The following keynote speakers and lecturers are subject to change
Course Director and Speaker
Claudia Anita Maria Fiorentino started her career in the space sector joining Alenia Spazio spa (ALS now Thales Alenia Space Italia) where she has held different positions in the field of Satellite AIV/AIT working 12 years in several GEO and LEO TLC satellite projects (SICRAL, Globalstar, ARTEMIS, Italsat FM2), and LOE OE projects as Radarsat-2 and PRIMA, the TAS “Common Platform” for LEO Earth Observation programmes. She joined the Italian Space Agency (ASI) in 2006 where she has been involved in the Cosmo-SkyMed integrated ASI/It-MoD Programme Office as E2E System Verification Manager of the first generation and then Mission Manager of the Cosmo-SkyMed Second Generation Programme. At ESA since 2017 as Senior Satellite System Development Engineer in the Directorate of Connectivity and Secure Communications (CSC) she is also currently the CSC Directorate Security Officer.
Course Director and Speaker
After an experience as an Officer of the Italian Army (
1997-98), Manfredi Porfilio started his career as a PhD student and Researcher in astrodynamics at “La Sapienza” (1998-2006). In 2006 he joined the Italian Space Agency where he worked as a System Engineer and Project Manager in different space domains, and gaining experience in complex, dual-use, space systems.
He joined ESA in May 2022, as an End-to-End Information Security Engineer. His main role at ESA is Alternate Information Security Officer for the Connectivity and Secure Communications Directorate.
University Graduations:
• Laurea degree (master) in Aeronautical Engineering, Space specialisation, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 1996;
• PhD in Aerospace Engineering, University of Rome “La Sapienza”, 2001;
• “Second Level Master” (post-graduate University course) in Governance of Information Technology Systems: Development, Management, Monitoring, University of Rome “Roma Tre”, 2011.
Course Director and Speaker
Mark Diamantino Caribé began his career at Thales SIX, developing realistic cyber-attack scenarios, conducted penetration testing and
risk assessments on military systems, trained defense professionals and supported security architecture activities. His work in cryptographic protocol security led to the design of Belgium’s first post-quantum key establishment protocol. He later transitioned to space cybersecurity, joining the European Space Agency – Directorate of Technology, Engineering, and Quality, where he contributed to the cybersecurity of EGNOS V3, the next-generation European GNSS augmentation system.
Currently, he is engaged in cybersecurity engineering and management for IRIS² (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity, and Security by Satellite), working within the integrated program team between ESA’s Connectivity & Secure Communications (CSC) Directorate and the European Commission’s DG DEFIS (Secure Connectivity and Space Surveillance Unit). His role focuses on ensuring the resilience and security of Europe’s next-generation satellite infrastructure.
Speaker
Laurent Jaffart is the European Space Agency’s Director of Connectivity and Secure Communications and Head of ECSAT in Harwell,
United Kingdom, since 15 May 2024.
In this role, Mr Jaffart leads the ESA satellite telecommunication programme, including the implementation of the full portfolio of the ARTES 4.0 programme activities, Moonlight, Civil Security from Space, and the ESA contributions to the EU Secure Connectivity Programme, IRIS2, in collaboration with the European Commission.
From France, Mr Jaffart has over 20 years of experience in the European space sector, most notably in senior leadership roles at Airbus Defence and Space.
Speaker
Silviu Rogobete (BA, PhD Brunel, UK), Honorary Professor of Stellenbosch University (School of Public Leadership, 2016), South Africa,
Professor of Applied Moral Philosophy at the Department of Governance Studies, West University of Timisoara (Romania), former Diplomat serving as Consul General of Romania in South Africa. In the summers of 2001 and 2002, as a Visiting Academic, he benefited of postdoctoral instruction (Human Rights under Professor David Robertson) at St Hugh’s College, Oxford University, where he was admitted as Associate Member of the Senior Common Room. In 2023 he completed the European Advanced Strategic Course on Security and Defence, under the auspices of the European Security and Defence College, where he also established and regularly directs coures on Diplomacy for Peace, Security and Defence. Currently as Director of the Doctoral School of Philosophy, Sociology and Political Science, Professor Rogobete succefuly coordintaed 15 Doctoral thesis in the UK, South Africa and Romania. He teaches courses on Human Rights, Philosophical and Political Anthropology, Religion and Politics, Diplomacy and Foreign Affairs, Globalisation and Human Security. He has published with reputable publishers such as Routledge (2024) or Springer’s Religion and Human Rights Series.
