Rene Anselmo

Who was Rene Anselmo?

Reynold "Rene" Anselmo was a Boston native and World War II Marine Corps veteran. Anselmo moved to Mexico after the war, but later returned to the United States to help run the Spanish language television network Televisa, and later to co-found PanAmSat. PanAmSat gained a foothold in the television market by providing satellite services for private commercial communication networks, such as those used by international conglomerates to connect far flung manufacturing operations around the globe or provide data connections between a large number of retail outlets and corporate headquarters.

He was a man with "unflinching self-confidence and willingness to risk all in his fight to upend the status quo," Space News stated in a tribute to Anselmo. He challenged the monopoly in satellite provision held by Intelsat in the 1980s, taking out full-page ads in the Wall Street Journal asking political leaders, including former U.S. President Ronald Reagan, to open up the satellite telecommunications market. He was responsible for the daffodils in Greenwich, Connecticut and left Panamsat to his wife, Mary Anselmo.