Géraldine Naja,
Director of Space Transportation
Géraldine Naja took up duty as Director of Space Transportation (D/STS) based at ESA Headquarters in Paris on 1 April 2026. She was previously Director of Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness (D/CIC). She will continue to serve as head of her former directorate, now called the Commercialisation and Industry Partnership directorate (D/CIP), as acting Director.
From France, Ms Naja has 30-year experience in the European space sector in managerial and strategy development positions.
She graduated from the French École Polytechnique with a degree in engineering and then from École Nationale Supérieure de Techniques Avancées (ENSTA) with a Masters degree in propulsion and chemistry. She also has a Masters degree in political sciences from the Institut d’Etudes Politiques de Paris (Sciences Po).
She joined ESA in 1987 as a Payload Operations Engineer in the Space Station Directorate. She then served in various corporate and programmatic functions across the Agency between 1993 and 2015, including Head of Long-term Space Policy Office, Head of Strategic and Institutional Matters in the ESA Director General’s Cabinet, Head of EU Relations Office, and Senior Advisor to the Director of Launchers. She was also seconded from ESA for one year (2003-4) as Advisor for the Cabinet of the French Minister of Research and Higher Education.
Ms Naja was Head of the ESA’s Industrial Policy and Audit Department since 2015. She served as acting Director when the new Directorate of Commercialisation, Industry and Procurement was created in May 2021, in response to the Director General’s Agenda 2025 for the future development of ESA, with commercialisation as one of its strategic priorities.
Prior to stepping into her new role, Géraldine Naja led the Directorate of Commercialisation, Industry and Competitiveness (D/CIC), now evolved into the Directorate of Commercialisation and Industry Partnership (D/CIP). In that capacity, she advanced commercialisation and competitiveness as a strategic priority for ESA, developing new approaches and instruments to strengthen the European space sector and foster a more dynamic, market-oriented ecosystem.
