Paris, Île-de-France, France
To those sending messages to my inbox: for official inquiries please send an email to [email protected]. Born in Austria, I studied at the University of Innsbruck, graduating with a Master’s and a Doctoral degree in natural sciences and became a research scientist at the university’s Institute of Meteorology and Geophysics from 1985 to 1989. I began my career in ESA in 1990 as a Young Graduate at ESRIN. From 1991 to 1993 I was seconded as ESA Representative to Southeast Asia to the Asian Institute of Technology in Bangkok, Thailand, where I initiated major cooperation programmes between the EC, ESA and Southeast Asia. From 1994 to 2001 I worked at the European Commission Joint Research Centre in Ispra, Italy, where I was the Scientific Assistant to the Director of the Space Applications Institute, being responsible for scientific strategy and resource allocation. I returned to ESA headquarters, in Paris, in 2001 as Programme Coordinator, where I was primarily responsible for advancing Copernicus within ESA. In 2006 I became Head of the Copernicus Space Office, located at ESRIN near Rome, Italy, where I led all activities for Copernicus within the agency and with external partners, in particular the European Commission. In 2014, I was promoted to Head of Programme Planning and Coordination at ESRIN, where I was responsible for planning ESA’s Earth Observation programmes and for formulating and implementing programmatic and strategic decisions across the Directorate. In 2016, I was appointed as Director of Earth Observation Programmes, ESA’s largest Directorate, and as Head of ESRIN, ESA’s centre for Earth observation. ESA develops the space infrastructure for the EU-led Copernicus programme, meteorological missions for Eumetsat and Earth Explorer, Scout and phi-sat missions for ESA Member States. in March 2021, I started my assignment as Director General of ESA.
Reporting directly to the Director General, in charge of all ESA Earth observation programmes. This includes Science, Copernicus (for the EU) and Meteorological (for EUMETSAT) missions. Annual budget 1,5 bn Euro annual budget responsibility, 800 staff and contractors