Current Honorary Board Members
SGAC’s Honorary Board is a lifetime recognition from the organisation, comprised of distinguished individuals who have been of great service to our organisation or who we have wished to recognise for their furtherance of goals similar to those of SGAC. The Honorary Board provides advice as appropriate to the experience of Honorary Board members.
Members:
Barbara Adde | NASA SCaN Policy and Strategic Communication |
Adigun Ade Abiodun | Founder of African Space Foundation |
Fatma Al Sumatti | Former SGAC Advisory Board member |
Abimbola H. Alale | Managing Director and Chief Executive Officer of the Nigerian Communication Satellite Limited (NIGCOMSAT) |
Victoria Alonsoperez | Founder of Chipsafer |
Ciro Arevalo | Former Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) |
Ben Baseley-Walker | Legal & Policy Advisor for Secure World Foundation & former SGAC Chair |
Yolanda Berenguer | Space Education Programme Coordinator for the United Nations Educational, Scientific and Cultural Organization (UNESCO) |
Michael Brett | Former SGAC Chair 2012; CEO, QxBranch |
James D. Burke | US Naval Aviator and NASA Jet Propulsion Laboratory |
Caroline Burke | Teacher and Arts in Space Advocate |
Lance Bush | Chief Strategy Officer, Paragon Space Development Corporation |
Sergio Camacho | Secretary General of the Regional Centre for Space Science |
A.C. Charania | Manager of Advanced Programs, Strategy and Business Development group at Blue Origin |
Chris De Cooker | Head of International Relations for the European Space Agency |
Ariane Cornell | North American sales for New Glenn, Business Development and Strategy team for Blue Origin |
Catherine Doldirina | Former SGAC Co-Chair (2012-2013) |
JR Edwards | Manager of Space Exploration Systems, Lockheed Martin |
Matteo Emanuelli | Former SGAC Chair |
Reinhold Ewald | German physicist and ESA astronaut |
Norbert Frischauf | Future Studies Systems Engineer, Spacetec |
Gernot Grömer | Director, Austrian Space Forum |
Loretta Hidalgo-Whitesides | Flight Director for ZERO-G |
Yasushi Horikawa | Technical Counselor, Japanese Aerospace Exploration Agency (JAXA) |
Jonathan Hung | President and Founder of the Singapore Space and Technology Association (SSTA) |
Agnieszka Lukaszczyk | Director for EU Policy at Planet |
Tanja Masson-Zwaan | Former president, International Institute of Space Law |
Clay Mowly | Chief Revenue Officer, Voyager Space |
Susan Murabana | Managing Director at The Travelling Telescope Africa Ltd. |
Ali Nasseri | Former SGAC Chair |
Johannes Ortner | Former President of the Austrian Space Agency and of the International Astronautical Federation (IAF) |
Mazlan Othman | Project Director of Megascience 3.0 at the Academy of Sciences Malaysia |
Egemen Ozalp | Project Director of Megascience 3.0 at the Academy of Sciences Malaysia |
Enrique Pacheco-Cabrera | Former Deputy Director for Space Science and Technology Affairs, Mexican Space Agency |
Nicolas Peter | Exploration Strategy Officer in the Director General’s Cabinet, European Space Agency (ESA) |
Arnau Pons | Former SGAC Chair, Operations Research Analyst at NATO HQ SACT |
Dumitru Prunariu | Former Chairman of the United Nations Committee on the Peaceful Uses of Outer Space (UN COPUOS) |
Kai-Uwe Schrogl | Director of the European Space Policy Institute |
Kevin Stube | Deputy Project Manager, Rodent Research Program at NASA AMES |
Christopher Vasko | Former SGAC Co-Chair (2014-2015), Contractor at ESA Strategy Department |
Stephanie Wan | International Government Relations Manager at I.M. Systems Group Inc. (IMSG) |
Danielle Wood | Assistant Professor in the MIT Media Lab in Cambridge, Massachusetts, USA |
Jim Zimmerman | President of International Space Services, Inc. and Former IAF President |
Biographies published here reflect the board member’s status at the time of appointment to the Honorary Board.

Dr. Arnau Pons is the former Chair of the Space Generation Advisory Council. He works as Operations Research Analyst at the North Atlantic Treaty Organization (NATO HQ SACT) in Norfolk, Virginia, USA. He obtained his PhD in Aeronautics and Astronautics from Purdue University in West Lafayette, IN working at the Maurice J. Zucrow Laboratories. He was awarded the “la Caixa” fellowship to research on rocket propulsion and combustion instabilities in aerospace propulsion systems. Arnau holds a Master’s Degree of Aerospace Propulsion Theory and Engineering by Beihang University in Beijing, China and an Aeronautical Engineering degree (B.S. and M.S.) specialized in Space Engineering from the Polytechnic University of Catalonia (BarcelonaTech-UPC) in Terrassa, Spain. He attended the International Space University Space Studies Program 2015 hosted by the Ohio University in Athens, Ohio, in partnership with NASA Glenn Research Center. He has been SGAC Chair, Co-Chair, Interim Chair, Treasurer, Financial Comptroller, SGC 2017 Congress Manager and SGC 2016 Deputy Congress Manager. He has also been a member of the IAF Space Propulsion Committee since March 2016 and IAF Workforce Development Young Professionals Program Committee since 2019. Arnau is a glider pilot, loves playing soccer and doing trekking with his wife, Orzuri.