Gaele Winters joined VKI as Director from 16 January 2017 to end of December 2017.

Gaele Winters was previously Director of Launchers (D/LAU) completing his career at ESA with the decision by the ESA Council for the final go-ahead for development of the next-generation Ariane 6 heavy-lift launch vehicle.

Gaele Winters began his ESA career as Director of Technical and Operational Support in 2001. He was successively Director of Operations and Infrastructure, and Head of the European Space Operations Centre (ESOC) in Darmstadt from 2004, ESA Director of Resources Management and Industrial Matters from October 2010, Director of Corporate Reforms since April 2011, Director of ESA Improvement Projects (D/EIP) since November 2013 and Head of ESA HQ, Paris and Director of Launchers from March 2014.

After his Msc in Economics at the Free University of Amsterdam, Gaele Winters joined the Secretariat of the Social-Economic Council of the Netherlands and became in 1981 Senior Policy Advisor in the Energy Department of the Ministry of Economic Affairs and in 1986 Head of the Division for Gas Revenues. Later he was enrolled as Deputy Director for Manufacturing and Heavy Industry, followed by Director of the Policy Division in 1990. In 1993, still within the Ministry of Economic Affairs, he was appointed Deputy Director-General for Industry as well as Director for General Policy Coordination for the Industry Directorate-General. Because of this experience, in 1997 he was appointed President and CEO of Fokker Space BV, a position he held until joining ESA.

Gaele Winters was appointed Chairman of the ESA Council in 1993. He has also been Chairman of the Netherlands Industrial Space Organisation and on the boards of the Netherlands Agency for Aerospace Programmes and the Netherlands Aerospace Laboratory.

The Board of Directors has the pleasure to announce that Peter Grognard has been appointed as Managing Director of the von Karman Institute.

Since November 2014, Peter Grognard was managing director at Thales Alenia Space (TAS) and senior strategic advisor since July 2017.

For 14 years Peter Grognard was CEO of Septentrio, which he founded in 2000 as a spin-off company following an 18-month stay at IMEC.

Under his leadership, Septentrio played a strategic role in Europe’s Galileo programme. Between 1994 and 1998 Peter Grognard was Science Advisor at the Embassy of Belgium in Washington. Between 1992 and 1994 he was Delegate to the European Space Agency.

Peter Grognard was an assistant at VUB from 1988 until 1991, during which time he was also a member of the Board. He currently sits on the Boards of various industry associations, is co-founder and vice-president of Europe’s leading Galileo industry association, vice-chairman of the Federal Council for Science Policy, and director of Agoria Vlaanderen.

Mr. Grognard holds an engineering degree in Applied Physics from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel, a Master of Science in Aeronautics from the California Institute of Technology, and several advanced training certificates from universities in Belgium and the United States of America.

Managing Director

von Karman Institute for Fluid Dynamics
Waterloosesteenweg 72
1640 Sint-Genesius-Rode

Phone: +32 2 359 96 04 (secretariat)

Education

April 2020 – June 2020 Certificate,Governance of companies & functioning of boards of directors, Vlerick Business School

February 2015 – June 2015 Certificate, Mergers & Acquisitions of companies, Vlerick Business School

September 2012 – June 2014 Certificate, High Studies Security & Defence (HSSS), Koninklijk Hoger Instituut Defensie – Royal Higher Institute for Defence - Brussels

September 2010 – June 2012 Certificate, Portuguese language – Level 1 & 2, KU Leuven – Centrum voor Levende Talen

July 2008 Executive Program for Growing Companies, Stanford University – Stanford, CA – USA

June 1997 – August 1997 Certificate of Completion, Summer Session Program, Aerospace Engineering – Aerospace Economics – Space Law – Space Medicine, International Space University , Houston, TX, USA

September 1992 – June 1993 Master of Science, Aeronautics,Fluid Mechanics – Structural Mechanics – Flight Dynamics – Experimental Methods – Computational Fluid Dynamics (CFD), California Institute of Technology – Pasadena, CA – USA

September 1990 – September 1991 Bijzondere Licentie Informatica, Computer Science – Supercomputing, including practical programming on Cray supercomputers, Vrije Universiteit Brussel

September 1983 – July 1988 Burgerlijk Werktuigkundig-Electrotechnisch Ingenieur Toegepaste Natuurkunde, Electrical Engineering & Electromagnetism – Applied Physics, mainly Nuclear Physics and Optics , Vrije Universiteit Brussel

September 1977 – June 1983 Diploma Hoger Middelbaar Onderwijs, Mathematics – Sciences – Latin – Languages, Koninklijk Atheneum Oostende

