Rick Lober serves as vice president and general manager of Hughes Network Systems‘ defense and intelligence systems division, an organization that delivers satellite communication technologies and services to defense and intelligence agencies.
In this capacity, he manages a portfolio of fixed Ku, Ka and X band very small aperture terminals as well as mobilesat and satcom systems for both ground and aerial vehicles.
The 25-year technology veteran joined Hughes in November 2008 after service as senior VP and GM of the communications business unit at Cubic Corp.
Lober led Cubic’s efforts to build a tactical common data link for manned and unmanned military ISR platforms.
He also oversaw the delivery of data link technology for the U.S. Air Force and U.S. Army‘s Joint Surveillance Target Attack Radar System, a personnel locator system, high power and high frequency amplifiers and signal intelligence direction finders.
Prior to Cubic, he worked at Watkins-Johnson Co., where he started his career as a design engineer for the company’s portfolio of SIGINT equipment and later became a department profit and loss lead for SIGINT systems.
He has also published articles about digital receiver design, satcom and high-speed data links and is a member of the Institute of Electrical and Electronics Engineers, Armed Forces Communications and Electronics Association, Association of the United States Army, Association for Unmanned Vehicle Systems International and the Society of Satellite Professionals.
He holds both bachelor’s and master’s degrees in electrical engineering from the University of Illinois.