Mark Dankberg is Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer (CEO) of Viasat, Inc. He co-founded the company in 1986. Under his leadership, Viasat has consistently been one of America’s fastest growing technology companies, and has been recognized multiple times by leading business and industry publications—including BusinessWeek, Fast Company, Forbes, Fortune, Defense News, Space News, and Washington Technology—for its leadership.

Mark is an acknowledged industry expert in aerospace, defense, and satellite systems and advises both national and international organizations involved in delivering, defining, and governing space systems, including as:  Member of the US National Academy of Engineering (part of the National Academies of Science, Engineering & Medicine), Member of the President’s National Security Telecom Advisory Committee, Commissioner of the United Nations ITU/UNESCO Broadband Commission for sustainable development, Founding Chairman of the Mobile Satellite Services Association, and Member of the Board of Directors of the Global Satellite Operators Association.  He has also received numerous awards for entrepreneurship, corporate governance, and satellite industry leadership.

He is globally recognized for his leadership in defining, researching, and measuring safe, sustainable, and equitable access to scarce orbital and spectrum resources in space and pioneering new technologies and regulations that integrate space systems into national infrastructure while preserving the space and earth environments.

Mark earned B.S. EE and M.S. EE degrees from Rice University and is a member of the Rice University Electrical and Computer Engineering Hall of Fame