Hughes Exec to Retire; DirecTV Gains Customers

Hughes Electronics Corp. said Tuesday that Vice Chairman Steven Dorfman will retire June 1 after 42 years with the world’s largest commercial satellite maker.

Separately, Hughes unit DirecTV Inc., the largest U.S. satellite TV company, said Tuesday that it had added 304,000 new subscribers in the first quarter, 34% more than it added a year earlier, and that it is now in 4.77 million homes. DirecTV ran two promotions offering free programming and free installation of its television system during the quarter.

Dorfman, 63, oversees Hughes’ satellite manufacturing and components units and HRL Laboratories, a research company jointly owned by Hughes and Raytheon Co. He is also a board member of Raytheon and PanAmSat Corp.

No decision has been made on a successor, El Segundo-based Hughes said.

Before being named Hughes’ vice chairman and a board member in 1997, he was executive vice president, and chairman of Hughes Telecommunications & Space Co.

In 1972, Dorfman was named manager of the Pioneer Venus program that landed four research probes on Venus and launched a satellite to orbit Earth. He received NASA’s highest award for his work on the Pioneer project.

Shares in Hughes Electronics, the publicly traded electronics unit of General Motors Corp., rose 6 cents to close at $53.19 on the New York Stock Exchange.