2023 Dr. Franco Ongaro

Franco Ongaro is an example of an outstanding European career covering both aeronautics and
space sectors, in private industries and public entities, with constant contact with academia and the
younger generation.

 
He majored in Aeronautical Engineering at the Politecnico of Milano. After a short work period in
Aeritalia Spazio in Turin, in 1987, he joined ESA in Paris HQ as a junior engineer working in the
Columbus Programme. In 1988 he moved to ESTEC as head of the Columbus Payload Interfaces Unit.
In 1994 he returned to Paris to join the ESA Strategy Directorate and take charge of the General
Studies Programme. From 2001-2004 he managed the Aurora exploration programme, reporting to
ESA DG. In 2006 he became head of the ESA Department in charge of Advanced Concepts and
Technology Planning. In 2009 he became Head of the Telecom Technology Department. From 1994
until 2009, as a contract professor, he taught a new graduate course in spacecraft design at the
Politecnico of Milano.

Until February 2022, he had been, for three mandates, the longest-serving Director of Technology,
Engineering, and Quality (D/TEC) of the European Space Agency (ESA) and the head of the European
Space Technology Centre (ESA ESTEC) in the Netherlands.

 
He initiated the Aurora exploration programme (2001-2004), which started the ExoMars mission;
led change in management approaches by introducing concurrent engineering (ESTEC Concurrent
Design Facility), by redirecting communication strategy; creating a new multidisciplinary research
team (the Advanced Concept Team) and starting the new Element 10 of the ARTES programme, Iris,
dedicated to Air Traffic Management satellite communications. Furthermore, as D/TEC, he has been
responsible for raising the value of the General Support Technology Programme from 250M€ to 1
B€, with significant successes in introducing Additive Manufacturing, Debris Mitigation,
Digitalisation, In-Orbit Testing, etc., and issuing the first ESA Technology Strategy.

 
He is currently the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Leonardo SpA. With his team, he
oversees the coordination of R&T for the entire group. He is in charge of fundamental research
activities within the 11 multidisciplinary corporate labs, where 110 PhDs are employed, intending
to reach 200. This research activity is supported by more than 90 universities around Italy and
abroad, with PhD scholarships. In his activity, he also scouts and support start-ups, both via
collaborations with other accelerators and via Leonardo’s own Business Innovation Factory. He
oversees the group’s IPR and patenting strategy and coordination of Institutionally funded R&D at
the national and international levels. Finally, his team drives the digital transformation of the group
by running the Da Vinci1 HPC, the Cloud Computing developments, and the digital engineering tools.

The relevant features of his career can be summarized as follows:
• European dimension: having worked in Italy, France, and the Netherlands.
• Multidisciplinary dimension: having worked in the aeronautics and space sectors.
• Industrial and technological innovation dimension: having initiated the Aurora exploration
programme which started the ExoMars mission, having introduced concurrent engineering
at ESTEC with the Concurrent Design Facility, having started the new Iris programme
dedicated to Air Traffic Management satellite communications, having led the issuing the
first ESA Technology Strategy, and currently scouting and supporting start-ups via Leonardo
Business Innovation Factory.

• Research dimension: having created a new multidisciplinary research team at ESTEC, the
Advanced Concept Team, and being currently in charge of fundamental research activities in
the 11 multidisciplinary corporate labs at Leonardo.

• Academic dimension: having contributed to the education at Politecnico di Milano.

Franco Ongaro has been a member of AIDAA since 1986 and has participated in the 2011 and 2015
CEAS Air and Space Conference as an invited speaker.