Speakers

Sasha Baillie heads Luxinnovation, the Luxembourg national agency for economic development, innovation and promotion. As a former Luxembourg diplomat, she was previously seconded to the Ministry of Economy as deputy chief of staff and diplomatic adviser to the Minister. She managed the reform of Luxembourg’s economic promotion structures which led to the creation of the Luxembourg Trade and Investment Board. She chaired the country’s Trade and Investment Steering Committee. She currently chairs Luxembourg’s nation branding committee. As an aide to the Deputy Prime Minister with ministerial portfolios that include both economy and defense, Sasha was in charge of the project to create a joint venture between the Luxembourg Government and the global satellite operator SES to acquire, launch and operate a government and defense satellite. She serves as Chair of the Board of this company, LuxGovSat S.A. She joined the Foreign Ministry in 1997 and has served on foreign diplomatic postings in Moscow as deputy head of mission of the Luxembourg Embassy and in Brussels as deputy head of mission of the Luxembourg Representation to the EU Political and Security committee. Native English and Luxembourgish, also fluent in French and German and speaks Russian, Spanish and Italian.

Mario Grotz started his career at the Chamber of Commerce and the Chamber of Craft, where he acted as advisor to SME’s in areas concerning business creation and business management. In 2001, he joined the Ministry of the Economy where his focus was on the evaluation of R&D projects implemented by the private sector. From 2009-2012 he was appointed Head of the Directorate for Infrastructures and Technology. Since 2012, he is the Director General for Research, Intellectual Property and New Technologies, responsible for the development of the technology-based sectors in Luxembourg: cleantech, biotech, ICT and space. He also represents the State of Luxembourg in different boards of private companies. In 2012, he became Chairman of the Board of Directors of the company Creos Luxembourg. In 2018, Mario Grotz became President of Luxinnovation, the national innovation agency, which offers a wide portfolio of services to companies and public research organisations. Mario Grotz has been a key advocate of the country’s space industry and commercial space activities. In context of the SpaceResources.lu initiative, he has played a crucial role in the setup of the regulatory, legal and financing frameworks that have positioned Luxembourg at the forefront of space resources utilisation. Most recently, in September 2018, the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA) officially launched operations with the goal of promoting the further economic development of the Grand Duchy’s space industry by attracting businesses, developing human resources, providing innovative financial solutions and supporting educational and research infrastructure.

Ralph Thiele, retired Colonel, held in his 40-year military career in the German Armed Forces key national and international positions. He commanded troops up to the battalion level; developed concepts and capability requirements in the Ministry of Defence; drafted speeches and policy papers for Federal Presidents, Ministers of Defence, Major NATO Commanders and Service Chiefs; drove educational innovation at the German Armed Forces Command and Staff College and at the NATO Defense College; shaped the Bundeswehr's path towards network enabled. In his honorary and business functions he advices on Defence Innovation and Cyber issues in times of digital transformation. He has been frequently consulting, publishing and lecturing in Europe, America and Asia. Current positions: President of EuroDefense (Germany). Chairman, Political-Military Society (Berlin). Managing Director, StratByrd Consulting. Advisory Board, German Employers Association. Advisory Board, The European Centre of Excellence for Countering Hybrid Threats, Helsinki.

Mr Tomasz Husak, graduate of Warsaw School of Economics holds two PhD degrees - Political Science, Université Paris-Est, and Economics, Warsaw School of Economics where he is a lecturer. He started his career in the Polish Diplomatic Service in 2003 and from the outset was assigned to European affairs. In 2014 he was awarded with a Silver Cross of Merit in recognition for his service to the State. He worked as an Assistant to the Minister of Foreign Affairs in 2005 – 2006. In 2007 Mr Husak was posted to the Permanent Representation of Poland to the European Union where he served as Counselor (Antici) in 2008 - 2012. In 2011 he chaired the Antici Group during the first Polish Presidency in the Council of the EU. He pursed his career as Deputy Director of the Department of the Committee for European Affairs in 2012 - 2013 and became Deputy Permanent Representative of Poland to the European Union in January 2014. On 1 November 2014 Mr Husak joined the European Commission as the Head of Cabinet to Commissioner Elżbieta Bieńkowska (Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs). One of his main areas of interests in the cabinet is space policy and defence industry. He was in particular involved in giving political guidance when shaping the first European Space Strategy in 2016. He supported very actively all decisions that allowed a successful deployment, in time and on budget, of the two constellations Galileo and Copernicus. He is very much involved in the discussion about the disruptive innovation in space and how to build the right ecosystem for space start-ups in Europe. He is in politically charge of the creation of the European Defence Fund and therefore one of the leading persons in the Commission on the future of the European Defence Industry taking into account the interlinkages between space, security and defence.