Professional Experience

February 2018 – ongoing
Managing Director - Von Kármán Institute for Fluid Dynamics
General management, international stakeholder relations and business development

September 2017 – July 2018
Senior Strategic Advisor, Swift Navigation
General management and business development

July 2017 – July 2018
Senior Strategic Advisor, TAS-B Leuven
General management and business development

November 2014 – June 2017
Managing Director, Thales Alenia Space (TAS) site Leuven
General management and business development

February 2014 – September 2014
Occupation or position held Founder & Executive Director, Septentrio nv
Business Development of Aerospace and Security project and product business of Septentrio.
This comprised the important project business with the Galileo Supervisory Authority (GSA), ESA, the EU and its Member States, and the European Aerospace & Defense Industry

January 2000 – January 2014
Founder & CEO, Septentrio nv
As Founder and CEO, I created Septentrio as an initial team of seven people and grew it to a team of
100 people, increasing the company’s topline every year. Under my guidance, Septentrio has
developed and produced the world’s first Galileo receivers, and has become one of the world’s most
important manufacturers of high-precision professional satellite navigation receivers

June 1998- December 1999
Business Development Manager, IMEC
Main activities and responsibilities Main responsibility: preparing spin-off of IMEC’s satellite navigation unit, and the creation of an
independent company. The two key assignments comprised the creation of a completely new team
and raising the start capital for the new company (Septentrio).

March 1998 - June 1998
Space Business Development Manager,  SABCA nv/sa
Business Development for SABCA’s ARIANE product lines

April 1994 - March 1998
Scientific Attaché at Embassy of Belgium in Washington, DC, FOD Buitenlandse Zaken, Buitenlandse Handel en Ontwikkelingssamenwerking
Main activities and responsibilities Responsible for bilateral Belgian-US civil nuclear relations – Belgian representative for
Intergovernmental Negotiations on the International Space Station

February 1992 – March 1994
Delegate to the European Space Agency (ESA), Belgian Science Policy Office
Belgian Delegate to ESA JCB and ESA IPC

January 1991 – February 1992 – MILITARY SERVICE
Occupation or position held 2nd Lieutenant (Reserve)
Aircraft Maintenance and Logistics

September 1988 – December 1990
Research Assistant, Vrije Universiteit Brussel
Responsible for development of numerical code – Customer: ESA – Hermes Program

Other Useful Experiences and Distinctions

- 2020: appointed as Associate Fellow of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA) - http://www.aiaa.org
- 2020: appointed as member of the Board of Directors of arcsec, spinoff of KU Leuven
- 2020: appointed as expert of European Commission for evaluation and monitoring of research projects in the area of satellite navigation
- 2019: appointed as President of the Board of Directors of MAGICS Instruments , spinoff of KUL and SCK.CEN - http://www.magics.tech
- 2018 - onwards: Member of Navigation Innovation Program Advisory Council (NAVAC), European Space Agency – http://navisp.esa.int
- 2016-2019: Director of Agoria Vlaanderen – http://www.agoria.be
- 2016-onwards: appointed as Director of Dutch Institute of Navigation (NIN) – http://www.navnin.nl
- 2015-2017: Engineering Fellow of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel – http://www.vub.ac.be
- 2014-2017: Member of the Spectracom Advisory Board – http://www.spectracom.com
- 2014-2018: vice chairman of the Federal Council for Science Policy belspo.be/belspo/council
- 2011-2014: expert in Galileo Mission Evolution Advisory Group (MEAG) – European Commission, Brussels
- 2002-2015: co-Founder & Board Member (2002-2015); Vice Chairman (2008-2015) of Galileo Services – http://www.galileo-services.org
- 2008- onwards: director, Vlaamse Ruimtevaartindustriëlen (VRI) – http://www.vri.vlaanderen
- 2008 - 2015: vice chairman, DSP Valley – http://www.dspvalley.com
- April 2002 - April 2004: expert for Belgian Federal Government on US-Europe negotiations on Galileo
- June 2002-September 2005: Deputy Chair International, Civil GPS Service Interface Committee (US) - https://www.gps.gov/cgsic/
- December 2000-June 2015: director of the Flemish Aerospace Group – http://www.flag.be
- March 1993-onwards: Senior Member (since 1999), American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics – http://www.aiaa.org
- September 1997 - onwards: member of the Institute of Navigation (ION) - Arlington, VA – US – http://www.ion.org
- 1992: Van Buuren & Van Itallie Fellow of the Belgian American Educational Foundation – http://www.baef.be
- 1992: admitted for graduate study in Aeronautics at California Institute of Technology & Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT)
- January 1, 1989 until December 31, 1991: Member of the Board of the Vrije Universiteit Brussel – http://www.vub.ac.be