Ben Palmer will lead Viasat’s commercial business as its current leader Jimmy Dodd is retiring. Palmer will serve as president of Commercial starting in November.

Viasat said in an SEC filing on Aug. 21 that Dodd, who serves as senior vice president and president of Commercial Services, will retire in November. Dodd is a former Boeing executive who joined Viasat in 2020.

Palmer has served as president of Inmarsat Maritime. He joined Inmarsat in 2021 as the Viasat acquisition was announced, and has continued to lead the business as a member of Viasat’s executive team.

Palmer announced his appointment in a LinkedIn post this week, saying the diverse portfolio of approximately $2.5 billion in business encompasses connectivity, communications and safety services to companies, consumers and communities across the aviation, maritime, energy, mobility, enterprise, and IOT.

“This is truly a diverse portfolio. But its components share common themes in terms of how we harness technology securely, reliably and seamlessly to connect humankind, keep people engaged, educated and entertained, deliver mission-critical business applications, facilitate digitalization and enable new value creation,” Palmer said.

A Viasat representative told Via Satellite the appointment aligns with the company’s growth priorities across its mobility businesses, “to deliver industry leading satellite utilization and fulfilling real time dynamic bandwidth demand for our customers across all vertical markets, especially in the highest demand times and places.”