The British CEO of OneWeb is set to resign a year after the satellite trailblazer combined with France’s Eutelsat in a £2.8 billion merger.
Stephen Beynon has yet to comment on reports of his impending departure next month amid suggestions of increasing French dominance within the group.
It is reported that key decisions are being shifted away from the UK despite COO David Bath and Massimiliano Ladovaz, head of satellite operations, being based in London.
OneWeb was founded in 2012 to deliver global internet coverage via low earth orbit satellites but had to be saved from bankruptcy in 2020.
It became jointly owned by the UK government and Bharti Global – BT’s largest shareholder – after each committed $500m. In 2021 Eutelsat, which is listed in Paris, acquired a 24% stake for £400m and a further £217m round soon followed, with South Korean tech giant Hanwha investing £217m.
It was later merged with Eutelsat in a £2.8bn deal, with Beynon promoted to CEO of OneWeb – succeeding Neil Masterson – and co-president of Eutelsat’s connectivity division. His co-president Cyril Dujardin is expected to take full control of Eutelsat OneWeb once he departs next month.
The British government retains a 10.9% stake in the firm as well as a special share intended to protect UK interests.
Beynon has spent most of his career in the telecoms industry, working at UK firm Mercury and Australia’s Optus before joining bandwidth trading company Band-X, where he was CEO for four years from 2000.
He subsequently worked at Virgin Media before heading consumer and small business activities for the Irish firm now known as Eir. He joined OneWeb as chief commercial officer in 2022 before his promotion a year later.