Major Geoffroy Beaudot joined the Department of Defence of the Grand Duchy of Luxembourg in May 2016 in order to develop the Space programmes, including SatCom and Earth Observation systems. He currently represents the Department of Defence in different SPACE initiatives at the EDA, ESA, EU Commission and NATO SatCom capability team meetings. He started his career in 2003 as Head of a Network Supervision team and in 2007 he started managing the service in charge of the satellite communication hub for the Belgian MoD. After three years in this function, he became SatCom Program Manager for the Belgian Defence. In 2012, he decided to join the 4th Group Communications and Information Systems as Officer of Operations & Training. In 2015, he came back to the Military world as Head of the Cell C³ Platforms Integration. Major Beaudot attended the Royal Military Academy in Brussels, Belgium and graduated with a Master of Engineering, Telecommunications.

Joining Newtec as Global VP Sales in November 2017, Steve manages the whole sales cycle from first contact to business win, with expertise in end-to-end communications platforms across a wide spectrum of business models, including B2B, B2C and bespoke developments for Government and Defense. Prior to his role at Newtec, Steve served as Head of Sales, Secure Communications, at Airbus Defence and Space and previous to that as Senior Director Business Development in the Global Government team at Inmarsat. Before entering the commercial world, Steve had a 16-year military career during which he specialized in beyond line of sight communications, operations and information security. During this time, he held various posts including sea going operations, NATO appointments in the UK and Italy and embedded strategic and tactical support roles within UK’s central command, where he focused on satellite and mission critical communications.

Koen Willems (@WillemsKoen) currently holds the position of Head International Government Satcom at Newtec, a market leader in satellite communication technologies. As well as developing the Government & Defense market and assisting to large projects, he shares his expertise in ISR, Airborne, MWR, SIGINT/COMINT, border security, humanitarian and (civil) government satellite networks with Newtec engineering teams in order to develop application-fit technology. In his previous role as Product Marketing Director at Newtec he was responsible for the launches of many of Newtec’s newest products and technologies including professional IP modems, the all new MDM6000 modem series, FlexACM®, Cross-Layer-Optimization, Bandwidth Cancellation and S2 Extension technologies. Willems has more than 15 years’ experience working in the technology industry. His career began in 1998 at speech technology company Lernout & Hauspie, where he held a project management position. Following this he moved to electronics giant Toshiba where he was Product Marketing Manager for the Benelux and later the European market. Koen has a Master's degree in English & Scandinavian Languages (University Ghent, Belgium, 1997) and a Master's degree in Marketing Management (Vlekho Business School in Brussels, 1998). He holds a Six Sigma Black Belt for product development and process improvement.

Magali Vaissiere is the Director of Telecommunications and Integrated Applications at ESA since 2008, where she is responsible for the ARTES programme of ESA; an R&D programme in satellite telecommunications and applications. Since 2013 Magali is also Head of the European Centre for Space Applications and Telecommunications (ECSAT), ESA’s UK Centre, located in Harwell, Oxfordshire. Before joining ESA, Magali worked for industry, notably with EADS-Astrium Satellite for 15 years, and prior to that for nine years with Thomson-CSF Radars. After studying as an engineer at the Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Telecommunications de Paris (Telecom Paris Tech) Magali obtained a Master of Science from Stanford University. She also possesses an Executive MBA from the Centre de Perfectionnement aux Affaires à Paris.

At the beginning of the year 2016, Henri de Foucauld was appointed Head of Strategy and Defence of Telespazio France. After a 28-year career with the French Navy, during which he served at sea and in naval high command, he will now be offering his expert insights to help the company develop its business in security and defence markets. Henri de Foucauld served on many naval vessels, from patrol boats to aircraft carriers, before specializing in weapons procurement. He was posted to the French defence procurement agency DGA and then to Armed Forces High Command, where he worked on weapons programmes for Space - Operational Information Systems (ESIO) before taking charge in 2010 of naval telecommunications as head of the Information and Communication Systems office. His various postings, notably as head of operations in the Pacific, gave him first-hand experience of the operational advantages procured by satellite telecommunications and maritime surveillance services. Henri de Foucauld is a graduate of France’s Ecole Navale naval academy, ENSTA engineering school and IHEDN defence institute.

