommunications law. He represented numerous telecommunications investors and service providers.
Jeff has spoken at numerous events on telecommunications, trade and security policy issues. He received a B.A. in History, magna cum laude and with honors, from UCLA; a J.D. from Boalt Hall at the University of California, Berkeley; and an M.A. in Law and Diplomacy from The Fletcher School.
Senior Vice President, Satellite Engineering and Operations
Jeff Snyder
Jeff Snyder is senior vice president of satellite engineering and operations for LightSquared, where he is responsible for managing the procurement, construction, launch, testing, and operation of the next generation satellite network and spacecraft being built for the LightSquared network by Boeing.
Before joining LightSquared, Jeff served in the same capacity for SkyTerra Communications and was also responsible for the operation of the company’s two existing satellites. Prior to that he was senior vice president for space and ground systems at XM Satellite Radio, where he was the driving force behind the technical development, program implementation, contract management, and regulatory affairs of the XM Satellite Radio system.
Prior to joining XM, Jeff was the vice president of space systems for Worldspace Corporation, managing the development and delivery of the Afristar and Asiastar satellites. Before Worldspace he held various positions in business development and sales, program management, engineering, and manufacturing at Lockheed Martin and GE Aerospace.
Jeff has also played various roles at GE/RCA Americom, as a program manager and in systems engineering working on fixed service satellites and the development of one of the first direct broadcast satellite systems.
Jeff is a graduate of the University of Maryland, where he received a B.S. in Aerospace Engineering.
