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In the early days of telecommunications, the public focused on the technical marvel of bouncing messages off an orbiting ball in the sky. The engineers were the out-front heroes. But behind the scenes, the lawyers were running the show. One of the young attorneys creating the rules for satellite communications was Irving Goldstein.
Goldstein had gone to law school with no intention of practicing "law firm" law. He started out in the international bureau at the Federal Communications Commission.
Three years later, Comsat (Communications Satellite Corporation) came to the FCC looking for lawyers. "Revolving Door" rules eliminated anyone who had worked directly on satellite regulation. But Irv Goldstein was eligible for Comsat.
The move worked out very well for both Comsat and Goldstein. He started in the general counsel's office. In 1982, he became president of the company.
Goldstein took over an organization still geared to the heady days when Comsat had a monopoly on overseas connections. By the 1980s, that monopoly was history. Other companies were putting up satellites. Fiberoptic cables crisscrossed the ocean floor, stealing traffic from satellites.
"The mentality was, we knew better than the customer, we knew better than the market," Goldstein recalls. He brought in people with business rather than engineering expertise. He decentralized decision-making and increased incentive compensation. And he diversified operations. By 1991, Comsat was providing communications for ships while increasing its core business-transmitting telephone calls, electronic data, and video images via satellite.
Goldstein also had embarked on an educational alliance with Jefferson Junior High School in Southwest DC. Comsat employees tutored students in science and math, helped the school attract outside funds, and installed computers.
Comsat had just broken ground on a new building in Bethesda when Irving Goldstein was elected director general and CEO of Intelsat, the consortium that owns and operates global satellites used by Comsat and by member countries.
Goldstein retired from Intelsat in 1998. He now serves on the boards of two telecommunications companies, Computer Associates International and IDT Corporation. "The things that are happening in telecommunications are just staggering," Goldstein says. "Its future is very bright. This is the place to be."
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