Alphabet’s Project Loon loses CEO after six months

Bloomberg

Tom Moore, a satellite veteran brought in to lead Google’s Project Loon unit, has stepped down after about six months. Alastair Westgarth, who headed wireless antenna company Quintel, is taking the spot. The transition comes after the company scaled back an ambitious attempt to build a global communications service by circling the earth with high-altitude balloons. X, the research division of Google parent Alphabet Inc., recruited Moore in August after the unit’s earlier leader, Mike Cassidy, stepped down. Moore started in mid-September.
“Alastair’s vision for Project Loon aligns with X’s philosophy of approaching huge problems, at scale, to improve the lives of millions or billions of people,” a spokeswoman for X said. Moore will stay on at X in an advisory role for the next few months, she added.
At the time, Moore’s hiring was positioned as a key part of turning Loon into a proper business. Giving Google’s experimental projects more independence and paths to revenue was a key rationale behind the creation of Alphabet in 2015. “Tom’s valuable industry experience will help launch us into the commercial stage,” Astro Teller, the head of X, said when Moore joined.
Unlike Cassidy, who primarily worked as an internet entrepreneur before running Loon, Moore had specific industry expertise. He created a satellite-based broadband service provider called WildBlue Communications Inc., which was acquired by satellite company ViaSat Inc., where Moore served as senior vice president.Over the past year, a string of executives have departed Alphabet’s divisions outside the main Google internet business. Those who have left include Tony Fadell, who ran Nest, and Craig Barratt, who ran Access, the division that oversaw Google Fiber. Moore declined to comment through an X spokeswoman.