Speakers

Born in 1972, Philippe Baptiste holds a PhD from the University of Technology of Compiègne (UTC) and is a graduate in civil engineering from the Ecole des Mines engineering school in Nancy. He also holds an MSc from the University of Strathclyde, Glasgow, a DEA postgraduate diploma from Sorbonne University and is an accredited research director.

A scientist from the digital sphere, Philippe Baptiste is a specialist in algorithms, combinatorial optimization, operational research and artificial intelligence. During the course of his academic career he has been a researcher at the French national scientific research centre CNRS (1999) and IBM’s Watson Research Center (2000- 2001), and a lecturer at France’s prestigious Ecole Polytechnique engineering school (2002-2012). He is the author of several books and some 150 scientific publications and communications. He headed the Ecole Polytechnique’s information technology laboratory and created the Institute of Information Sciences and Interactions before being appointed Associate Director General in 2014 of CNRS, a key CNES partner. He also previously sat on the board of INRIA, the French national institute for research in computer science and control.

Alongside his academic career, Philippe Baptiste has also helped to found and develop several start-ups and pursued numerous collaborations with digital, aviation and defence manufacturers. He was Chief Scientific Officer and then Chief Technology Officer of Total (2016-2017) and a Partner and Director with Boston Consulting Group (2020).

From May 2017 to April 2019, he was chief of staff to Frédérique Vidal, the Minister for Higher Education, Research and Innovation, and in November 2019 advisor to the Prime Minister, Édouard Philippe. Throughout this period he was in close touch with space policy.

Born in Austria, Josef Aschbacher studied at the University of Innsbruck, graduating with a Master’s degree and a PhD in natural sciences. He has had an accomplished international career in space, combining more than 35 years’ work experience at ESA, the European Commission, the Austrian Space Agency, the Asian Institute of Technology and the University of Innsbruck.

As Chief Executive Officer of ESA, Dr Aschbacher is responsible for the definition, implementation and development of Europe’s space infrastructure and activities, which include launchers, satellites performing Earth observation, navigation, telecommunication and space science, together with robotic exploration and ESA astronauts working on the International Space Station. He is responsible for an annual budget of €7 billion and a workforce of 5500 distributed across several establishments, principally in Europe.

When taking up office as ESA Director General, Dr Aschbacher published a new strategy for space in Europe, called 'Agenda 2025', aimed at accelerating significantly the use of space in Europe through major new initiatives and programmes.

From 2016–21, he was ESA Director for Earth Observation Programmes and Head of ESA’s ESRIN establishment in Frascati, Italy. He has been a key leader of the European Copernicus programme, which has grown beyond all expectations and is now considered to be one of the most ambitious and successful Earth observation programmes in the world.

He worked in various functions within ESA from 2001 onwards both in Paris and Frascati. From 1994–2000, he worked at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre, in his latest position serving as Scientific Assistant to the Director of the Space Applications Institute. From 1991–93 he was stationed as ESA Representative in Southeast Asia, where he developed projects in the Asian region while, at the same time, working in a full-time academic teaching capacity as Associate Professor at AIT Bangkok.

In 2021, Dr Aschbacher became 'Grande Ufficiale Ordine al Merito della Repubblica Italiana', the highest recognition accorded to non-Italian nationals.

Jean-Marc Nasr is Head of Space Systems within Airbus Defence and Space and President of Airbus Defence and Space SAS, appointed 1st June 2019.

He had previously been Head of Asia Pacific Region for Airbus and Airbus Defence and Space, based in Singapore from January of the same year.

From 2014 to 2018, he acted as Executive Vice President in Airbus Defence and Space, and headed France, UK, Middle East and Africa regional activities. Before that, he was President of Cassidian SAS as well as Head of Cassidian France and Security Solutions, managing notably the Secure Communications and Cybersecurity business lines from September 2012.

Jean-Marc started his career in 1986 at Aérospatiale in Les Mureaux, near Paris, France, where he spent three years in Research & Development, while preparing his PhD thesis in physics. Then, he was responsible for the development of satellite image analysis activities and was promoted in 1990 to Director of the satellite imagery analysis service at the Cannes, France site of Aérospatiale.

In 1997, he was appointed as President and Chief Executive Officer of Fleximage, a subsidiary of Aérospatiale based in Paris specialising in image analysis software development for intelligence services. During the first four years, revenues increased fivefold.

In 2001, he became President and CEO of Spot Image, a newly created subsidiary of the French Space Agency CNES (Centre National des Etudes Spatiales) and EADS (now Airbus). Based in Toulouse, Spot Image commercialised images acquired by the SPOT satellite constellation.

In July 2005, he joined EADS Defence & Security (rebranded Cassidian in 2010 before being integrated as Airbus Defense and Space) as President of EADS Secure Networks, a subsidiary specialising in critical communication systems. He was then promoted to CEO of Integrated Systems, which developed systems and services for customers in the defense and security field around the world.

Born in 1961, Jean-Marc obtained an Engineering Degree from the Advanced School of Electricity (SUPELEC) in 1985 and a PhD in Physics from Paris University (Paris 7) in 1989. Married and father of three, Jean-Marc is a licensed private pilot. Jean-Marc has also been knighted ‘Chevalier de l’ordre national de la Légion d’honneur’ as well as ‘Officier de l’ordre national du Mérite’.

