Wireless Phone Industry Veteran Chosen as President of DirecTV

Hughes Electronics Corp. named telecommunications veteran Odie Donald as president of DirecTV Inc., the nation’s leading satellite television service and third-largest pay TV company.

Donald, 50, most recently was chief executive for the Caribbean and Atlantic Islands division at Cable & Wireless, the U.K.’s No. 2 phone company, and previously was president of BellSouth Mobility, the cellular company of BellSouth Corp.

He succeeds Eddy Hartenstein, who was promoted in January to senior executive vice president of Hughes Consumer Sector, which oversees all of Hughes’s consumer satellite services.

Donald will report to Hartenstein, overseeing the daily operations of DirecTV, which serves more than 8 million subscribers nationwide. He also will serve as a vice president of Hughes Electronics and as a member of the company’s management committee.

At the same time, Hughes promoted Larry Chapman, executive vice president of new ventures, advanced products and programming at DirecTV as president of a new business unit, DirecTV Global Digital Media. He will be responsible for content and television-based interactive services worldwide and for building Hughes’ portfolio of investments in content providers.