C.J. Silas resigned as a member of Comsat Corp.’s board of directors for health reasons. He recently had open-heart surgery. Edwin Colodny was appointed to serve as chairman. Colodny has been a director of Comsat since 1992. He has served as both chairman and chief executive director of US Airways Group Inc. and its subsidiary, US Airways Inc., a commercial airline company. He also is a director of Ascent Entertainment Group Inc. and Esterline Technologies Corp.
Martin Levetin resigned as chief executive officer and director of Socket Communications Inc. Charlie Bass, chairman of the board of directors and a founder of Socket, is acting CEO. Levetin joined Socket in 1996. He was involved in developing Socket’s vertical marketing strategy for wireless messaging products, creating a wireless messaging solution for the H-PC handheld computer, and completing the company’s PageSoft messaging software.
Kevin Inda was named vice president of investor and public relations for Powertel Inc., a wholly owned subsidiary of InterCel Inc. Inda most recently was vice president of corporate and financial communications for Pocket Communications Inc., and before that he managed financial communications for MCI Communications Corp. His responsibilities at Powertel will include developing and managing Powertel’s public and financial communications functions.
AirMedia Inc. appointed Bret Berg to the new position of director of product management for mobile products. He will be responsible for managing and expanding the sales and support services of AirMedia’s line of mobile products. Prior to joining the company, Berg was director of product marketing and brand management for mobile products at AST Computer.
NextWave Telecom Inc. named Marybeth Griswold Fraser vice president and general manager of the Mid-Atlantic region, with responsibility for the build out and management of the company’s personal communications services networks in North Carolina, South Carolina, Virginia, Maryland and Washington, D.C. She will lead operations initiatives including site acquisition, leasing, zoning and construction management.
The new vice president of engineering for Coral Systems Inc. is Timothy Hayes. His responsibilities will include managing the engineering staff and developing products. He also assumes responsibility for Coral System’s customer support organization. Hayes’ 12 years of experience in the software industry includes positions at Landmark Graphics Corp., TCI Corp. and Apollo Computer Corp.
Qualcomm Inc. named Julie Cunningham director of investor relations and William Bold director of government affairs. Cunningham, who joined the company in 1994, most recently was Qualcomm’s director of corporate communications.