Florence VERZELEN is Dassault Systèmes’ Executive Vice President in charge of Industry, Marketing & Sustainability since 2018. Her role is to grow the portfolio of solutions and significantly increase the revenues of Dassault Systèmes in the 12 industries it serves, in order to achieve sustainable growth and rapid business development. To this end, she focus on creating “forward looking” industrial solutions that will help all industrial players to transform through digitalization. Florence has also created the sustainability function within Dassault Systèmes, with the vision that digital solutions can help transform the industries to help them become more sustainable. She is also leading Dassault Systèmes’ service organization, transforming its business model towards “outcome based” solutions.

Before this latest appointment, Florence was working at Engie, a world leader in the energy sector – holding different positions, as Business Development Vice President, Engie Qatar CEO, Performance Plan Vice President and finally Engie Europe COO.
Florence has an extensive experience in both public and private sector, having held different positions in the European Commission and the French Administration.

She is also an experienced board member, with board position at PSA and currently at Air France; CNES, the French Space Agency and Institut Montaigne, the leading think tank in France. Florence is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique / Corps des Mines.

Born in 1964 and graduated from Centrale Paris, Charles Beigbeder began his career in 1989 in the Matra Group (Airbus). After this first experience in the aerospace industry, he turned to investment banking in the 1990s, working for Banque Paribas, Crédit Suisse First Boston and then MC-BBL in Paris and London.

In 1997, he founded SELF-TRADE, a pioneer in online brokerage in France.

Taking advantage of the deregulation of the energy market, he created POWEO in 2002, an independent electricity and gas supplier.

For the past ten years, he has been investing in early stage through Gravitation, his industrial and financial holding company, which creates, initiates and supports new entrepreneurial ventures in the fields of energy, mobility, media and new technologies.

He also manages Audacia, an AMF management company he founded in 2006, which has become a leader in growth capital by providing quasi-equity for French SMEs, also active in innovation capital and real estate financing dedicated to coliving.

Driven by a strong interest in quantum physics and anticipating a strong demand for investments when the second generation of quantum technologies arrives on the market, he launched in 2018 at Audacia the Quantonation venture capital fund dedicated to Deep Tech startups developing quantum technologies. To date, the fund has invested in more than 20 startups and made a final closing of 91 million in June 2022.

Since April 2022, the Expansion, Aerospace and Defense fund has been created.

And we are working on the creation of a fund dedicated to the energy transition.

Charles Beigbeder has been involved in several movements related to business and community life. He is President of the CroissancePlus association, a group of high-growth companies, and a member of the Executive Council and President of the Entrepreneurship Commission of the MEDEF.

Charles Beigbeder is the author of five books: Positive Energy, published in 2008 (Editions du Toucan), Is the energy crisis an opportunity for the future? published in 2009 (Jean-Claude Lattès), Since it's impossible, let's do it, published in 2012 (Jean-Claude Lattès), Thank you, bosses! published by Librio (Flammarion) in 2015 and Charnellement de France published by Pierre-Guillaume de Roux in 2016.

Alex Plebuch gained a master’s degree in mechanical engineering and focused in his early work on lightweight design and numerical simulations. As a first step in his professional career, he joined the European Space Agency 2013 in Paris for a trainee position where he got in touch with top level project management of European space programs. He continued his path as technical leader for Ariane launcher fluidic systems and contributed to the full development cycle of Ariane 6 liquid lower stage from scratch to flight qualification. Further, he worked as system architect on the pre-development of human rated European spacecraft concepts and the European space logistics eco-system.

Alex decided to follow his entrepreneurial attitude, co-founded deltaVision GmbH in July 2022 and took the role of the CEO. The mission of deltaVision is to become the customer’s choice and European technology leader for advanced and cryogenic Fluid Control Systems in space transportation and hydrogen mobility applications.

18 years experience collaborating with leadership teams across start-ups and large organizations to build and execute business opportunities that lead to growth and returns. My focus is always on ROI and I am known for my analytic and persistent personality that allows me to quickly identify potential or move on.

Private equity leader, I analyzed deals and driven growth from all sides of the table (acquirer, seller, founder, investor) with a deep understanding for the nuances of each role. Led investment deals from initial valuation to finalization across multiple sectors.

Damien Garot is a seasoned space executive, with 25 years of experience in business development and investment. Among other deals, he signed the first partnership of the space sector with Facebook, to bring satellite broadband to Africa.

Damien believes tomorrow's growth will come from new markets, where the space sector will embed itself into the digital and terrestrial economy. That’s why he co-founded Stellar: to bring digital life to the mobility sector, by fusing all space and terrestrial networks.

Damien is a space engineer by training (ISAE- Supaéro) and owns an executive MBA from EM Lyon.

An aerodynamic engineer by training, graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique de Bruxelles, Olivier gone to the Von Karman Institute under NATO and then continued his studies in Toulouse at Supaéro, specializing in the space field.

