HUGHES Executives :  Eddy W. Hartenstein

Eddy W. Hartenstein

Vice Chairman
Hughes Electronics Corporation

Corporate Communications
P.O. Box 956
El Segundo, CA 90245-0956
(310) 964-0716

Biography

12/2003

Eddy W. Hartenstein is vice chairman of the Board of Directors of Hughes Electronics Corporation. He was elected vice chairman in December 2003.

Prior to his election, Hartenstein was corporate senior executive vice president of Hughes and chairman and chief executive officer of DIRECTV, Inc., the nation's leading provider of digital satellite entertainment. He was also chairman of DIRECTV Global.

Prior to being named corporate senior executive vice president in January 2000, Hartenstein was corporate senior vice president of Hughes and president of DIRECTV. Hartenstein headed DIRECTV from its inception in 1990 and was responsible for assembling the DIRECTV management team and guiding its strategic efforts to develop the business infrastructure necessary to launch the United States' premier direct-to-home entertainment distribution service. Additionally, DIRECTV has lent technical, operational and business support to the development and launch of the DIRECTV service in Latin America.

From 1987 through 1990, Hartenstein created and headed the Ku-Band Services business unit of Hughes Communications, Inc. In that capacity, he was responsible for Hughes' acquisition of Satellite Transponder Leasing Corporation and the SBS fleet of Ku-band satellites from the IBM Corporation.

Between 1984 and 1987, Hartenstein served as president of Equatorial Communications Services Company in Mountain View, Calif., now a division of GTE. Equatorial provided nationwide telephony and data distribution services for a variety of Fortune 100 companies.

Prior to joining Equatorial, Hartenstein was vice president of Hughes Communications' Galaxy program from 1981 to 1984. In that position, he directed the marketing and development of the original Galaxy satellite fleet, serving the broadcast television and cable programming industries in the United States.

Hartenstein joined Hughes Aircraft Company in 1972. Before transferring to Hughes Communications in 1981, he held a succession of engineering, operations, and program management positions at Hughes' Space and Communications Company and NASA's Jet Propulsion Laboratory.

Hartenstein sits on the boards of directors for PanAmSat Corporation, which is 81 percent owned by Hughes Electronics, Thomson multimedia, the Satellite Broadcasting and Communications Association and the Consumer Electronics Association. He also has been honored as a 2001 inductee into the National Academy of Engineering.

Hartenstein received bachelor's degrees in Aerospace Engineering and Mathematics from California State Polytechnic University, Pomona in 1971 and 1972, respectively. He received a M.S. degree in applied physics from Cal Tech in 1974 while a Hughes Aircraft Company Masters Fellow.

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