Surprising change of leadership: Eutelsat with new CEO

Change at the top of Eutelsat. The Franco-British satellite operator Eutelsat is getting a new CEO in Jean-Francois Fallacher from the French telecommunications giant Orange. This was announced by the company on Monday. The appointment was decided at a meeting of the Board of Directors on Sunday. Fallacher will take up his post on June 1, according to a press release. The company did not disclose the reasons for the new appointment. "This appointment represents a natural change that fully aligns Eutelsat with the telecommunications ecosystem," it simply said.

The 58-year-old Fallacher joins Eutelsat after a long career at Orange, where the experienced manager was most recently Executive Vice President and CEO of Orange France. Prior to that, he managed Orange's business in various countries, including Spain, Romania and Poland. The Frenchman succeeds Eva Berneke, who has led the company since January 2022 and has been responsible for some of the company's most important strategic and operational decisions. These include the merger with the British-Indian satellite internet company OneWeb, the award of the contract for the planned development of the European Starlink alternative IRIS2 as part of the Spacerise consortium and the world's first successful trial run of a 5G mobile connection via satellite. "I am delighted to be joining Eutelsat at such a pivotal time in its history. Technology is evolving faster than ever before, and in today's increasingly complex geopolitical context, satellite networks have become a key element in the connectivity landscape," said Fallacher.

Major geopolitical challenges

The change at the top of Eutelsat comes at a time when Europe is looking for domestic options for commercial and military satellite communications in order to become less dependent on the Starlink satellite internet of the US space company SpaceX. For example, the EU Commission wants to help Ukraine secure capacities for satellite communication and is offering Eutelsat as an alternative to Starlink. Reports to this effect led to large gains in the Eutelsat share price at the beginning of March.

At the beginning of February, there were still reports that Eutelsat was in financial difficulties and would have to raise more money for bond interest. The company closed 2024 with a loss. According to industry experts, the European satellite operator is facing considerable investment requirements for the expansion of its satellite network and needs fresh capital to do so. According to a report by the news agency Reuters, Eutelsat has stated in the past that the OneWeb cooperation will increase the Group's annual turnover to two billion US dollars by 2027. The second generation of LEO satellites is to be launched by OneWeb by the end of the decade. LEO stands for "Low Earth Orbit" and refers to satellites in low earth orbit. However, Eutelsat now says that it needs more than three times as many satellites as originally assumed, which requires financing of up to 2.2 billion euros. The new man at the helm of the company is therefore facing major challenges.

(akn)