Richard Hieb

The Executive Summary

Richard Hieb is a Distinguished Engineer at Verizon with a 35-year tenure dedicated to directing the evolution of emerging infrastructure into scalable enterprise assets. As a technical leader and mentor, he architects the high-capacity satellite broadband data paths that interface satellite platforms with terrestrial infrastructure for mission-critical backhaul. A recognized technical visionary and inventor, Richard holds five granted patents in satellite QoS, BGP route limiting, bandwidth management, and network path redundancy. He is known for identifying industry-shifting technologies years before market adoption and for guiding the teams that scaled Verizon's GEO satellite platforms to 20,000 locations. His mentorship in satellite-based disaster recovery has resulted in solutions supporting every major U.S. disaster response since 2020, with current LEO integrations scaling the platform from 300 to a target of 2,500 terminals.

Professional Narrative & Leadership Philosophy

Since joining Verizon in 1990, Richard has transitioned from technical systems integration to lead-architecting the company's strategic Broadband Satellite roadmaps. His leadership style is defined by his role as an "enabler" — bridging the gap between executive vision and engineering execution. He focuses on cultivating technical talent and fostering a team-centric environment where complex, forward-looking satellite strategies are validated by rigorous operational discipline.

Richard is known for his ability to anticipate technological paradigms. In 2017, he initiated Verizon's strategic pivot toward Low Earth Orbit (LEO) broadband, directing early-stage evaluations of low-latency satellite data paths years before they became an industry standard. He consistently identifies what the market will need before the market knows it needs it — then builds the organizational capability to capture it.

Mission-Critical Resilience & Disaster Recovery

Richard's work in satellite network hardening serves as the blueprint for Verizon's regional resilience strategy. Following the 2018/2019 network challenges in Panama City post-Hurricane Michael, he was tasked with re-engineering regional infrastructure to eliminate terrestrial single points of failure using satellite backhaul. Leveraging his prior evaluation of the Dialog satellite platform, Richard mentored a newly formed team through the transition from pilot phase to massive scaled rollout. Originally scoped for 30 to 100 terminals, Richard mentored the team in engineering an elastic satellite architecture that grew to support 300 active terminals.

With the recent integration of LEO technology, Richard is currently directing the rapid expansion of this "never-fail" satellite backhaul solution — scaling to 2,500+ active terminals across 2025 and 2026, with further growth planned beyond that milestone. This satellite platform has been the standard for every major U.S. disaster response since 2020 — delivering connectivity when terrestrial networks cannot.

LEO Strategy & Commercial Stewardship

As the primary technical and strategic bridge to the global LEO ecosystem, Richard guides cross-functional teams in steering vendor relationships and complex commercial negotiations:

• Commercial Evolution (SpaceX/Starlink): Richard spearheaded the technical negotiations for Verizon's foundational capacity deals with SpaceX. He successfully moved the partnership from an initial internal-use agreement to a significantly optimized deal that secured resale rights and improved terms for internal Verizon satellite infrastructure.
• Satellite Capacity Group Plans: He has driven a strategic shift in the LEO industry, guiding providers to move away from restrictive single-site deals toward flexible satellite capacity group plans — a model now adopted across the industry.
• Vendor & Ecosystem Diversification: He directs the strategic technical dialogue for evaluations of previous integrations with OneWeb and upcoming technologies from Telesat (targeting 2027/28) and Amazon LEO (targeting 2026/27), working closely with Corporate Strategy to ensure technical viability and commercial readiness.
• Strategic Oversight: Richard maintains management and capacity planning oversight for all of Verizon's broadband satellite assets, both internal infrastructure and resale platforms.
• Industry Collaboration: He mentors relationships with Direct-to-Cell and 3GPP standards teams, ensuring Verizon's satellite programs are integrated into the broader 5G and NTN (Non-Terrestrial Network) ecosystem.

Intellectual Property & Technical Innovation

Richard is a named inventor on five granted U.S. patents that define the modern efficiency and reliability of satellite-to-terrestrial interfacing.

Architectural Observability & AI

Richard directs the development of satellite telemetry pipelines and deployment modeling required for network autonomy. He engineered the foundational Splunk environments and reporting structures specifically for Verizon's initial LEO broadband integrations, establishing the observability baseline for an entirely new class of network infrastructure.

He is currently mentoring teams on the integration of AI-driven predictive maintenance and capacity optimization — shifting the satellite broadband stack from reactive incident management to anticipatory network governance.

Technical Core & Leadership Impact

Strategic Leadership & Management

• Project Direction: Directed the 0-to-20,000 node scaling of legacy GEO broadband and the active 2,500-node LEO disaster recovery expansion.
• Commercial Strategy: Guided the industry transition from single-site to satellite capacity group plans; secured Starlink Enterprise resale rights for Verizon.
• Operational Excellence: Directs capacity management and network deployment modeling for all Verizon Satellite Broadband — both internal infrastructure and resale.
• Mentorship: Acts as a technical enabler for engineering teams across the organization, bridging satellite strategy and ground-level execution.

Systems & Data Engineering

• LEO/GEO Integration: Lead for Starlink Enterprise operationalization and multi-platform satellite ground systems (Dialog, iDirect Evolution).
• Satellite Observability: Design of high-fidelity Splunk telemetry environments and predictive data models for satellite network health and capacity forecasting.
• Interface Architecture: Design of the handoff between satellite platforms and terrestrial enterprise infrastructure — extending network capability across orbital boundaries using proprietary platform methods and Private Network/Edge integration.
• Emerging Technology: Directing the implementation of AI for autonomous satellite network optimization and predictive capacity management.