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CNES PRESS RELEASE

19 February 2003

Yannick d'Escatha appointed new CNES President
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The French council of ministers, on the recommendation of the Minister 
of Defence and the Minister for Research and New Technologies, 
appointed Yannick d'Escatha as President of the Centre National
d'Etudes Spatiales (CNES).

Born 1948, Yannick d'Escatha graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique 
engineering school, where he finished second in his year. He then 
pursued his engineering studies at the Ecole des Mines, qualifying as 
a chief mining and geology engineer and obtaining a post-masters 
degree in theoretical mechanics before beginning his career in 
teaching and research at the Ecole Polytechnique, the Ecole des Mines 
de Paris and the ENSTA advanced technologies school.

In 1978, Yannick d'Escatha was appointed to head the nuclear 
installations safety inspectorate at the Ministry of Industry. In 
1982, he joined the French atomic energy agency CEA as Deputy Managing 
Director of its subsidiary Technicatome. He was subsequently appointed 
to head CEA's Advanced Technologies Directorate in 1990, Deputy
Administrator in 1992, Administrator in 1995 and President of 
CEA-Industrie in 1999.

In January 2000, he was appointed to head the Industry division of 
French electric utility EDF, where he was in charge of industrial 
strategy. He became Co-Chief Executive Officer of EDF in January 2002.

He joins CNES effective 19 February 2003.

In a statement to all employees, the newly appointed President said: 
"I know that CNES is going through a serious crisis and that the space 
sector is struggling. But the reason I was prepared to leave EDF for 
CNES is because I believe in space, in the many benefits it is already
bringing in telecommunications, television, GPS, Earth observation, 
oceanography, weather forecasting, the environment, science, security 
and defence, industry and services, and in the huge potential waiting 
to be tapped; because I believe that the conquest of space is an
important challenge for the future of all humankind; and because I 
believe in CNES and in its future."


Yannick d'Escatha

Biography

Born 1948 in Paris, Yannick d'Escatha graduated from the Ecole 
Polytechnique engineering school at the age of 20, where he finished 
second in his year. He then chose to pursue his studies at the Ecole 
des Mines, where he qualified as a chief mining and geology engineer 
before taking up a career in teaching and research.

At the age of 24, he was appointed as a senior lecturer at the Ecole 
Polytechnique, the Ecole des Mines de Paris and the ENSTA advanced 
technologies engineering school.

His research work at the mechanics laboratory of the Ecole
Polytechnique on soil mechanics and structural mechanics earned him a 
reputation as an expert in rupture mechanics.

This work and his many publications, including a co-written book, won 
him an award from the French Science Academy in 1982.

In 1973, he helped to draft French regulations governing nuclear-fired 
water boilers, and then worked as an expert engineering consultant 
with the Ministry of Industry to enforce them.

In 1978, he was appointed to head the nuclear installations safety 
inspectorate at the Ministry of Industry, where he oversaw application 
of these regulations for France's nuclear electricity generation 
programme.

In 1982, he was seconded to Technicatome, a subsidiary of the French 
atomic energy agency CEA, whose main mission was to act as lead 
industrial contractor on the development of nuclear propulsion for 
French Navy vessels. He then occupied the post of Director at 
Technicatome's facilities in Cadarache and Aix en Provence before 
being appointed Deputy Managing Director 1 January 1987.

1 March 1990, he was appointed by the CEA Administrator to head its 
newly formed Advanced Technologies Directorate, and became Deputy 
Administrator 14 September in 1992.

He was appointed CEA Administrator 1 July 1995 and then President of 
CEA-Industrie 28 June 1999.

January 2000, he was appointed to head the Industry division of French 
electric utility EDF, where he was in charge of industrial strategy. 
He became Co-Chief Executive Officer of EDF in January 2002.

He was elected to the Applications Council of the French Science 
Academy 11 March 1997. He has been a Member of the French Technology 
Academy since 12 December 2000.

He was appointed Chairman of the Board of the Ecole Polytechnique 2 
May 2001.

Yannick d'Escatha is an Officier de l'Ordre National du Mérite and 
Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.

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