After two and a half year at MIT (Massachusetts Institute of Technology) where he carried out basic research activities on active turbulence control, he returned to Europe where he took on at Verhaert, technical responsibility for the Agency's satellite. European Space, PROBA, phase 0.

Spotted by a Dassault Aviation executive, he joined the group and its Defense department in 1998. He started responsible for the after-sales service for planes in services in South America, then he tooks part in the Mirage2000 sales campaign in Chile, then he was responsible for the Rafale Netherlands campaign against the JSF and was in charge of the Poland offer finalization. In 2002, he was entrusted with the management of the Rafale Switzerland campaign, which he lead for almost 10 years. Olivier also participated in the development of the European combat drone project nEUROn and successfully negotiated the entry of Switzerland into the program.

In 2011, at the request of Safran, Olivier took the position of Senior Vice-President for Latin America, then Africa was attached to his zone. After the 2017 Paris Air Show, his scope of responsibility was expanded by entrusting it with the United States, Canada and the Pacific zone (Japan, Australia and New Zealand). At the start of 2020, Olivier was entrusted with an area bringing together the major world aircraft manufacturers: the Americas and Continental Europe, which groups together around Russia, European countries that are not members of the Union. Within GIFAS, as chairman of the working group for the Americas, he also led initiatives in favor of SMEs, mid-cap companies and their access to innovation and participated in discussions on the consolidation of the French supply chain internationally.

In fields as varied as satellites, surveillance drones, the most advanced biometric solutions, Rafale combat aircraft, airports, passports, cooperations with universities and start-ups, implementation and negotiation new industrial sites, breakthrough projects such as the Solar Impulse adventure by B. Piccard or the small Q @ ts launcher by ArianeGroup, in bilateral approaches such as the establishment of the Franco-Mexican Strategic Council, the co-organization France-Brazil seminars for L. Fabius, the "missions for growth" of the former European Commissioner A. Tajani, Olivier showed that he was able to understand the different aspects of complex issues combining politics and high technology with a strong conviction always turned towards Europe, guarantor of peace and development.

In January 2020, he creates with Giao Nguyen the company Prométhée of which he takes the presidency.

Christian Canart is president and chief executive officer (CEO) of SpaceDreamS. He oversees the strategic direction of the company and leverages the talents.

Prior to leading SpaceDreamS, Christian was responsible for the development of the command and control systems of Ariane 6 at the CNES. He was also in charge of the Ariane 6 launch base preliminaries studies at ESA.

Christian has extensive expertise in a wide array of strategic, business, cybersecurity and technical matters across space and telecom industries as a result of his executive, management and operational experience. He is inventor of two patents owned by CNES.

Christian holds a master’s degree in engineering from University of Louvain and qualifications in cybersecurity and soft skills.

Roger is a graduate of the University of Paris-Dauphine, has a dual background in computer science and electronics and over 30 years of experience both in big companies such as Cap Gemini and Saint-Gobain and as an entrepreneur with the creation of 3 companies targeting different sectors such as astronomy, robotics/IA and space.

He has a proven track record in managing complex project and in creating innovative companies. His passion for space, based on years of personal training, combined with his technical skills and passion for innovation, have enabled him to design technological solutions for the NewSpace sector.

"Ongoing programs to build orbital infrastructure, such as space stations, factories, logistics transportation, in-orbit refueling solutions, require a specific ecosystem to support these mega projects.

With the emergence of this Space 2.0, SpaceDrone is developing point-to-point space transportation and In-orbit Servicing solutions adapted to these new challenges."

David holds an engineering and corporate strategy degree from Ecole polytechnique and a Manufacturing Management degree from the University of Cambridge. 

After working in the French Air Force, in Swiss Space Systems and in a Corporate Venture Capital (ENGIE New Ventures), David started Exotrail in 2015 and led the company as co-founder and CEO until 2021. 

Since 2021 David is Chief Product Officer, in charge of Product, Strategy and Marketing. He oversees Product Management, Strategy, and Marketing at Exotrail.

Dr. Alexandre Mangeot is a French aerospace engineer. He got his engineering master degree from ParisTech Arts et Métiers university before being hired by CNES (French space agency) for a 3-years research grant to obtain his Ph.D. Hybrid space propulsion engines was the topic of the study with both experimental and numerical approaches.

He worked for Expliseat, a start-up to design the lightest aircraft economical seat of the market. He has several experiences acting commander of international scientific expeditions to simulate manned Mars mission in remote environments in Utah and Arctic. While founding HyPrSpace, he was a fellow researcher at ELISA aerospace teaching orbital mechanics.

Since 2019 Alexandre Mangeot is CEO and CTO at HyPrSpace leading the strategic and technological developments of the company.

Najwa Naimy is graduated from ISAE-Supméca and Centrale Paris.

She started at Arianegroup as Structural Dynamics Engineer for Ariane 5 and Ariane 6, then switched to the early development programs as Mechanical Architect on a “start-up like” micro-launcher project. she went back on Ariane 6 to support the sales of the first flights, before endorsing a role of Program Manager on a major constellation deployment program.

She joined The Exploration Company one year ago, as Lead Vehicle Design and Product Strategy.