Yves Feltes, who was responsible for public relations at SES for a quarter of a century, has died.
The Luxembourger studied journalism and political sciences at the University of Vienna before becoming a journalist at D’Lëtzebuerger Land.
He joined the then Astra in 1990, not long after the launch of its first satellite, Astra 1A, which brought direct-to-home satellite television to the UK, Nordic countries, and later Germany and the Netherlands.
Feltes’ career mirrored the rise of the industry with successive satellite launches taking SES on a growth curve that would see it purchase the US New Skies Satellite and enter the North American market.
After leaving SES in 2015 he established his own public relations firm with his opposite number at Arianespace Jacques Denavaut.
Feltes was a solid PR professional, confident, but with a twinkle in the eye. At a satellite launch in Kourou I asked him whether he wrote two press releases should events not go as planned. He smiled as if to query why he might consider such a thing. Failure was never an option.
