Aerospace firm Starsem names Stephane Israel as new boss

PARIS, June 21 (Xinhua) -- European-Russian aerospace firm Starsem announced Friday that Stephane Israel would succeed Jean-Yves Le Gallhead as the new chairman and CEO of the spacial company, said Arianespace in a statement.

The decision was made by the Starsem Board of Directors at a meeting held this week at the Paris Air Show, the statement said.

The nomination came in two months after Israel was appointed in April chairman and CEO of Arianespace, the world's leading satellite launch services company, which operates the Ariane 5, Soyuz and Vega launchers. Before that, he was chief of staff to the French Minister for Industrial Renewal.

Graduated from France's most prestigious Ecole Normale Superieure and the Ecole Nationale d'Administration (ENA), Israel moved to the aerospace industry in 2007, and has been holding various important positions in the aerospace industry.

After his appointment, Israel confirmed his determination to continue the fruitful partnership that has conducted 26 launches from the Baikonur Cosmodrome, all successful.

Created in 1996, Starem is an European-Russian joint venture to commercialise the Soyuz launcher. Its shareholders are comprised of Astrium, the Russian space agency Roscosmos, the Samara Space Center TsSKB-Progress and Arianespace.

Starsem is headquartered in Evry, near Paris.

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