• 1969-1976 – Degree in physics from the University of Washington (1969) and PhD in Solid State Physics from the University of Oslo (1976)
• 1977-1978 – Researcher for the Royal Norwegian Council for Scientific and Industrial Research
• 1978 – Assistant Secretary in the Norwegian Ministry of Petroleum and Energy, Director General of the Research Department at the Norwegian Ministry of Industry and Energy
• 1984 – Worked for Det Norske Veritas
• 1986-2004 – Various positions in the Norwegian public sector: Head of Department in the National Institute of Technology, then Deputy Under-Secretary of State in the Ministry of Trade and Industry (1986-1987), becoming Director General of the Research Department at the Ministry of Industry and Energy by the mid-1990s
• 1996-1999 – Chairman of the ESA Council 
• 2004 – Moved to the Ministry of Modernization, renamed the Ministry of Government Administration and Reform

Parr was a member of the ESA Council since 1995. He was elected as its Chairman at a meeting of the ESA Council in June 1996 and took over from Gaele Winters on 1 July 1996 with a term that ran until 30 June 1999.

• 1945 - joined Belgian Foreign Ministry: Secretary in the Belgian embassy in Washington (1946-1949), Counsellor in Rio de Janeiro until 1962, returned to Brussels as Director of Scientific Policy in the Foreign Ministry
• 1960s - headed the Belgian delegation to ESRO and ELDO
• 1967 - Chairman of ELDO Council
• 1967 - resumed career of diplomatic postings, including the Middle East, Brazil, France and the Holy See

As Director of Scientific Policy in the Foreign Ministry, Baron Paternotte was responsible for relations with a number of international scientific bodies, including the Atomic Energy Commission and ESRO and ELDO. As ELDO delegate, he helped establish an ELDO long-range guidance station in Belgium. He was also one of the European signatories to the INTELSAT accord.

• 1985 – Degree in engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique (Paris)
• 1985-1996 – Served in the French Air Force
• 1993 – Received his Test Pilot Licence from EPNER, the French Test Pilot School
• 1996-2002 – National astronaut with the French space agency CNES
• 2002-2004 – Joined the ESA Astronaut Corps
• 2004 – Experimental Test Pilot with Airbus Industrie in Toulouse

Perrin entered the French Air Force in 1985 and was awarded his pilot’s wings in 1986. On graduating from the French Test Pilot School, he worked on a variety of test programmes while assigned to the Bretigny Test Centre. In 1992, he was seconded to the French Space Agency (CNES) and trained in Star City, Russia, later returning to the Bretigny Test Center, as Deputy Chief Pilot.

In July 1996, CNES announced his selection as an astronaut and assigned him to NASA’s Astronaut Candidate Training in Houston, Texas.
He served as a mission specialist on STS-111 in June 2002 onboard Space Shuttle Endeavour. The STS-111 mission delivered a new ISS resident crew and a Canadian-built mobile base for the orbiting outpost’s robotic arm. 

In December 2002, Perrin joined the ESA European Astronaut Corps and was assigned to provide engineering support to the ESA ATV (Automated Transfer Vehicle) project at the ATV Control Centre in Toulouse.
 

• 1938 – Graduated in chemistry of the Ecole Normale Supérieure in Paris
• 1947 – worked for the Compagnie de Saint-Gobain
• 1958-1967 – seconded as Executive Officer of the Advisory Committee for scientific and technological research. Chaired the Consultative Committee on Scientific and Technological Research (CCRST) and the General Directorate for Scientific and Technological Research (DGRST) 
• 1965-1972 – Chairman of the National Institute for Agricultural Research
• 1972-1976 – President of the Futuribles International think-tank

Piganiol was a French chemist who played an important role in the development of post-war French scientific politics. At the request of General de Gaulle, he chaired the Consultative Committee on Scientific and Technological Research, which he transformed into the General Directorate for Scientific and Technological Research, an interministerial body promoting scientific and technological research in the service of society.

• 1930s - worked at Philips and then the Rotterdamsche Droogdok Maatschappij (RDM) shipbuilding and repair company in Rotterdam, trained as naval architect
• 1950s - official at the Dutch Ministry of Economic Affairs
• 1972-1973 - last Chairman of ELDO Council

• 1961 – Degree in Law from the University of Muenster
• 1966-1967 – Financial Administrator for North Rhine-Westphalia in Düsseldorf
• 1968-1973 and 1978-1979 – German Federal Ministry for Research and Technology in Bonn
• 1971-1977 – Director of Administration at the Von Laue-Langevin Institute in Grenoble
• 1979-1991 – Vice-President of the Management Board of the Forschungszentrum Juelich-KFA research centre, responsible for administration, finance, personnel, contract, legal affairs, internal audit and public relations
• 1991-1997 – ESA Director of Administration based at ESA HQ in Paris

