Michele – ESA/ESRIN Account Manager

Tell us about your role

I am the company’s ESA/ESRIN Account Manager. I am based in our Frascati office in Italy: I joined in August 2005, which makes me one of the most senior staff in that office.

What is your favourite aspect of your job?

My focus is on business development and specifically the pursuit of business opportunities coming out of ESA/ESRIN, mainly in the field of Earth observation (EO), which is ESRIN’s primary focus.

A big part of doing business development and working on bids and proposals is about building relationships and partnerships, because very few organisations can do everything on their own. So, whenever a new opportunity appears, I always look for the best partners we should approach (other companies, universities or research centres, depending on the specific bid) in order to maximise our chances of winning the business.

Establishing partnerships is the part of the business development job that I enjoy the most. Above all, I want to make sure we never create purely transactional relationships. Instead, we aim for long-lasting bonds with these partners, because I know that I may need them again one day, and at the same time they might decide that they need us for some opportunity related to their interests.

What made you want to work in the space sector – and specifically Earth observation?

I have wanted to work in the space sector since I was a kid. Although deep space missions remain an unfulfilled dream for me, I have come to realise that Earth observation is an invaluable tool for increasing our understanding and awareness of the dynamic processes shaping our planet.

Before joining this company, I worked in airborne remote sensing, which is complementary and also extremely valuable. But space remote sensing remains fundamental given the global coverage it provides, and offers ever-increasing sensor capabilities, acquisition frequencies and ground resolutions.

What has been your most memorable career highlight?

It was in 2022, when ESA awarded us two contracts for the Copernicus Processing Service; more specifically, the contract for the systematic processing of all data acquired by the Sentinel-2 satellites.

In general, when approaching a business opportunity as a sub-contractor, it is common to aim to be included in multiple industrial consortia submitting separate proposals (if allowed by the tender conditions) because this increases your chances of success. Normally only one contract is awarded, but since there are two Sentinel-2 satellites (2A and 2B), we formed a partnership with two different prime contractors in the hope of winning at least one contract. When both our primes were awarded contracts, it was unexpected, but, of course, most welcome.

Would you recommend a space career?

Space is a fascinating field and I am sure that almost everyone agrees.

Working with an entity like ESA, you know you are engaging with one of the biggest players in this field.

And then, as I mentioned, Earth observation seems to me an essential means for properly monitoring our planet and assessing how to best tackle and solve the global scale issues that we are facing – climate change and extreme weather phenomena, management of natural resources and socio-economic repercussions, air/water/land pollution assessment and remediation, and so on.

Any tips for people trying to get jobs in the space sector?

I had a lot of technical experience before moving into business development. I strongly believe that my engineering background is very important when approaching business opportunities because it helps me better understand what the client (mainly ESA, currently) is asking for. It also enables me to have technical discussions with colleagues and partners on what we should propose to the client and assess the soundness of the solution we are proposing.

In the business development field, if you do not really know what you are selling, it is not good in terms of credibility, especially in an extremely technical field like space.

What do you like to do in your spare time?

I like reading a lot – mainly essays about a range of subjects, from history to geopolitics and science (with a preference for maths, astrophysics and cosmology). For novels I prefer science fiction, and I also love comics, especially X-Men and Avengers, and sometimes Mangas borrowed from my daughters.

I love practicing yoga, which I discovered several years ago. I tried several different styles – Ashtanga, Iyengar, Kundalini, Sivananda – and eventually settled into my own tailored style, mixing parts taken from each one of them.

In spring and summer, I like to grow vegetables in my garden, which I love because the outcome of my efforts is so practical and tangibly ‘visible’ compared with what I do for work.

Tell us something unusual about yourself

As I said I love yoga. A few years ago, I was fortunate to attend a weekend workshop led by David Swenson, a senior yoga teacher who is a legend in the Ashtanga yoga community, having been among the first to learn it directly from the original Indian founder, K. Pattabhi Jois, back in the 1970s.

The workshop featured both yoga practice and theoretical lessons. During one of these sessions, David asked whether anyone had read ‘Moola Bandha: The Master Key’, a technical booklet on a somewhat obscure yoga technique. I was the only one out of over 200 participants to raise their hand! Although I had the awkward feeling of being ‘the nerd in the room’, I truly enjoyed being praised by none other than David Swenson for my deep knowledge of the theory of yoga.