CP060-2008 - Cnes appointments

2 APPOINTMENTS

BERNARD LUCIANI HAS BEEN APPOINTED DEFENCE AND SECURITY ADVISER TO THE CENTRE NATIONAL D’ETUDES SPATIALES AS OF 1 DECEMBER 2008.

Bernard Luciani was born on 2 January 1962, graduated from the Ecole Supérieure d’Optique and participated in the 50th national session (1997/1998) of the Institut des Hautes Etudes de Défense Nationale (IHEDN).

Bernard Luciani joined CNES in 1988, working successively as an engineer in the Earth Observation Directorate, Regional Adviser in the International Relations Directorate, and CNES representative as Science & Technology Attaché for Space Affairs at the French Embassy in Washington in the United States from 1991 to 1995. He then moved to the European Affairs Directorate until 1996, before becoming Deputy Director for Partnership Strategy and Policy at CNES and then Deputy Director for International Relations in 1997.

In 1998 Bernard Luciani acted as Director for International Development of STARSEM, a French-Russian company responsible for marketing SOYUZ launch services, while simultaneously remaining the Correspondent for the Senior Defence Adviser of the Minister of Research.

He was a Special Adviser to the President of CNES between 2000 and 2002, before being posted to the French Embassy in Singapore as Adviser for Cooperation and Cultural Activity until 2006, at which time he became Head of International Strategy and France’s contact person with the European Union for the ‘Space’ theme of the 7th Research and Development Framework Programme.

GWENAËLLE VERPEAUX HAS BEEN APPOINTED HEAD OF THE ‘PRESS AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS’ DEPARTMENT OF THE EXTERNAL COMMUNICATION, EDUCATION AND PUBLIC AFFAIRS DIRECTORATE OF THE CENTRE NATIONAL D’ETUDES SPATIALES AS OF 1 DECEMBER 2008.

Gwenaëlle Verpeaux was born in Quebec on 10 February 1977, studied at the Ecole Française des Attachés de Presse et des Professionnels de la Communication, and holds a Degree in English from the University of Bourgogne.

Gwenaëlle Verpeaux has been Press Attachée in the CNES Public Communications Department since 2007 and was previously press adviser to the Cabinet of Gilles de Robien when the latter was Minister of National Education, Higher Education and Research from 2005 to 2007, after first joining Gilles de Robien’s Cabinet as Press Attachée in 2003 when he was Minister for Equipment, Transport, Territorial Development, Tourism and Maritime Affairs.

After a year spent as a teaching assistant in the Foreign Language Department of Clark University in the United States, she became a tutor and English teacher for handicapped students at the Maison de l’Université in Dijon in 2000. First as Press Attachée to André Santini, Mayor of Issy-les-Moulineaux and also as Assistant to the Director for Communication of Issy Média Agency, as well as being responsible for communications for the town of Issy-les-Moulineaux (2001-2002), she became a Study Engineer , with responsibility for communication at the CNRS Communication and Politics Laboratory until 2003.