Catherine Kavvada was born in Greece in 1969. A trained lawyer with a degree in Law from the University of Athens, she specialized in Air and Space Law with a Masters degree from the University of Aix Marseille III.

Ms Kavvada joined the European Commission, in Brussels, in 1997 and worked initially in the Research Framework Programmes. Subsequently, as from 2000 her main service at the Commission related to space, in particular the European flagship Satellite Navigation Programmes Galileo and EGNOS (Head of Unit from 2011 to 2019 at DG GROW).

Her mandate continued in the realm of development and applications in the space sector as Head of Unit in the newly created DG DEFIS in January 2020, until her appointment as Director at the same DG as from 1 December 2020. The career path of Ms Kavvada comprises various areas and stages of policy formulation, legislative and budgetary decision-making, delivery of large-scale space programmes including their security governance, international relations, communication, and human resources management.

Currently the mandate of Ms Kavvada at the Directorate ‘Innovation and Outreach ’ at DG DEFIS comprises new space initiatives with prevalent resilience and security features, space data management policy with reinforced European credentials, mainstreaming of the European New Space as a vector for society and economy, space research, synergies between space and defense industry, and international relations and communication for the whole of DG DEFIS.

After a thesis at CentraleSupelec and responsibilities in management control and in the programming of missions, Eric Brel took a role as sustainable development manager and worked in defining environmental policy. Within CNES, he is currently the Sectorial Expert for Space Application about Maritime, Overseas & Collectivities (including ConnectByCnes) and works as such in supporting the implementation of applications enhanced by space in the maritime and territorial sectors.

Eric Brel’s experience relies on two pillars. The first one being system diagnosis that allowed him to acquire a tool and a working method. In addition, he has worked for the past 20+ years in CNES, on Sustainable Development along 3 axes:

– Environmental impact of the Guiana Spaceport in terms of energy consumption on its surroundings and especially Kourou city.

– Taking into account a more sustainable development of space missions (ecodesign, etc.)

– Contribution of space data and application so that all sectors of the economy work in accordance with the sustainable development of life on Earth.

After a thesis at CentraleSupelec and responsibilities in management control and in the programming of missions, Eric Brel took a role as sustainable development manager and worked in defining environmental policy. Within CNES, he is currently the Sectorial Expert for Space Application about Maritime, Overseas & Collectivities (including ConnectByCnes) and works as such in supporting the implementation of applications enhanced by space in the maritime and territorial sectors.

Eric Brel’s experience relies on two pillars. The first one being system diagnosis that allowed him to acquire a tool and a working method. In addition, he has worked for the past 20+ years in CNES, on Sustainable Development along 3 axes:

– Environmental impact of the Guiana Spaceport in terms of energy consumption on its surroundings and especially Kourou city.

– Taking into account a more sustainable development of space missions (ecodesign, etc.)

– Contribution of space data and application so that all sectors of the economy work in accordance with the sustainable development of life on Earth.

Elodie Viau was born in Angers, France. She gained her MSc degree in telecommunications from Télécom SudParis in 2007, an MSc in Space Studies and Management from the International Space University in 2008 and an MBA from the Open University in the UK in 2018.

For the past 12 years, Elodie Viau has worked for SES, one of the world’s leading satellite owners and operators, based in Betzdorf, Luxembourg. She began her career with SES on a two-year Leadership Development Programme, working in a variety of roles on four missions within SES subsidiaries in Luxembourg, the Netherlands and USA.

In 2010, Elodie moved to SES Technology, Space Systems and Operations, in Toulouse, France, as a Satellite Programmes Senior Engineer. Here she served as Deputy Programme Manager for six satellites built by Airbus Space. Between 2014 and 2018, Elodie was the Programme Manager for the SES-10, SES-12 and SES-14 satellites built by Airbus Space.
In 2018, Elodie moved back to Luxembourg to become Senior Manager and then Director of SES New Space Segment Development and, until recently, she was Vice-President for SES Technology Programme Management.

Journalist by training, he comes from the industrial city of Belfort, in the eastern part of France. MEP since 2019, he is member of the Industry, Research and Energy Committee, and substitute for the Foreign Affairs and Security and Defence Committees.

Very involved in issues related to energy, industry and space, he is committed to improving European sovereignty in all domains. As Rapporteur for the European Parliament on the new Connectivity constellation, Christophe GRUDLER is defending a strong ambition for the European Union in the space field.

Stanislas Maximin is the founder of Venture Orbital System (VOS), a French start-up dedicated to the development and commercialization of micro-launchers. In 2019, VOS developed Zephyr, a launcher that aims to be more economical, more responsive, easier to produce and will allow nano-satellite operators to reduce their launch time.

Stanislas Maximin is also a strong promoter of NewSpace and of ambitious French and European space policy. He stands for a stronger synergy between traditional industries, space agencies and start-ups. In that purpose, in 2021, he founded the Alliance NewSpace France, an association of almost 30 French space SMEs and start-ups to reinforce their visibility with the actors of the sector, the national and international authorities and the public.

Bastien Gorret is mission engineer and robotic systems lead at ClearSpace, a ground-breaking initiative based in Switzerland to clear up Space debris. ClearSpace provides in-orbit services to support institutions and commercial operators in accomplishing their space missions safely and Sustainably.

He studied at Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) in mechanical engineering and did a master thesis at MIT on the design of on-orbit technology risk reduction experiments for CubeSat capture system.

Before working at ClearSpace, Bastien worked at Airbus as Technology Roadmapping Systems engineer and at the EPFL Space Center as systems engineer.