Maxar appoints new CEO

Space company Maxar Technologies said Monday that it has promoted Dan Jablonsky, formerly president of its DigitalGlobe division, to president and CEO for the entire corporation.

Jablonsky succeeds Howard Lance, who has resigned from his executive roles and membership on Maxar’s board of directors.

Lance became CEO in 2016 when it was known as MacDonald, Dettwiler and Associates, then led MDA both through its merger in 2017 with DigitalGlobe to create Maxar and U.S. domestication process for the combined and rebranded company.

Maxar’s stock price declined by nearly half last week after it disclosed the failure and assumed loss of the DigitalGlobe WorldView-4 imagery collection satellite. Activist equity research group Spruce Point Capital has within the past year issued critical reports and tweets about Maxar’s financial health and performance.

Shares were up nearly 5 percent to $6.03 as of 12 p.m. Eastern time, while the stock has declined 83 percent since Spruce Point started to publicly target Maxar. Spruce Point also went as far as to contact a DigitalGlobe customer in the National Geospatial-Intelligence Agency last year to express those concerns.

Maxar is also evaluating options for the SSL division's geostationary satellite business, whether to sell that division or close it down entirely. SSL has ramped up its investments in small satellite manufacturing and landed spots on several other contracts for helping agencies with their space architecture. DigitalGlobe in November expanded its key imagery contract with NGA and added cloud migration work under a separate pact as well.