Matthew (Matt) Desch, Chief Executive Officer, Iridium Communications, Inc. (Nasdaq: IRDM), has been named Via Satellite’s Satellite Executive of the Year for 2011. Iridium boasted a strong performance in 2011 that exceeded estimates on nearly every metric. Financially speaking, the MSS operator grew in areas where it was not expected to grow, driven by its service, its technological innovation and its ability to be a catalyst to its ecosystem of development partners in an increasingly competitive sector and in new sectors, as well.