Marc Serres is CEO of the Luxembourg Space Agency. He heads the Luxembourg Delegation at the ESA and represents Luxembourg in its Council. He is also the vice-chairman of the ESA Council until June 2019. He has been Director of Space Affairs at the Ministry of the Economy of Luxembourg since January 2014. Before joining the Ministry, Marc Serres managed Luxembourg’s relations with ESA at the Ministry of Higher Education and Research as an industrial policy officer for 8 years. Prior to becoming a civil servant, he spent 5 years in the satellite communications antenna manufacturing industry within the company HITEC Luxembourg, first as a Project Engineer and finally as Chief Engineer for satcom products development. Marc Serres holds a PhD in optoelectronics and a Masters in electrical engineering with specialty in microwave frequencies, both from the Université catholique de Louvain in Belgium.

Luc Audoore grew up in Zaire before starting a military career up on his return to Belgium. After a 26 year long career, upon ending his tour as the Commanding Officer of the Tactical Helicopter Wing’s Support Group, he left the Belgian Defence with the rank of Lieutenant-Colonel. Previously, he was Program Officer of the Belgian Joint Support Helicopter Program, leading to the acquisition of the NH90 helicopters for the Belgian Defence. Having been with CAE for the last 12 years, he initially was the local Detachment Commander of the EUFOR ISR detachment, operating out of Camp Eagle Base in Tuzla, Bosnia and Herzegovina, then became responsible for all of CAE’s ISR contracts. He was Detachment Commander during 2 years of anti-piracy operations on the EU operation ATALANTA. Since January 2011 he is CAE AVIATION’s Deputy General Manager. He holds an Airline Transport Pilot License - ATPL(A) and is rated on 4 different types of ISR aircraft. He has 7.500+ flight hours, including some 2.200 operational ISR flight hours.

Holger Lueschow joined the European Defence Agency in summer 2016 as Programme Manager Satellite Communication and Project Officer Radio Spectrum. In this position he is responsible for the Agency’s SatCom related activities focusing on the development and evolution of the EDA GOVSATCOM Pooling and Sharing Demonstration project - for the latter, Holger has chaired the respective Ad-Hoc Working Group establishing the Project Arrangement and also keeps close links to the European Commission and to ESA. He is the Chairman of the Project Team Satellite Communication of the Agency. Engineer by education, Holger worked in several IT and Radio Spectrum related posts in the German Air Force and NATO. Before he joined the EDA he was six years in the German MoD, responsible for the SatComBw Stage 2 programme and as well for the Radio Spectrum Policy of the Bundeswehr.

Prof. Dr. Sergio Coronado is an international recognized expert on Information Technology and Communications with more than 30 years of experience. His interests lie in IT strategy, cloud, cyber security, AI and education. Sergio is the Chief of the Information Systems Division and Deputy CIO at the NATO Support and Procurement Agency (NSPA), where he is responsible for delivering all IT services required to run the Agency. He is also an Assistant-Professor (associé) at the University of Luxembourg where he teaches Advanced Project Management. Sergio received a PhD in Industrial Engineering and M.Sc in Software Engineering from the Polytechnic of Madrid, MA in Clinical Psychology and Education from the University of Leon and BSc in Electrical Engineering from the Simón Bolivar University.

Paul Wells is the Vice President and Chief Commercial Officer of GovSat. Taking on the role in September 2016 he is responsible for working closely with our customers to develop offerings that match their needs using GovSat-1. Before joining GovSat he worked for QinetiQ where he created , developed and grew several highly successful businesses in the Communications, Intelligence, Security and ISR domains for Defence, Security and Commercial customers. He also spent time working in Government on creating and delivering highly challenging technical programmes into operational use. He has over 34 years of experience in satcoms for Defence and Security applications.

VP, Institutional Relations and Communications at SES S.A. Positioning the Company at high level within the European Union and other European institutions, such as European Union, ITU, ESA, African Union, ACP Secretariat or OECD. She regards policies and regulations, provides political support, and engages in setting-up Research and Development and institutional projects. She follows the European Institutions’ political issues and debates of interest to her company, especially those concerning defense and security, space, crisis management, cooperation development in emerging markets, satellite broadband and 5G. She is also the key institutional person in the company as regards the GNSS projects such as Galileo and EGNOS. She has 30+ years of experience in the satellite telecommunications field in Europe.