Iridium Expands Space Development Agency Operations; Onboards New Vice President and General Manager

McLean, Va., March 18, 2024

Iridium Communications Inc. (Nasdaq: IRDM) today announced that John McNiff has joined Iridium as Vice President and General Manager overseeing Iridium’s Space Development Agency (SDA) support, effective February 5, 2023.

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  John McNiff joins Iridium as the Vice President and General Manager overseeing Iridium’s Space Development Agency Support

In this new role, John is providing leadership and strategy for Iridium’s Space Development Agency (SDA)-related business, as it establishes the ground Operations and Integration (O&I) segment for Tranche 1 of the Proliferated Warfighter Space Architecture (PWSA). The core operations and integration functions include enterprise management, network management, mission management, payload data management, and constellation monitoring that spans the ground, link, space, and user segments of the architecture.

John joins Iridium from Microsoft Federal where he led the Intelligence Operating Unit focused on delivery of Microsoft products and services to its key national security customer vertical. With more than 30 years of experience, John has held numerous executive positions within the federal contracting industry. He spent 16 years at Northrop Grumman, holding senior executive management positions in program management, P&L operations, business development, and corporate strategy. John began his career as an engineer and product manager for commercial satellite and cellular telecommunication companies including GTE and Iridium.

“John brings a great deal of experience and expertise that will help turbocharge Iridium’s SDA operations,” said Scott Scheimreif, executive vice president of government programs, Iridium. “After having previously worked at Iridium as a product manager years ago, we’re glad his career has come full circle with him re-joining our team in this new role. We look forward to his leadership in driving smooth SDA operations and continued success.”

The Iridium team is working to operate and maintain state-of-the-art, commercial-like operations centers and ground entry points, and lead ground-to-space integration efforts. To support these growing initiatives, Iridium is continuing to hire for a variety of new roles.

About Iridium Communications Inc.

Iridium® is the only mobile voice and data satellite communications network that spans the entire globe. Iridium enables connections between people, organizations, and assets to and from anywhere, in real time. Together with its ecosystem of partner companies, Iridium delivers an innovative and rich portfolio of reliable solutions for markets that require truly global communications. In 2019, the company completed a generational upgrade of its satellite network and launched its specialty broadband service, Iridium Certus®. Iridium Communications Inc. is headquartered in McLean, Va., U.S.A., and its common stock trades on the Nasdaq Global Select Market under the ticker symbol IRDM. For more information about Iridium products, services, and partner solutions, visit www.iridium.com.