The Board of Directors of the European launch provider, Arianespace. has named space policy expert, Stéphane Israël, as Chairman and CEO of the company. While his predecessor Jean-Yves Le Gall was an scientist by training, Israel’s background is more in business administration.
Born in 1971, Israël studied at the Ecole Nationale d’Administration, the main “grande ecole” university for those wishing to pursue a career in French government administation. After spending time as a judge in the French Court of Auditors he became advisor to Louis Galloise,CEO of EADS in 2007 and later held various executive management positions within Astrium’s Space Transportation division and in Astrium Services. In May 2012, Stéphane Israël was appointed chief of staff to the French Minister for Industrial Renewal.
While its revenues enjoyed a healthy growth, Arianespace itself remains just profitable. Arianespace announced net profit of €1.7 million for 2012 (0.1 million up on the previous year). Overall revenues were €1,329 million, up from €1,012 million for 2011.
