Born in 1963, Paolo Minciacchi joined Telespazio in 1990. Graduated in Electronic Engineering, in his firsts years in Telespazio he managed several important space missions such as ITALSAT, SAX, SICRAL. In 2002 entered in the Earth Observation business, holding several roles in the Programs & Application domain. In 2009 he steps on as Head of Operational Planning, Industrial Management and Value Added Production at e-GEOS, the ASI/Telespazio joint venture. In 2011 joined Spaceopal (the DLR GfR/Telespazio joint venture) as technical director. At the end 2016 he won the GSOp (Galileo Service Operator Contract) in the Spaceopal team and in 2018 he became CEO of the Spaceopal. In 2020, is appointed CEO of e-GEOS and Head Geo Information LoB of Telespazio

Luigi Pasquali is Chief Executive Officer of Telespazio since February 2013 and Space Activities Coordinator of Leonardosince 2016.

Born in Rome (Italy) in 1957, he graduated in Electronic Engineering at La Sapienza University of Rome in 1982. Subsequently he attends specialty courses in Finance and Business Economicsat the IRI Management school and the Business Management School of the Bocconi University of Milan. In 1983 he serves in the Italian National Army as Officer of the Army Technical Corps, in charge of Defence telecommunications system tests.

During his career he has held many positions. In 1984he is recruited by Seleniaas System Engineer for air traffic control systems and networks, following International projects in Europe, Australia and the USA. Among these, of particular importance was the renovation and expansion of the air traffic control network in Germany. In 1995he joins Stet/Telecom Italia in the international strategies and development area, where he follows international development projects, particularly in Latin America, and strategic planning projects in the telecommunications services sector. During this period he is also active in projects regarding strategic alliances with major international telecommunications carriers (AT&T, DT).

n 2000he is appointed Director of Business Development at Atlanet, a services company of Telefónica of Spain, specialising in value added services to business customers. In 2002 he becomes Directorof the Telecommunications Division of Alenia Spazio(now Thales Alenia Space Italia), with responsibilities for development, marketing and management of telecommunications satellite systems programmes for Defence and Security, for Commercial uses and for broadband development.

In 2005he takes on the position of Chief Operating Officer of Telespazio.

June 2008 he is appointed Chairman and CEO of Thales Alenia Space Italia and joins Thales Alenia Space as Deputy CEO.

Actually he is: member of the Supervisory Board of Thales Alenia Space;Chairman of the Board of Directors of Thales Alenia Space Italia; member of the Board of Directors of AVIO; member of theBoard of AIAD (Association of Industries for Aerospace, System and Defence in Italy); member of the Board of CEOs of ESOA (European Satellite Operator Association) and Vice President of EUROSPACE Council (Space Group in ASD-AeroSpaceand Defence Industries Association of Europe).

He is registered in the Roll of Engineers of the Province of Rome, Italy.

Born in Padua in May 1967. Married,withtwo daughters.

Graduated in Agricultural Sciences from the University of Florence. After graduating, he worked in Tuscany, renovating the historic family farm Il Cicalino with a technological and managerial approach, today an example of diversified management with a close connection to the market. In 1992,he started his trade union experience in the General Confederation of Italian Agriculture, first as councilor and president of the farmers of the province of Grosseto and then, since 2004, as president of the national organization. From 2002 to 2009,he was President of the Grosseto Chamber of Commerce. From 2001 to 2011,he held the position of full member of COPA-COGECA in Brussels. In January 2009, he was elected President of Agriventure S.p.A. of the Intesa Sanpaolo Group, a company specialized in supporting strategic investments and providing professional consulting services to companies operating in the agribusiness sector. He held the position until July 2014 when Agriventure S.p.A. was incorporated into Mediocredito Italiano, becoming Presidentof the Agribusiness Committee of Mediocredito Italiano of which he was also a board member. He wasPresidentof the Terrae S.p.A. Group joint-stock company operating in the sector of energy from renewable sources, owned by leading technical, financial and industrial groups. He is Chief Executive Officer of BF SpA and Bonifiche Ferraresi SpA, an agricultural company established in 1871, listed on the Milan Stock Exchange, with assets of 6,500 hectares located in central-northern Italy. Itisranked at the top of large Italian agricultural companies active in the production and marketing of agricultural products; Managing Directorof CAI -Consorzi Agrari d’Italia (Agricultural Consortia of Italy) S.p.A.Until 2016, he was Vice President of the Georgofili Academy, the oldest academy of Italian agriculture.

