Key Personnel

David Drucker, Founder

As the co-founder of Echostar Satellite Corporation, Drucker was an active investor and participant in the contractual negotiations and FCC regulatory matters that led to the construction and launch of the Echostar DBS System. He is the founder of WildBlue Communications, which, is a KaBand GSO Licensee and of TVHola, which operates a Spanish/Portuguese satellite portal and broadcast television stations throughout Alaska and Florida.

A licensed attorney, Drucker also served in the positions of vice president and corporate counsel for a variety of communications corporations, including STAR TV, United Cable Television Corporation, Echosphere, Antares Satellite Corporation, and United Paging Corporation. For the latter, he developed a 900MHz-paging program, one of only three construction permits authorized by the FCC for such services.

Drucker founded KaSTAR Satellite in 1995, which later became iSKY/WildBlue. A Vietnam veteran he holds a bachelor’s degree and a juris doctor and lives in Evergreen, Colorado.

William Vanderpoel, Senior Financial Advisor

Bill has a BA in Accounting from Indiana University and an MBA in Finance, Investments & Banking from the University of Wisconsin at Madison.

Titles he has held include Director of Planning and Budgeting, Director of Human Resources, Vice President of Finance, Chief Financial Officer, President of EAC (wholly owned subsidiary), and Vice President of Business Development.

Bill was with Echostar Communications for fourteen years with a variety of management positions in finance, planning and budgeting, treasury functions, and human resources and with several roles in business development, sales and marketing, and general management. Bill developed Echostar’s planning and budget process as well as their cash management and treasury systems.

JD Simpson - Teleport Manager

J.D. Simpson was born in Colorado and attended school in Los Angeles County and earned an Associate in Science Degree in 1973. He completed a Peace Corps program and served in the Sultanate of Oman until 1976. J.D. first became interested in the satellite industry while working for the Communications Advisor to the Sultanate of Oman’s Palace Office 1976 to 1984. He completed a Certificate course in Satellite Communications Technology in April 1985 and continues to update his extensive knowledge and skills as new technology becomes available. J.D. began TSU Corporation in 1985 with travels throughout the Middle East as exclusive representative for several major US manufacturers like Sunair, Hero, Nexus, and Comsat. He continues to be consulted by government officials and Royal Family members in the Middle East due to his widely known expertise in communications system implementation, troubleshooting and consulting. J.D. has been called on to complete satellite projects in the former Soviet Union countries as well as various U.S. government agencies and broadcast companies across the U.S.

Keith Lewis – Business Development

Keith comes to us by way of the UK, he was raised in England and then traveled and worked in Spain and Middle East. Keith spent 5 years in Bahrain – during that time consulting Telephone and Data companies in the adoption of secure smart card based technologies for e-commerce, streaming media for both live and on demand applications, multimedia, audio advertising production with clients like Coca Cola, KLM Airlines, Quantus, Batelco, Brtish Airways and Starbucks.

Keith joined the team nine years ago as IT Manager and built the entire IP and Streaming architecture for the Teleport. He broadened his knowledge in to VSAT and Satellite communications with network design, operation, and maintenance of all platforms. With his experience and ever increasing knowledge in Satellite, IP and Converged Media platforms, he is now heading up our business development working on projects for VSAT, Streaming Media and IPTV.

Bev Obenchain, Senior Business Planning Advisor

Bev has played instrumental roles in the early business planning of both Echostar and Wildblue Communications, and has provided senior management consulting services to major telecom players such as Qwest.

Ms. Obenchain is a business consultant specializing in strategy development and implementation of business plans in the satellite, cable and telecommunications industries. She closely follows the development of business opportunities and growth taking place in the new, worldwide communications industry. Ms. Obenchain's clients include U S West, Qwest, Korea Telecom, High Speed Access Corp., Sequent, MediaOne and WildBlue.

Ms. Obenchain’s background includes more than twenty-five years of business and managerial experience in corporate and university environments. While with EchoStar Satellite Communications Corporation, she prepared the original business plan that raised the first $350 million for the DBS project. With Coors Ceramics Company, she held positions as Director of Strategic Planning and Finance, Director of Corporate Information Systems, Director of Environment, Health and Safety and Director of Government Contracting. Previous to that she held the positions of Chief Administrative Officer and Assistant Treasurer of the University of Denver, where she managed the strategic planning, contracting, systems and finance functions for research and technology. She has received President's and Leadership awards for her outstanding and successful project work nationally and with Coors and the University of Denver.

Ms. Obenchain published a book entitled, Profitable Projects: Money Angles for Project Managers, which is used in several university courses and corporate training programs as well as in the courses Ms. Obenchain offers on the Internet.

Ms. Obenchain earned her MBA in Operations Research and Information Systems and her bachelor’s in Accountancy from the University of Denver. She currently serves on the adjunct faculty of the University of Denver where she teaches courses and designs graduate curriculum in strategy, project management, finance, global business, communications, performance systems and organizational development. Ms. Obenchain sits on the Board of Women in Cable and Telecom for the Rocky Mountain chapter.