Speaker
Senior Associate Fellow, Egmont-Royal Institute for International Relations
Speaker
Hermann Ludwig Moeller is the Director of the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna, the European Think Tank on Space, promoting European Space Policy globally. ESPI is developing approaches to European Space Policy and is providing recommendations to European decision makers and institutions. Prior to joining ESPI, he held leading positions at ESA in the creation of EU Copernicus and in the preparation of the EU Secure Connectivity initiative as Head of Telecommunications Strategy, Programme and Transformation Office and as Head of Copernicus Space Segment Office. In these functions, Mr. Moeller has been operating with high level leadership in a complex multistakeholder policy environment with national space agencies, member states and delegations in public-private partnerships with industry, at EU level and EUMETSAT. Prior to that he held the ESA Douglas Marsh Fellow at NASA and contributed to the creation of the European Internet backbone. He acquired early professional experience at the European Patent Office HQ and Siemens HQ. Mr. Moeller holds a master degree in telecommunications, following studies at Technical University Darmstadt and Ecole Nationale Supérieure de Télécommunications (ENST) - Télécom Paris. He is of German nationality with working experience in Germany, Italy, the USA, The Netherlands, France and Austria, is married and father of four children.
Speaker
Prof. Michel Bousquet retired from ISAE-SUPAERO, the French Aerospace Engineering Institute of Higher Education where he directed
master programmes and was leading a research team in communications and navigation. Born in 1951, holding degrees from University of Toulouse and Supaero, he is still active in non-profit organizations involved in research activities or support to students. With over forty years of teaching and research experience related to several aspects of satellite systems, participation to many European and ESA R&D projects, he is the author/co-author of many papers and textbooks and stood on the boards of European research programmes (COST, SatNEx Network of Excellence).
Visiting lecturer with several foreign universities, emeritus faculty of the International Space University (ISU), organizer of numerous workshops and short courses in the fields of satellite communications, spacecraft engineering and technologies, he is recipient of the 2019 AIAA Aerospace Communication award for his “For his outstanding contribution and promotion of education and proliferation of knowledge on aerospace communication and navigation”.
Speaker
Head of Cybersecurity, Leaf Space
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Head of ESA Security Office
Senior Manager expert of complex Space and Security multinational programmes, such as ISS (International Space Station), MEADS (Medium Extended Air Defence System) and GALILEO, with high knowledge in identifying and managing innovative engineering and technology solutions with regard to complex dual use or military space systems.
More than 20 years of experience in Space, in Security and the Electronic Technology field, most of which was spent leading teams in Industries, in International and Intergovernmental Agencies/ Organisations, such as NATO, the Italian Space Agency and the European Space Agency, along with Governmental Institutions as Space Security and Galileo Public Regulated Service Expert for the Italian Prime Minister, Military Advisor Cabinet Office.
In ESA since 2010, working in the Galileo Programme, and, since the beginning of 2019, filling the role of ESA Security Authority leading the ESA Security Office Team, with direct reporting line to the ESA Director General. This responsibility, performed in synergy with Member States' security specialists (the ESA Security Committee), includes the identification and analysis of the ESA Security Strategy, the definition of the ESA Security policy and establishment of the security framework, the Corporate and Space Programme Security implementation supervision and Accreditation Engineering Management, and, finally, as Cyber Security Authority, the establishment of specific ESA Cyber Procurements. The Goal, for the ESA Security Office, is to grant an appropriate level of security applied to the ESA
environment and ESA Space Infrastructure in order to safeguard the investments of the European Member States.
Speaker
Claes Hansen works as a Legal Officer in the Public International Law Division of ESA and is the ESA Export Control Manager.
He served on various ships in the Royal Swedish Navy for five years, and he remains a member of the naval reserve. He holds a LL.M in maritime law from the University of Stockholm and the University of Oslo. Subsequently, he joined the Claës Palme & Co lawfirm. Thereafter, he was working for the Swedish Space Corporation. He has been working for ESA since 2002.
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Head of Systems Security Engineering Section, European Space Agency
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Head of Radio Frequency Payloads and Technology Division, European Space Agency
Speaker
Clémence Poirier is a Senior Cyberdefense Researcher at the Center for Security Studies (CSS) at ETH Zurich, Switzerland. 
Prior to joining CSS, she was a Research Fellow seconded by CNES (the French Space Agency) at the European Space Policy Institute (ESPI) in Vienna, Austria where she conducted multidisciplinary research on space affairs. She also worked as a Researcher for Flinders University in Adelaide, Australia where she carried out policy and legal research on the cybersecurity of the Australian space infrastructure.
She is affiliated with the Open Lunar Foundation and the Jeff Bleich Centre for Democracy and Disruptive Technologies. She is also an Advisory Board Member of the CyberSat Summit and the SGAPP Lead on Responsible Space Behavior at the Space Generation Advisory Council (SGAC).
Her research interests focus on space cybersecurity, cyber conflict in outer space, electronic warfare on space systems, and space security issues.
