Jean-Yves Le Gall has been named Chief Operating Officer of Arianespace. >
His primary mission will be to energize Arianespace’s sales and marketing policy, and bolster the competitiveness of Ariane 5.
The 42-year-old Le Gall’s appointment became effective on August 27, 2001, replacing Jacques Rossignol.
Le Gall comes to Arianespace from Starsem, where he has been the Chairman and CEO since 1998. Starsem is the French-Russian joint venture in charge of marketing and operating the Soyuz launcher.
A 1981 graduate of the Ecole Supèrieure d’Optique, Jean-Yves Le Gall also holds a doctorate in engineering from the University of Paris-Sud (1983). His entire career has been in the space industry.
He joined French CNRS national scientific research agency in 1981 as a researcher in the space astronomy laboratory, and subsequently held several major positions with French space ministries.
In 1993, he was named Chief Operating Officer of Novespace, then moved to the French CNES space agency in 1996 as Deputy Director General in charge of strategy and external relations. At the same time, Le Gall was French delegate to the ESA Council.
