Viasat Appoints Gary Chase as Chief Financial Officer
Viasat, Inc. (NASDAQ: VSAT), a global leader in satellite communications, has announced the appointment of Gary Chase as Chief Financial Officer, effective September 16, 2024. He will succeed Shawn Duffy, who will remain with Viasat in the role of Chief Accounting Officer.
Mr. Chase joins Viasat from Delta Air Lines, where he most recently served as Senior Vice President of Operational Finance and was a member of the Delta Leadership Committee, a group of top executives reporting directly to the CEO. During his more than 12-year tenure at Delta Air Lines, Mr. Chase oversaw a number of important financial functions, including Financial Planning & Analysis, Investor Relations, and Corporate Planning, as well as Operational Finance. Mr. Chase also served as Delta’s Chief Strategy Officer. Prior to joining Delta, Mr. Chase was an Institutional Investor ranked analyst and Managing Director in equity research at Barclays Capital and Lehman Brothers in New York, having followed the airline and transportation industries for 12 years.
“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.”