Maria Gabriella SARAH

European Space Agency (ESA) • Seconded Expert in Strategy, Impact and Partnerhips to European Commission's Joint Research Centre

Maria-Gabriella Sarah is currently seconded by the European Space Agency (ESA) to the European Commission's Joint Research Centre (since October 2025), where she serves as an Expert in Strategy, Impact and Partnerships and is involved in defence topics.

Prior to this assignment, she spent nearly a decade within the ESA Director General's services (2016–2025), overseeing partnerships with non-space businesses to foster the uptake of space technologies and applications across ESA's Member States to support space projects contributing to the 17 UN SDGs.

Her career at ESA began in the Science Directorate, as operations engineer, and she later became ESA's first Agency Risk Coordinator: she designed and implemented the corporate Risk Management framework still in use at the Agency today. At the international level, Maria-Gabriella Sarah founded and chaired the Enterprise Risk Management (ERM) Committee of the IAF from 2016 to 2024 and established and chaired the ERM International Network (ERMINe), bringing together approximately 150 members worldwide.

A full member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA), she co-chairs a study on the socioeconomic benefits of space technologies.

Maria-Gabriella Sarah holds a master’s degree in electrical engineering from CentraleSupélec in Paris. She is a graduate of the Cycle des Hautes Études Européennes (CHEE, class of 2022) from the École Nationale d'Administration (ENA), and of the Institut des Hautes Études de Défense Nationale (IHEDN, class of 2015), a programme on defence policy sponsored by the French Prime Minister. She is also a guest lecturer at CentraleSupélec on space applications for societal benefits.

Events

77th International Astronautical Congress (IAC 2026)

5 - 9 October 2026

Antalya, Türkiye

Participation:

International Astronautical Congress 2024

14-18 October 2024

Milan, Italy

Participation:

The Global Space Conference on Climate Change 2023

23 May-25 May 2023

Oslo, Norway

Participation:

Participation