Clémence holds a Master’s degree in International Relations, International Security and Defense as well as a Bachelor’s degree in Foreign Applied Languages from University Jean Moulin Lyon III, France.
Speaker
Prof. Bart Preneel, a full professor at KU Leuven, leads the renowned COSIC research group. His expertise lies in applied cryptography,
cybersecurity, and privacy. Prof. Preneel has delivered over 150 invited talks across 50 countries and received prestigious awards such as the RSA Award for Excellence in Mathematics (2014) and the ESORICS Outstanding Research Award (2017). He served as president of IACR (International Association for Cryptologic Research) and is also a fellow of the IACR. In 2024 he was elected member of the Royal Academy of Art and Sciences Belgium and he received the title of honorary professor at Shandong University. He frequently consults for industry and government about cybersecurity and privacy technologies and he has testified multiple times for the Belgian and European Parliaments. Prof. Preneel founded the mobile authentication startup nextAuth and holds roles in Approach Belgium, Tioga Capital Partners, and Nym Technologies. Actively engaged in cybersecurity policy, he contributes to ENISA as an Advisory Group member for the EU.
Speaker
Franck Perrin is Director of the Space development within THALES sovereign cybersecurity technologies domain. He is recognized as an expert in cybersecurity applied on satellite systems.
He joined the THALES Group more than 15 years ago with responsibility to lead and manage the development of the cybersecurity engineering and solution and resources of Thales Alenia Space activities during the last 8 years. Prior to that, he was also responsible for setting up and operating the THALES Group's first Security Operation Center, and was the Program Manager of different infrastructure and security management contracts for space entities.
Franck started his professional career, after obtaining an engineering degree, as a pre-sales consultant specialised in backup and high availability solutions in several companies such as IBM, which led him to the position of National Practice leader within SOGETI for infrastructure managed services.
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Technical and Scientific Officer, European Commission Joint Reserch Center
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Optical and Quantum Communication Technology Manager, European Space Agency
Speaker
Daniele Dequal is System Engineer for the EuroQCI program of the Connectivity and Secure Communication Directorate (CSC) at the
European Space Agency (ESA).
Since 2013 Daniele has been active in the research field of satellite quantum communication, formerly at Padua University and subsequently as a researcher at the Italian Space Agency. During this 10-years activity he participated in the first experimental demonstration of satellite-to-ground quantum communication, the first single photon transmission from MEO orbit and later from GNSS orbit, and to the development of the first Italian Quantum Key Distribution (QKD) receiver for satellite applications.
In 2023, he joined ESA as a System Engineer working for the IRIS2 program first (Infrastructure for Resilience, Interconnectivity and Security by Satellite) and later SAGA (Security And cryptoGrAphic mission) and EuroQCI (European Quantum Communication Infrastructure) as a QKD expert.
Daniele received his M.S. in Physics at the University of Padua in 2009 and his Ph.D. in Physics at the University of Padua in 2013.
Speaker
Paul Liias is the Head of Space at the Ministry of Economic Affairs and Communication for Estonia. In this role, Paul leads the Estonian Delegation to the European Space Agency (ESA) and oversees Estonia's participation in the EU Space Programme. He is the architect behind the Estonian Space Policy and Program 2020-2027. Currently, Paul is focused on developing national space legislation and a major space strategy update for mid 2025.
Since July 2023, Paul has been the elected Chair of the ESA Administrative and Finance Committee (AFC), where he deals with administrative, staff, financial, and legal related matters.
Paul's journey in the space sector began in 2008 with his involvement in the first Estonian satellite project, ESTCube-1, where he led the development of mechanical systems. Following the successful launch in 2013, Paul transitioned to entrepreneurship in the space sector until 2016, when he joined the ministry.
Speaker
Cybersecurity & Space Programme Security Accreditation Manager at the European Space Agency.
Passionate about space and security, Andrea has been working since 2020 within the ESA Security Office (ESO), and he is currently responsible for the security assurance process (including security certification and accreditation) of the Earth Observation and Launchers space missions, directly supporting several Agency’s flagship programmes (such as Vega and Copernicus) and interfacing both with the industrial and institutional stakeholders. Andrea is also supporting the Head of the ESA Security Office in the definition, communication and growth of the ESA Cyber Security Strategy.
Before joining ESA, he worked in the Italian space industry as a System Engineer.
Speaker
Jean Marc NASR is industrial mediator for ESA since January 2025. Prior to this position he has been leading several business units in
Airbus Group. His last assignment was Executive Vice President Space Systems where he was at the helm of the biggest space manufacturer in Europe being present in France, Germany, UK, and the US. He has been cooperating with the space ecosystem worldwide to produce the most demanding satellites such as Skynet in the UK, the OneWeb constellation and many exploration programs.
