Pitch Competition

Silvia Ciccarelli works at the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in the International Affairs Directorate and is in charge of fostering and implementing ASI initiatives for the internationalisation and promotion of national space industry. She is also in charge of the relations with industrial stakeholders. She is National Delegate to the ESA Human Spaceflight, Microgravity and Exploration Programme Board. She is ASI representative at the OECD Space Forum, ESA Space Economy Steering Committee, ISECG and other international fora. In the previous years she worked in the frame of industrial policy initiatives with a specific focus to support competitiveness of Space small and medium companies and managed national activities in the European Commission Horizon 2020 Configuration Space. Prior to joining the Italian Space Agency in 2013 she worked in Italian and European space industry associations (AIPAS and SME4SPACE). She holds a Ph.D. and a Master’s degree in Economics from the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and was a post-doc in US.

Eugenia Forte graduated from the Polytechnic of Turin in Mechatronics Engineering with a thesis at the University of San Diego and with a Master in Business Administration at the Collège des Ingénieurs, she worked for several years in CNH Industrial where she dealt with Industry 4.0, Agile development and Open Innovation strategies by managing the relationships between startups and the corporate in the Digital area. Given her passion for the startup ecosystem, she took on the role of mentor and advisor to various entrepreneurial realities, becoming a Business Developer at a startup accelerator with a social impact before joining Plug and Play with the role of Program Manager of Takeoff Accelerator.

He is the Program Manager of ESA BIC Turin, an incubation program for space startups run by I3P, the Innovative Companies Incubator of the Polytechnic of Turin. He graduated in Industrial Engineering and Management and he works at I3P providing business support to technology startups and entrepreneurs. He supported the growth and commercial launch of a startup in the structural monitoring industry, for which he was COO and board member. He has done business coaching for SMEs and training activities on entrepreneurship and business strategy.

Eleonora Lombardi is Head of the Business Applications Department at Fondazione E. Amaldi where she serves as senior Industrial Policy and Technology Transfer Manager and Deputy Ambassador of the ESA Business Applications and ESA InCubed+ programmes. Previously she worked as Technology Transfer Officer at Hypatia Research Consortium and joined the European Space Agency in Paris as Research Assistant at the DG Cabinet, and she also gained specific knowledge of the end-user’s community of satellite applications and of the key role played by space solutions at Eurisy. She graduated in International Relations at the University of Rome “La Sapienza” and she obtained a second master’s degree in Economic Intelligence from the University of Rome “Tor Vergata”. Since 2019, She joined the Space Generation Advisory Council as Regional Coordinator for Europe.

Tanya Scalia – Head of the Technology Transfer Office within the Technology Unit at the Italian Space Agency –  Aerospace Engineering MSc and PhD in Aeronautic & Space Technologies. She joined Avio in 2002 (formerly FiatAvio), worldwide leader in the aerospace industry, as rocket propulsion project engineer in the Space Propulsion Design Unit, where She mainly worked on Ariane 5 and Vega solid rocket motors performances and mass budgets. In 2005, She joined D’Appolonia SpA (Rina Consulting from 2016), an engineering consultancy company, as Project Manager, and worked in Aerospace&Defence industrial projects. In particular, she was deeply involved in the European Space Agency Technology Transfer Programme, as technology broker. She also worked on the coordination and management of research projects funded by European Framework Programmes and also had the opportunity of evaluating H2020 proposals for REA (Research Executive Agency) as an independent expert. She joined ASI in 2019.

Emmanuel PAJOT is EARSC Secretary General. With more than 17 years of experience combining sciences, technologies and economy to deliver space-based Earth Observation services, Emmanuel has experienced the challenges to develop and sale EO services. With a PhD in SAR imagery and a Master’s in Business, he was appointed as the EARSC Secretary-General in July 2020. After 13 years in the Energy market as Geologist, Geomatic manager and then business developer he joined EARSC in 2017 as a Project manager. With his team, Emmanuel supports European companies in developing awareness of EO capabilities and the dialogue with stakeholders and communities of users.

Giuliano Di Cerbo is Head of the Procurement Group of the Missions and Satellites BU AT OHB Italia where He is transversally involved in all the BU programs. In the 25 years spent in the industry He has always worked in Procurement purchasing various items from parts for production up to complex subsystems. Before arriving in OHB-Italia He worked from 1997 to 2018 in Thales Alenia Space. The most important programs to which he contributed were COSMO-SkyMed 1st and 2nd Generation SICRAL 1 and 2, SENTINEL-1, EXOMARS and BEPI COLOMBO. He graduated from ITIS Enrico Fermi in Electronics and Telecommunications in 1988 and started his career in space in 1997.