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About Us  
  Board of Directors  
 
 
 
Noah A. Samara - Chairman of the Board & Chief Executive Officer

Kassahun Kebede - Director

James R. Laramie - Director

Charles McC. Mathias - Director

Dr. Michael Nobel - Director

Dr. Frank-Jürgen Richter - Director

William Schneider, Jr. - Director

Donald J. Frickel - General Counsel, Secretary of the Board


Noah A. Samara
Chairman & Chief Executive Officer

Noah A. Samara has served as Chairman of the Board, Chief Executive Officer and the Director of the Company since the inception of WorldSpace. A veteran of the satellite industry, Mr. Samara has been an advisor to numerous global telecommunications and broadcasting organizations over the years, on a wide range of business and regulatory issues. He has published articles in the fields of satellite communications and broadcasting. Mr. Samara holds a MS Degree in International Business Diplomacy from the Georgetown University School of Foreign Service and a Juris Doctor from the Georgetown University School of Law. He has also received numerous awards from governments and institutions specifically for his work with WorldSpace.

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Kassahun Kebede
Director

Kassahun (Kassy) Kebede was elected as a director of WorldSpace on May 18, 2005. Mr. Kebede is the founder and managing partner of PANTON Capital Group, a New York based credit arbitrage hedge fund established in February 2004. From 1995 to 2004, Mr. Kebede worked at Deutsche Bank in a number of positions, ending as the head of a bank-wide management task force concerned with measuring, assessing and reducing the bank’s exposures (trading and loans) in Latin America. Previously, Mr. Kebede worked in the Global Markets Division focusing on the bank’s exposure in Asia and Latin America. Mr. Kebede also served as the head of equity derivatives and a member of the division’s Management and Commitment Committees. He originally joined Deutsche Bank in 1995 as head of European fixed income derivatives. From 1994 to 1995, Mr. Kebede was head of the credit derivatives department at Merrill Lynch. From 1991 to 1993, Mr. Kebede was employed at Bankers Trust. Mr. Kebede earned a M.B.A. from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania in 1991 and a B.S. in electrical engineering from Marquette University in 1985.

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James R. Laramie
Director
James Laramie has served as a director of WorldSpace and its predecessors since 1990. Mr. Laramie is currently the President of Laramie & Associates, a management consulting company. From February 2002 to April 2004, Mr. Laramie served as the Chairman of Freeport Technologies, Inc., a company that provides collaborative conferencing systems for business development and management. Previously, Mr. Laramie also served as the General Counsel of WorldSpace’s predecessors from November 1995 to 1998.

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Charles McC. Mathias
Director
Charles McC. Mathias has served as a director of WorldSpace and its predecessors since 2000. From 1993 to 1999, Mr. Mathias served as President and Chairman of the board of directors of First American Bankshares, Inc. and, from 1987 to 1993, he was a partner of the law firm of Jones, Day, Reavis & Pogue. From 1968 to 1986, Mr. Mathias represented the State of Maryland in the United States Senate, where he served as chairman of the Committee on Rules and served on such committees as the Foreign Relations, Judiciary, Appropriations and Intelligence Committees. Prior to being elected to the Senate, Mr. Mathias served four terms in the House of Representatives as a representative from the Sixth Congressional District of Maryland. Mr. Mathias has served as President of the North Atlantic Assembly, the organization of NATO parliamentarians, having previously served as Vice-President and as Chairman of the United States Senate delegation to the Assembly.

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Dr. Michael Nobel
Director
Michael Nobel has served as a director of WorldSpace and its predecessors since 2001. Since 1990, Dr. Nobel has served as the Chief Executive Officer of a group of companies which performs diagnostic imaging services. Dr. Nobel also serves as the chairman of the Nobel Family Society. Dr. Nobel has been a consultant to UNESCO in Paris and the United Nation’s Social Affairs Division in Geneva on methods for substance abuse prevention. Dr. Nobel also worked for seven years as a researcher in social sciences at the Institute for Mass Communication at the Lausanne University and at the Institute of Social and Preventive Medicine in the field of primary drug abuse prevention. He also participated in the introduction of magnetic resonance imaging as vice president of Europe for Fonar Corporation and has remained in this field since 1980. He is a member of the board of several privately-held international companies involved in advanced medical diagnostics and treatment as well as internet service provision, management consulting and e-learning, and sits on several prominent international prize committees.

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Dr. Frank-Jürgen Richter
Director

Dr. Frank-Jürgen Richter joined the WORLDSPACE board of directors on June 18, 2007. Dr. Richter is the founder and president of Horasis-The Global Visions Community, incorporated in Geneva, Switzerland. Through Horasis, Dr. Richter is a senior advisor to the leadership of corporations from Asia, Europe and North America. Prior to founding Horasis, Dr. Richter was director of the World Economic Forum, in charge of Asian affairs. Under his leadership, the World Economic Forum's summits in Asia, as well as the Asia portion of 'Davos' have evolved to facilitate the exchange of experiences and ideas between leaders in business, government, and civil society. He has a thorough understanding of how the world functions today - an understanding created through an on-going interaction with top business, political and intellectual leaders around the world.

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William Schneider, Jr.
Director

William Schneider, Jr. has been a Director of the Company since January 2005. He is a Washington, D.C. based economist and defense analyst, is President of International Planning Services, Inc., an international trade and finance advisory firm, and an Adjunct Fellow of the Hudson Institute. He is also currently Chairman of the Defense Science Board of the Department of Defense as well as a member of the Defense Trade Advisory Group of the Department of State. Subsequent to his government service, Dr. Schneider served, from 1987 to 1993, as an advisor to the U.S. government in several capacities, including Chairman of the President’s General Advisory Committee on Arms Control and Disarmament. He also served from 1982 to 1986 as Under Secretary of State for Security Assistance, Science and Technology. Previously, from 1981 to 1982, he served as the Associate Director for National Security and International Affairs at the Office of Management and Budget. He is the author of several works on defense policy, including Why IBM? Policy Issues in the Missile Defense Controversy (1969), and Arms, Men, and Military Budgets, an annual review of defense budget issues, and has also published numerous articles and monographs.

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Donald J. Frickel
General Counsel, Secretary of the Board

Donald J. Frickel has served as Executive Vice President, General Counsel and Secretary of WorldSpace and its predecessors since January 1999. Mr. Frickel joined the WorldSpace group in March 1996 as Senior Vice President, Legal & Regulatory Affairs. Prior to joining the WorldSpace group, Mr. Frickel served as Associate General Counsel for Mobil Oil Corporation.

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