Jean-Yves Le Gall (born 30 April 1959) is an engineering graduate from the École supérieure d'optique (1981) and holds a doctorate in engineering from the

University of Paris-Sud Paris-Sud University (French: ''Université Paris-Sud''), also known as University of Paris — XI (or as Université d'Orsay before 1971), was a French research university distributed among several campuses in the southern suburbs of Paris, in ...

(1983). He began his career in 1981 as a researcher at the Astronomy Laboratory, French National Scientific Research Center, where he worked on the European scientific satellites project Hipparcos and ISO. In 1985 he joined the Department of Industry and was assigned to the Space Office where he was particularly in charge of relations with the space industry. The Minister for the Postal Service, Telecommunications and Space appointed Le Gall as advisor for space affairs in 1985. In this position, he participated in the definition of

CNES The (CNES; French: ''Centre national d'études spatiales'') is the French government space agency (administratively, a "public administration with industrial and commercial purpose"). Its headquarters are located in central Paris and it is und ...

and

ESA , owners = , headquarters = Paris, Île-de-France, France , coordinates = , spaceport = Guiana Space Centre , seal = File:ESA emblem seal.png , seal_size = 130px , image = Views in the Main Control Room (120 ...

programs. In 1993, he joined Novespace, a subsidiary of

, of which he was Managing Director. Le Gall was appointed as CNES Deputy Managing Director in 1996. In this function, he was the French Representative to the ESA. In 1998, he was appointed as Chairman and CEO of

Starsem Starsem is a French-Russian company that was created in 1996 to commercialise the Soyuz launcher internationally. Starsem is headquartered in Évry, France (near Paris) and has the following shareholders: * ArianeGroup (35%) * Arianespace (1 ...

. In 2001, he joined

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It undertakes the operation and marketing of the Ariane programme. The company offers a number of different launch vehicles: the heavy ...

as COO. Since 2002 till April 2013 he worked as an Arianespace CEO, was succeeded by Stéphane Israël. Since 2013 Jean-Yves Le Gall is a president of

Honors and recognitions

Le Gall was named by '' Aviation Week & Space Technology'' magazine as its 2014 Laureate for Space, based on his work at Arianespace. In 2006 he received title of "Satellite Executive of the Year" from Via Satellite magazine.

References

1959 births Living people Paris-Sud 11 University alumni French engineers Businesspeople from Marseille French people of Breton descent Officiers of the Légion d'honneur Commanders of the Ordre national du Mérite Recipients of the Order of the Rising Sun, 2nd class Scientists from Marseille {{France-engineer-stub