VICE Media Chief Operating Officer Goes to Space

Hosi Simon signs on to the world’s only carbon-neutral luxury space travel experience company to oversee world-class executive team, including former VICE, Red Bull and Virgin leaders.

CAPE CANAVERAL, Fla.–(BUSINESS WIRE)–#funding–Today, Space Perspective announced the appointment of global business and brand leader Hosi Simon as its COO, effective immediately. Simon left his role as VICE Media’s COO earlier this year, after 15 successful years, and had been advising Space Perspective since June. He brings more than 25 years of experience growing powerful brands and a proven track record of helping future-forward businesses achieve global scale and cultural relevance.

“Our vision has always been for Space Perspective to be more than a space travel company. Human spaceflight can completely transform how people view our planet and our place within it. Storytelling and creative expression of all forms are essential to that experience,” said Space Perspective founder and Co-CEO Jane Poynter. “Assembling a leadership team of top talent was critical to our ambition of building this life-changing global experience platform, so we hand-picked leaders from some of the world’s most impactful brands like VICE, Red Bull and Virgin to help us achieve it.”

During his 15 years at VICE, Hosi was at the heart of all aspects of strategy, creative and operations and led the company’s global expansion from an influential magazine to a cultural force that redefined media. He played a pivotal role in VICE’s core businesses and brands, including VICE, VICE News, VICE Studios, VICE TV and the creative agency, VIRTUE. He was also responsible, alongside Intel, for The Creators Project: a ground-breaking global arts and culture platform with the mission to make art more accessible to an international audience. Prior to VICE, Hosi served as Head of International at both Rockstar Games, launching iconic titles like Grand Theft Auto, and Matador Records.

“We’re thrilled that Hosi has joined us full time. We benefit from his unparalleled experience in media and operations and his global strategic mindset,” said Co-CEO Taber MacCallum. “His leadership, combined with the rest our senior team’s deep experience in engineering, operations, content, marketing and partnerships, is a formidable force that will accelerate our vision and achieving international scale.”

Simon joins Space Perspective at a critical time as the business builds towards full commercial operations in 2024. He leads the ongoing operations, strategy and execution of the Experience and People Operations teams. Working closely with the Finance and Engineering divisions, he will help drive creative, commercial, financial, and operational effectiveness, create scalable and sustainable global growth, and foster a culture of excellence and collaboration across the company.

“Space Perspective can share something entirely new and special with the world and impact people’s lives in a real and tangible way. Having been at the heart of some of the world’s most culturally relevant brands, I know that kind of impact is rare. That’s what led me to join this exceptional team that is working, quite literally, at the next frontier of travel, culture, and brand – a place where we’ve all thrived throughout our careers,” said Simon. “Together we’re building a strong, sustainable, mission-driven business with infinite potential for global growth, technical innovation, partnerships, and never-before-seen content. I’m excited to help Space Perspective realize this potential.”

Working alongside team members who have been instrumental in the development of every US human spacecraft for the past 50 years, including every human space balloon flight, which is the mechanism for Space Perspective’s flight, Hosi now oversees a world-class executive team that includes former members of VICE, and, mission-critically, members of the Red Bull Stratos mission. 10 years ago, Red Bull Stratos broke world records (and the internet) when Felix Baumgartner jumped from a pressurized, balloon-propelled, capsule 39,000 meters (128,000 feet) above the Earth. Poynter and MacCallum would go on to break that record with StratEx and former Google executive Alan Eustace, who is a founding board member of Space Perspective.

The senior leadership team includes:

GREG JACOBS – HEAD OF BRAND PARTNERSHIPS – Greg has guided and/or led business development teams from NASCAR to Red Bull. As part of the founding executive launch team at Red Bull Media House and as SVP of Monetization and Business Development, Greg and his team led content distribution across all channels and oversaw all partner alliances with marquee brands like YouTube, National Geographic, Discovery Channel, Outside TV, Netflix, NBC Sports, and FOX Sports. The Red Bull Media House won a National Sports Emmy for their 2012 work on Red Bull Stratos – Mission to the Edge of Space. Jacobs’s role at Red Bull was built directly upon a proven track record of instrumental business development leadership for NASCAR Media Group. Additionally, as NASCAR’s unscripted television lead, Greg also won his first Emmy for Live Event Turnaround programming.

KIM PERSSE – HEAD OF MARKETING – Kim has spent 20 years leading marketing, content strategy, partnerships and special projects for companies including BOND Strategy & Influence (formerly Electric Artists), who were at the forefront of digital marketing for entertainment properties; AOL and SPIN Media (formerly BUZZMEDIA), where she oversaw music blogs and integrated programs; and VICE, where she was Global SVP of Marketing after serving as Chief of Staff to the CEO and COO, Executive Director, and Head of Partnerships. In this latter role, she was instrumental in developing omnichannel, 360 platforms with brands including Anheuser-Busch InBev, Apple, Bank of America, Cadillac, Intel, Live Nation and, perhaps most notably, AT&T, in a partnership that led The New York Times to dub VICE the “Millennial whisperers.”

DAVID BROOKS – HEAD OF CONTENT – David brings over 15 years of branded content experience to his role. He developed the record-breaking digital broadcast of the Red Bull Stratos event in partnership with YouTube, for which he won an Emmy Award for New Approaches in Event Coverage. At Red Bull Media House and Red Bull TV, he helped advance the company beyond just an energy drink into a leading branded-content studio; launching multiple channels and 100s of hours of short form, live and serialized programming and developing new approaches to content creation that included the use of 360-degree and HD POV cameras, 3D, and VR video applications.

EDYTA TEPER – HEAD OF SALES-TRADE PARTNERSHIPS – Edyta is a dynamic business builder with a focus on luxury and premium markets and a proven track record of creating loyal and profitable relationships with her strategic sales approach and marketing savvy. She is an Award-winning, results-driven international sales and travel executive who brings 25 years of industry leadership to her role. She started her career with Jetset Tours which brought her to Los Angeles from Melbourne, Australia, followed by Carnival Cruise Lines, Crystal Cruises, Virtuoso and was a founding member of the Virgin Voyages sales start-up team.

CHRIS BALL – HEAD OF COMMUNICATIONS – Chris is a communications and public affairs leader who for the last 20 years has been a trusted advisor to senior leaders and some of the world’s most impactful media brands and Fortune 500 companies, including VICE Media and the Canadian Broadcasting Corporation.

About Space Perspective

Space Perspective is the world’s only carbon-neutral luxury spaceflight experience company. Our mission is to make space travel more accessible to more people than ever before by offering them a global, luxury, space travel experience in an environmentally friendly and accessible way.

Based on Florida’s Space Coast, Space Perspective was co-founded by space entrepreneurs Jane Poynter and Taber MacCallum and is operated by an elite team that has been instrumental in the development of every US human spacecraft and SpaceBalloon™ flight for the past 40 years,

Space Perspective offers a distinctly gentle, six-hour journey to space made possible by the pressurized, re-usable, Spaceship Neptune, propelled by a SpaceBalloon™ as large as a football stadium. There is no rigorous training, no weightlessness, and no high G-forces – instead explorers experience hours of unprecedented views through 360-degree windows. Spaceship Neptune’s carbon neutral flights will begin at the end of 2024, with initial flights sold out and further tickets available for 2025. For more information, visit spaceperspective.com.

Contacts

For Media Inquiries:

chris.ball@spaceperspective.com | +1 (416) 737 9559

laura.cocivera@buttoncollective.com | +1 (917) 417 9783

sara.jensen@buttoncollective.com | +44 (0) 7812 339313

annie.croll@buttoncollective.com | +44 (0) 7984 413362