Alan Belward works at the European Commission’s Joint Research Centre in Italy where he is Deputy Director and head of the Food Security Unit in the Directorate for Sustainable Resources. He has served on numerous international science panels, has a BSc in Plant Biology from Newcastle University, a PhD from Cranfield University’s School of Agriculture Food and Environment and is a Fellow of the UK’s Royal Society of Biology.

Lorenzo has been working since 2005 as a staff member and consultant of FAO in his capacity of Expert in Earth Observation and Spatial Analysis supporting and leading the implementation of a large number of projects on land cover mapping, crop mapping in Africa, Middle East, and Asia. He is now Coordinator of the SDG sub-programme of FAO, and responsible for the ongoing crop mapping project in Senegal, Uganda and Afghanistan in collaboration with the UN Global Platform team. Lorenzo graduated in 2001 in Forestry Science from the University of Basilicata. He was awarded with a grant to conduct a research at the National Centre for Geospatial Information and Analysis (NCGIA) at the University of Santa Barbara, California and obtained his PhD in 2006 in Agricultural Engineering.

Benjamin Koetz works as Senior Application and Mission Scientist in the Earth Observation Directorate of the European Space Agency. His tasks focus on the development of Earth Observation (EO) applications in close collaboration with relevant user communities, scientists and EO service providers. In the last years he worked closely together with the agricultural sector to develop national scale agricultural monitoring systems for agricultural ministries, National Statistical Offices and Paying Agencies in the context of the European Common Agricultural Policy. The latest challenge is to scale up to a global crop monitoring system at field scale. He is further involved in the GEO-Global Agricultural Monitoring Initiative (GEOGLAM) launched by the G20 Agricultural ministers. As Mission Scientist of the Land Surface Temperature Monitoring (LSTM) mission he prepares one of the proposed Copernicus candidate missions aiming at improved agricultural management. Working with African-European research communities he is further responsible for the TIGER initiative dealing with EO for water resources management in Africa and for the recently launched EO AFRICA (EO African Framework for Research, Innovation, Communities and Applications) initiative. Benjamin Koetz received his M.S. degree in Environmental Sciences with a major in Remote Sensing from the University of Trier, Germany. He also holds a Ph.D. with a specialization in Earth Observation from the University of Zürich, Switzerland. His scientific expertise focuses on the development of physically-based methodologies to derive geo-biophysical EO products with a total of 20 years experience in the field of satellite Earth Observation.

Damien Lepoutreis an agronomist and obtained an executive MBA later in his career. He started in remote sensing in a NASA/USDA JV in Houston in 1980. He then developed decision support tools for farmersin the IT department of the French Ministry of Agriculture before founding it’s Remote Sensing and GIS research lab in CEMAGREF (now part of INRAE). He founded GEOSYS in Toulouse, France, in 1987 to better serve farmers and international agribusinesses, a company he developed with offices in the U.S., France, Switzerland, Brazil and Australia.

He sold Geosys to Land O’Lakes in 2013,a member-owned cooperative with industry-leading operations that span the spectrum from agricultural production to consumer foods. As VP AgTechnologies, he developedinnovation strategies tosupportAg/Bio/Digital technology transformationsin the competitive agriculture landscape to help farmers and member cooperatives leverage new cutting-edge technologies and face today’s numerous challenges to better feed human progress.

Damien Lepoutrecareer isdriven by his passion to support agriculture development with adapted technologies. Henowactively participates inthe tech start-ups’ecosystem through his consulting workwith numerous organizations as he envisions what changes will support the future of agriculture. He has proved successful in turning an ag tech start-up into a mature international company, has developed strong knowledge and expertise in remote sensing, digital ag technologies and theglobal agriculturemarket. Hehas international M&A experienceand serves as a good link between investors, R&D, information technology and agriculture development and management.