About Suzanne Mcbride
Suzi McBride, Chief Operating Officer and Director of Iridium, has participated in several interviews in 2024 and 2025 discussing the company’s strategy and her career. She described Iridium as a company focused on innovation and being prepared to pivot as the market evolves, noting that it is difficult to predict what 2035 will look like. McBride emphasized that Iridium’s business model is not about selling a low-cost, vanilla service, but rather a highly differentiated network. She highlighted a new project to connect standard cellular devices to satellite networks, calling it a "new concept in the industry" that no one has done at scale yet, and described it as "incredibly transformational" and a "tremendous opportunity."
McBride also discussed the importance of owning intellectual property, calling it "the keys to the kingdom" and critical for competitive advantage. She noted that Iridium’s supply chain team performed well during the COVID-19 pandemic and that the company has balanced just-in-time inventory with risk management. In a 2024 interview, she stated that Iridium is the "original constellation company" and has evolved from a businessman’s telephone system to support IoT, maritime, and broadband markets. She also commented on the Satelles acquisition, saying the biggest challenge is addressing the reliance on GPS in banking and communications, and that Iridium’s broadcasting signal is about 1,000 times stronger than GPS, making it suitable for critical infrastructure.
Source: AI-verified profile updated from Suzanne Mcbride's recent appearances.
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Transcript (5 segments)
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Suzanne McBride0:05
There's so much that has changed over the years and we'll continue to change. I think it's back to the core of who we both are as companies: it's about innovation and being prepared to make the pivots and shifts needed, seeing how the world evolves in the next 10 to 15 years. It's really hard to predict exactly what 2035 will look like, but it's about ensuring that what we're building today and tomorrow will enable those shifts, because we can watch and see what the need is and where the business cases are going. So I think that's important for us. What's more important to me is not just the 'what' but the 'how' we're going to get there, ensuring that every step we take keeps that openness for the future.
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Unknown0:48
We're a technology company, a technology industry. To build on what Susie said, this workshop and our discussions about the future aren't just grounded on what the technology options are. You want to start from what's happening in the industry, in the market, what the technology trends are, what competitors are doing. You have to lay out that whole landscape and say, 'How do we navigate across it?' and 'What technologies and capabilities can we leverage to be the most successful and stay true to our mission and value proposition?' That's tricky. It takes more than technology experts; it takes a consultative approach to take that journey with us.
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Suzanne McBride1:30
Yeah, and as we take on board new ideas and they turn into actual projects to deliver capability, how important is it that you own the IP at the end of this?
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Unknown1:43
I mean, those are the keys to the kingdom. This is what runs our business, and that is critical for our competitive advantage. It also helps us understand what the critical piece we need to own is versus what's not important. Working with you, I know you guys are wonderful about ensuring we do own and control our IP because you understand it's our business and we need to control it. It's been a good partnership that way. That was one of the go-to questions anytime we do business with partners: who owns the IP, where are the right lines? For us, it's very clear and easy.
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Suzanne McBride2:22
Yeah, and as a CTO, that's an important thing: to open up the doors and say, 'What's happening in the rest of your industry and other industries? What's going on with technology trends?' You guys are a window to that for us. I could pore through websites every day trying to get this information, but you're deeply involved in these technologies and bring great ideas to us. We can look at how we can bring concepts and technologies from adjacent markets into ours. What's next? I'm focused on the near term: delivering this new project we're working on together, because I think it will change what we can offer to the market. It's incredibly transformational — supporting cellular devices connecting to satellite networks. This is a new concept; some work is going on, but no one's done it at scale or very well yet. We have this opportunity. Two years ago, your team and our team asked, 'Is this possible? Could we do this?' It was a cool idea. Then through study and joint work, we realized we can actually do it. Now, rather than just the devices we build together and sell to partners, we can take any cellular device and connect it to our network. That's going to open whole new opportunities at different price points, new kinds of services and partnerships. There are billions of cellular devices in the market, but only a couple million of our devices. That's a tremendous opportunity for all of us.
