Pierre's career started over 20 years ago when he joined Intelsat's Spacecraft Program Office in Palo Alto, California as a test engineer. There he monitored and followed up the integration and tests (I&T) of the Intelsat V series of spacecraft at the Ford Aerospace (now Loral) plant.
Four years later, he returned to his native France as the I&T manager for the Eurostar programme with Matra Marconi (now Astrium) in Toulouse. At the completion of the Eurostar test program, he moved on to satellite operations and developed the first Eurostar operating procedures.
Pierre's next job was with Inmarsat in London where he managed the Launch and Early Operations (LEOP) contract awarded by Inmarsat to the French Space Agency CNES to launch its second generation of spacecraft. For its third generation, Inmarsat decided to acquire the capability of launching its own spacecraft, and Pierre was chosen to lead that project. This culminated in five successful launches for which he acted as Mission Director.
Following this, Pierre combined his expertise on satellite launch and operations and internet experience working as a consultant, particularly for the aerospace industry.
After 13 years in UK, Pierre went back to Toulouse where he was, until 2004, International Business Development Manager for the Space Sector of Cap Gemini Ernst & Young.
Pierre is now heading up Spacelinks, his own company. Spacelinks is an independent consultancy firm specialising in the space markets. The services we provide include: Technical Recruitment, Business Development, and Sales & Marketing. Spacelinks probably holds the largest database of space professionals in Europe.
Spacelinks is also responsible for Space Careers, the leading space and defense industry employment website (
www.space-careers.com).
With a career spanning over 20 years in the space business covering engineering, sales and programme management activities and with his in-depth knowledge of the space industry, Pierre can now help you to recruit the space professionals you need. Find out how by contacting Pierre Oppetit at poppetit@spacelinks.com
Note: I have an extensive (2400+ direct connections) Space & Defence network on LinkedIn (
www.linkedin.com/in/poppetit). You are welcome to join!