• 1973 – Degree in nuclear engineering from the Catholic University of Louvain
• 1970s – Worked for Belgonucleaire, nuclear engineering and fuel manufacturing company, in a team designing the fast breeder plutonium fuel
• 1979 – Research and Development position in renewable energy with the Luxembourg University Foundation
• 1985 – Became Energy Advisor to the Minister of Economic Affairs and Advisor to the State Secretary for Environment on nuclear security
• 1991 – Member of the Belgian House of Representatives
• 1995-1999 – Deputy Prime Minister, Minister of Defence and Minister of Energy
• 1999-2001 – Re-elected to the House of Representatives and President of the Social Christian Parliamentary Group
• 2001-2005 – ESA Director of Strategy and External Relations, later Director of External Relations 
• 2006 – Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of Areva and Senior Vice-President, new energies policy, later becoming Senior Vice-President, Sustainable Development and Continuous Improvement (2008)

Poncelet became Director of Strategy and External Relations for ESA in August 2001. During his time at ESA, he prepared the European Commission’s Green Paper on Space and negotiated the ESA-EC Cooperation Agreement on space activities. He left ESA in August 2005. 

• Italian physicist, known for his contribution to the theory of weak interactions. Professor of Physics at the University of Bologna from 1952 until his retirement
• 1960-1964 - Vice President of the Istituto Nazionale di Fisica Nucleare
• 1962-1963 - Director of Research at CERN, Chairman of Scientific Policy Committee from 1966 to 1968
• 1968-1970 - Chairman of the Comitato Nazionale del CNR for the Physical Sciences
• 1971-1972 - Chairman of ESRO Council
• 1973-1978 - Member of Euratom Scientific and Technical Committee
• 1977-1979 - Italian delegate to the CERN Council

Puppi was Chairman of the ESRO Council from 1971 to 1972, during a period of reform necessitated by the deep divisions within ESRO on applications satellites and European development of an independent launcher capacity. The Package Deal he successfully negotiated gave a renewed focus on applications programmes, and made them optional for member states.

• 1945 – Masters in Mechanical Engineering from the Technical University of Copenhagen, Denmark
• 1948-1951 – Worked as an engineer for the Chrysler Corporation in the USA
• 1956-1972 – General Manager and Director of Volvo in Sweden
• 1972-1979 – Managing Director of the Danish naval and maritime yard Odense Steel Shipyard
• 1980-1984 – Second Director General of ESA

When Quistgaard took up duty as Director General in 1980, the ongoing programmes of the Agency were nearing fulfilment, and one of his first tasks was to start discussions on ESA's future and its role within the European space community. His emphasis on a clear and coherent plan for Europe's activities in space brought considerable success with the first use of Ariane by a commercial customer, the launch of the Exosat scientific satellite and Ulf Merbold's flight, as the first ESA Astronaut, aboard Spacelab-1 achieved under his mandate.

• 1982 - Graduated in Aerospace Technologyfrom the German Armed Forces University in Munich
• 1980s - Flew in a fighter-bomber squadron based in Oldenburg, Germany, becoming flight-operations officer and deputy squadron commander
• 1992 - Graduated from the Empire Test Pilot School (ETPS) in the UK
• 1992 - Joined ESA’s Astronaut Corps, ESA Astronaut on two missions from 1995 to 2006
• 2007 - Member of the Executive Board of the DLR - German Aerospace Center, responsible for Space Research and Technology
• 2011-2015 - ESA Director Human Spaceflight and Operations,
• 2016 - Advisor to the ESA Director General

During his time as a figher pilot, Reiter was involved in the ESA studies for the Hermes crewed space shuttle and development of equipment for the Columbus space laboratory. In 1992, he joined ESA’s European Astronaut Corps. After basic training, he was selected for the Euromir 95 mission and started training at Star City near Moscow, Russia. In 1995, he was assigned as flight engineer for the Euromir 95 mission that lasted a record-breaking 179 days from September 1995 to February 1996, becoming the first German astronaut to perform a spacewalk.

He subsequently trained on the Soyuz-TM spacecraft, and supported the ESA Automated Transfer Vehicle team and European Robotic Arm programme. In 2001 he was assigned to an advanced training class to prepare for the first European long-duration mission to the International Space Station. In 2006 Reiter took part in the Astrolab mission, ESA’s first long-duration mission to the International Space Station. Following launch on Space Shuttle Discovery on flight STS-121, he spent 166 days on the Space Station as Flight Engineer 2 for Expedition crews 13 and 14 and ran 19 experiments on behalf of a number of European institutions and research centres.

From April 2011 to December 2015 he was Director of ESA’s Directorate of Human Spaceflight and Operations, managing Europe’s contribution to the International Space Station, the Agency's human spaceflight activities and the operations of ESA’s satellite missions and of the ground segment.