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Mr. Dankberg co-founded ViaSat Inc. in 1986 and has led the company.s rapid growth. He has held the position of Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer since inception. Before its initial public offering in 1996, ViaSat was named three times to the Inc. 500 list of fastest growing privately held companies. Since then, the company's continuing superior performance qualified it as one of the BusinessWeek "100 Best Small Corporations," as one of the "200 Best Small Companies in America" by Forbes, and a position on the Business 2.0 list of "100 Fastest Growing Technology Companies." Most recently ViaSat was named to Red Herring magazine.s "Small Cap 100" for 2005, recognizing innovative technology and smart business models that nurture growth and profitability.
In 2000 Mr. Dankberg was named Ernst & Young "Entrepreneur of the Year" in San Diego, and he was honored as the 2003 "Satellite Executive of the Year" by Via Satellite magazine, the leading trade publication for the satellite communications industry.
After earning his BS and Masters degrees in electrical engineering at Rice University, he began his career at the Collins Radio division of Rockwell International as a systems engineer. Next he became an engineering director and then a vice president at M/A-Com Linkabit where he managed a business area in satellite networking and digital voice communications. He helped establish Linkabit.s VSAT business, which, along with other M/A-Com divisions, became Hughes Network Systems.
Mr. Dankberg has influenced the development of several satellite communication standards and holds several patents on these technologies as well, including Demand Assigned Multiple Access (DAMA) networking, jam-resistant satellite links, satellite messaging systems, and Paired Carrier Multiple Access (PCMA). He is now involved in development of potential new standards for domestic and international satellite telephony and broadband data networks. | 