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Calian’s new U.S. subsidiary adds defence industry veterans to leadership team

December 16, 2024

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Calian Group’s new U.S.-based subsidiary has appointed its first two senior executives as it seeks to establish its footprint south of the border. The new entity, called Calian US Inc., announced Monday that Tony Rayner has been named chief operating officer and Paul Attner has been hired as senior vice-president of U.S. government services. Rayner spent two decades as chief operating officer of Eutelsat America Corp., a leading supplier of commercial space technology to the U.S. Department of Defence. Attner was most recently senior vice-president of sales for the same company, overseeing Eutelsat’s sales, marketing and business development teams. “In leveraging top talent and best-in-class technology, Calian US is poised to provide innovative and accessible communication solutions that empower our clients to thrive in an increasingly interconnected world,” Calian US president Leeana Smith-Ryland said in a statement. Calian Group announced plans to Calian US said in a news release Monday it will deliver “cutting-edge hardware, teleport services and software solutions” in areas such as radio-frequency products and antenna systems. The company, which will be an independent entity headquartered in New Jersey, said it will initially focus on selling its antenna systems to the U.S. government. It said Calian’s expertise “extends to globally deploying large antenna apertures, up to 35 meters, for diverse applications like deep space communications and radio astronomy.” Calian US said it will also launch a “monitoring-as-a-service” product to monitor radio-frequency signals anywhere in the world with a standard web browser and internet connection. Calian Group CEO Kevin Ford told Techopia earlier this month it will likely take 12 to 18 months to get the new subsidiary off the ground. He said many details, including the new organization’s ownership structure, still need to be worked out. Calian’s move to create a new U.S.-based corporate entity comes as its Kanata-based parent company continues to expand its geographic footprint through ongoing acquisitions in the United States and Europe. Thanks largely to Calian’s aggressive M&A agenda, customers from outside Canada accounted for 32 per cent of the publicly traded firm’s revenues in fiscal 2024, up from 25 per cent four years earlier.