Astrium GEO-Information Services (Australia) has announced that, after 24 years with SPOT Image and now Astrium GEO, Rob Lees will be retiring from the company at the end of February 2013, and that James Prior will be its new managing director.

James enters this position with over 15 years’ experience working for SPOT Imaging Services and now Astrium-Geo Information Services throughout Australia, New Zealand, and Asia. James was seconded to Singapore from 2005 to 2011 to manage the business development activities for their ground station customers in Indonesia, Malaysia, Thailand and Taiwan. Since returning to Australia, he has been managing the sales and marketing of the new Pleiades very high resolution satellites. “Astrium is pleased to have someone of James’ business experience in our succession planning for the Australian subsidiary” said Hugues Pavie, sales director of Astrium GEO – Asia-Pacific.

Rob leaves Astrium GEO after a long career in remote sensing. Rob joined SPOT Image in the Washington DC office two weeks before the launch of SPOT 1 in 1986. He moved to the Australian subsidiary (SIS) in 1997 to manage the Asian Telecommunication Sales market. In 2001 he was appointed Managing Director of SIS and leaves having seen the successful launch and marketing of six SPOT satellites and the two Pleiades very high resolution satellites. “Thanks to his expertise and professionalism, Rob has efficiently transformed our subsidiary in Australia, leading it to the commercial success that it is today. We wish him all the best in his retirement” said Hugues Pavie.

Astrium GEO-Information Services (Australia) operating in Australia as SPOT Imaging Services Pty Ltd is the operator and marketing organization for SPOT 5 & 6, Pleiades 1A and 1B and the TerraSarX and TanDEM-X radar satellites.

For more information on Astrium products and services please visit www.astrium-geo.com.