Thursday, August 29, 2024 Viasat, a prominent name in global satellite communications, has announced a significant leadership change, appointing Gary Chase as its new Chief Financial Officer, starting September 16, 2024. Gary Chase will take over from Shawn Duffy, who will transition to the role of Chief Accounting Officer, continuing his journey with Viasat. Gary Chase brings a wealth of experience from his previous role at Delta Air Lines, where he served as Senior Vice President of Operational Finance.
As part of Delta’s Leadership Committee, he was among the select top executives directly reporting to the CEO. During his impressive 12-year tenure at Delta, Chase played a pivotal role in overseeing crucial financial operations, including Financial Planning & Analysis, Investor Relations, and Corporate Planning, along with Operational Finance. His strategic insights were further honed during his time as Delta’s Chief Strategy Officer.
Before joining Delta Air Lines, Chase had an illustrious career in equity research as a Managing Director at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers in New York. His expertise as an Institutional Investor ranked analyst made him a key figure in analyzing and advising on the airline and transportation sectors for over a decade. With Chase’s appointment, Viasat aims to leverage his extensive financial and strategic acumen to drive the company’s growth and innovation in the satellite communications industry.
“We are thrilled to welcome Gary to Viasat and look forward to adding his expertise in scaled operational financial systems to support our growth objectives,” said Mark Dankberg, Chairman and CEO of Viasat . “Gary’s extensive operational experience, and his perspective as a Viasat customer, make him well positioned to increase financial and operational automation and rigor, and sharpen our focus on cash generation and Inmarsat integration. He will play a pivotal financial and business oversight role for Viasat, with emphasis on data systems architecture and linking operational and financial metrics, delivering efficiencies, and optimizing our capital structure to create value for our employees, customers, and shareholders.
” Dankberg continued, “We are also very pleased that Shawn will stay on in her newly created role. Since becoming CFO in 2014, Viasat’s revenues have more than tripled to $4.5 billion.
Her deep understanding of the industry, as well as our company, make her a valued member of our executive team, and she’ll continue to provide financial advisory, accounting and reporting, tax strategy and governance oversight.” “I am excited to join Viasat as its next CFO at such an important time in the company’s history,” said Mr. Chase.
“I have a tremendous amount of respect for Viasat’s businesses and its global mission of delivering safety and connectivity to customers in the air, at sea, and on land. I look forward to partnering with Mark, Guru, Shawn and the rest of the leadership team to further advance the finance function and its support for Viasat’s strategic initiatives and shareholder value creation.”.
