Stéphane Israël (born 3 January 1971) is a senior French civil servant. He was a magistrate at the

Court of Audit A Court of Audit or Court of Accounts is a supreme audit institution, i.e. a government institution performing financial and/or legal audit (i.e. statutory audit or external audit) on the executive branch of power. See also *Most of those ...

, chief of staff at the French Minister of Economics,

Arnaud Montebourg Arnaud Montebourg (; born 30 October 1962) is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who served as Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 to 2014,Astrium Astrium was a European aerospace company and subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), headquartered in Paris. It designed, developed and manufactured civil and military space systems and provided related services ...

, a subsidiary of

European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been the ...

. He was appointed CEO of

Arianespace Arianespace SA is a French company founded in March 1980 as the world's first commercial launch service provider. It operates two launch vehicles: Vega C, a Small-lift launch vehicle, small-lift rocket, and Ariane 6, a Medium-lift launch vehicl ...

in 2013. He departed from his position as CEO at the end of 2024.

Early life and education

Stéphane Israël is the son of a law professor and a psychoanalyst. He attended the Lycée Jean-Baptiste-Say and the

Lycée Henri-IV The Lycée Henri-IV () is a public secondary school located in Paris. Along with the Lycée Louis-le-Grand, it is widely regarded as one of the most prestigious and demanding sixth-form colleges ('' lycées'') in France. The school educates more ...

(both in Paris). There he published a school newspaper entitled ''Le Même et l'Autre''. As an admirer of

François Mitterrand François Maurice Adrien Marie Mitterrand (26 October 19168 January 1996) was a French politician and statesman who served as President of France from 1981 to 1995, the longest holder of that position in the history of France. As a former First ...

, he was active in his youth in the SOS Racisme association. From 1994 to 1995 he was a teaching assistant at

Harvard University Harvard University is a Private university, private Ivy League research university in Cambridge, Massachusetts, United States. Founded in 1636 and named for its first benefactor, the History of the Puritans in North America, Puritan clergyma ...

in the

United States The United States of America (USA), also known as the United States (U.S.) or America, is a country primarily located in North America. It is a federal republic of 50 U.S. state, states and a federal capital district, Washington, D.C. The 48 ...

. He entered the

École normale supérieure École or Ecole may refer to: * an elementary school in the French educational stages normally followed by Secondary education in France, secondary education establishments (collège and lycée) * École (river), a tributary of the Seine flowing i ...

in 1991 where he studied

history History is the systematic study of the past, focusing primarily on the Human history, human past. As an academic discipline, it analyses and interprets evidence to construct narratives about what happened and explain why it happened. Some t ...

. He graduated with a

DEA The Drug Enforcement Administration (DEA) is a United States federal law enforcement agency under the U.S. Department of Justice tasked with combating illicit drug trafficking and distribution within the U.S. It is the lead agency for domes ...

, which corresponds to a master's degree. He also graduated from the

École nationale d'administration The (; ENA; ) was a French ''grande école'', created in 1945 by the then Provisional Government of the French Republic, provisional chief of government Charles de Gaulle and principal co-author of the Constitution of France, 1958 Constitution M ...

Career

In 2001 Israël was appointed to the French Court of Auditors, where he was assigned to the 2nd Chamber, responsible for national defense, space travel and industry. There he mainly dealt with French space policy. From 2005 to 2007 he was an associate professor at the École normal supérieure. Israël is author of several historical works. In 1994 he wrote a text about the historian

Jérôme Carcopino Jérôme Carcopino (27 June 1881 – 17 March 1970) was a French historian, author, and Nazi collaborator. He was the fifteenth member elected to occupy seat 3 of the Académie française, in 1955. Biography Carcopino was born at Verneuil-sur-A ...

in ''Les Facs sous Vichy''. Among his texts is a book from 2005 about the students of the École normal supérieure during the Second World War. In 2007 he began his career in the aerospace industry as a consultant to

Louis Gallois Louis René Fernand Gallois (, born 26 January 1944) is a French businessman. He was the CEO of EADS, the European aeronautic defense and space company, from 2007 to 2012. Education Gallois was born and raised in Montauban, where he received hi ...

, then CEO of

EADS Airbus SE ( ; ; ; ) is a Pan-European aerospace corporation. The company's primary business is the design and manufacturing of commercial aircraft but it also has separate defence and space and helicopter divisions. Airbus has long been th ...

. He spent four years as EADS subsidiary Astrium, where he participated in the intercontinental ballistic missile nprogramms M51. From 2010 to 2012 he was head of the European Earth observation program

Copernicus Programme Copernicus is the Earth observation component of the European Union Space Programme, managed by the European Commission and implemented in partnership with the Member state of the European Union, EU member states, the European Space Agency (ES ...

Astrium Services Astrium was a European aerospace company and subsidiary of the European Aeronautic Defence and Space Company (EADS), headquartered in Paris. It designed, developed and manufactured civil and military space systems and provided related services ...

. From May 2012, Stéphane Israël headed the cabinet of the French Minister for Economic Affairs,

Arnaud Montebourg Arnaud Montebourg (; born 30 October 1962) is a French politician, lawyer and entrepreneur who served as Minister of Industrial Renewal from 2012 to 2014,ArcelorMittal ArcelorMittal S.A. is a Luxembourg-based multinational steel manufacturing corporation, headquartered in Luxembourg City. It is ranked second on the list of steel producers behind Baowu, and had an annual crude steel production of 58 millio ...

led to a dispute between Israël and Montebourg. As a result, the minister is said to have separated from his colleague. This was publicly denied. Following the appointment of Jean-Yves Le Gall, the previous CEO of

, as President of the French space agency

CNES CNES () is the French national space agency. Headquartered in central Paris, the agency is overseen by the ministries of the Armed Forces, Economy and Finance and Higher Education, Research and Innovation. It operates from the Toulouse Spac ...

, Stéphane Israël was announced as his successor. On April 18, 2013, the Arianespace Board of Directors unanimously named him CEO. At the same time, he was named 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 (15% ...

, a Euro-Russian company that launched the

Soyuz Soyuz is a transliteration of the Cyrillic text Союз (Russian language, Russian and Ukrainian language, Ukrainian, 'Union'). It can refer to any union, such as a trade union (''profsoyuz'') or the Soviet Union, Union of Soviet Socialist Republi ...

launcher from the

Baikonur Cosmodrome The Baikonur Cosmodrome is a spaceport operated by Russia within Kazakhstan. Located in the Kazakh city of Baikonur, it is the largest operational space launch facility in terms of area. All Russian Human spaceflight, crewed spaceflights are l ...

. Boris Vallaud replaced him as Chief of Staff of Arnaud Montebourg. After the restructuring of Arianespace in April 2017, he also became Executive Vice President of

ArianeGroup ArianeGroup (formerly Airbus Safran Launchers) is an aerospace company based in France. A joint venture between Airbus and Safran, the company was founded in 2015 and is headquartered in Issy-les-Moulineaux near Paris. It consists of three core ...

, where he is responsible for all civil launchers. He departed from his position as CEO and Executive Vice President at the end of 2024.

References

{{DEFAULTSORT:Israel, Stephane 1971 births Living people French chief executives Airbus people Arianespace Lycée Henri-IV alumni École Normale Supérieure alumni École nationale d'administration alumni Judges of the Court of Audit (France) Knights of the Legion of Honour Knights of the Ordre national du Mérite