Transcript:

John Gilroy: Welcome to Constellations Executive Insights, a limited podcast series in partnership with Nova Space. My name is John Gilroy and I sat with five industry executives who are at the head of some of the most innovative and forward‐thinking companies. If you’re like me and wants to know what gets them excited, what challenges they’re currently focusing on, and what their predictions are for their future, stay tuned. In this episode, I’m sitting with Jean‐François Fallacher, CEO of Eutelsat Group. What attracted you to join Eutelsat? What are your main takeaways from your first few weeks on the job? Jean‐François Fallacher: So I’m coming from the telecom business. I’ve spent 30 years plus working in the telecom business in various European countries in various European operations, and I decided to join Eutelsat because I think it’s very interesting and a very fascinating moment for the satellite industry which has entered with the Leo Constellations, the space of the broadband area, and more. So for that reason, I found it the right moment to join in such an exciting moment, Eutelsat OneWeb. The first findings in the company, because I’m two months in the job now, would be first about people. I mean, we have really great people in the company, people that have for some of them more than 40 years experience in the satellite business. This is, I would say the historical Eutelsat people, which are in the geo business for many, many years. And we have also great people that have been launching this fantastic adventure of OneWeb, which is a big startup with this Leo Constellation that is a fascinating object that is now live and that is carrying, of course, customers and business. So I mean, that’s really an amazing company with a number of nationalities working in the company, we being present both in Europe, in France, in the UK, in Italy, and also obviously in the US. So amongst a lot of great things I’ve discovered are really at the heart, the people, our colleagues, and of course the fantastic customers we are having because the usages of this low Leo Constellation are already also amazing. I mean, we are having planes, we’re having boats that are using OneWeb besides of course, the fixed broadband connections all over the world.

John Gilroy: It’s an exciting time for the space industry. Can you share the recent development you are most proud of for your company? Jean‐François Fallacher: Well, the one where the most proud of is obviously the fact that OneWeb is fully operational. It’s now carrying a number of customers. As I was saying, we have IRO antennas and IRO customers with planes that are using OneWeb. We have also maritime with a number of boats which are using our OneWeb connectivity and of course fixed broadband antennas. Very proud to announce actually, because we are announcing tomorrow our one full year 2025 results that we are carrying over more than 180 million Euro revenues on this Leo Constellation. And this is representing the growth of 80% year‐on‐year. So this is proving that this model that we are having, GeoLeo, is really not just a vision, it’s becoming real, and it’s delivering on its promise.

John Gilroy: Looking back to where Eutelsat was this time last year, what has been the single biggest change affecting the company or the industry in the last 12 months? Jean‐François Fallacher: Two things. The first biggest change is of course the geopolitical landscape. That has obviously shifted quite dramatically and where I think governments have been realizing what it meant to have a secure and a sovereign constellation, which obviously in this new geopolitical context makes use of OneWeb very attractive. So I think this is the major event that is positively helping us nowadays. The second one I want to state is the huge capital increase that we’ve just raised of 1.5 billion Euro, as you know, which is backed by very strong commitments of the French state, the UK state, and our key shareholders such as Baati Group CMA, CGM, and FSP, which are clearly showing that our shareholders believe in our future. And this is really a clear signal of confidence in our strategy role, and our sovereign relevance in the context I was describing before.

John Gilroy: Thank you Jean‐Francois for sharing your insights with us, and congratulations on your new role. And a thank you to our listeners for tuning in. This limited series is brought to you by Constellations in Nova Space as we’re gearing up for two of our favorite industry events, World Space Business Week, and Space Defense and Security Summit. You can secure your registration to the event by visiting Wsbw.com. Finally, if you’re new to Constellations, please sign up to receive our newsletter at constellationsmag.com. Our community of writers, podcasters and other contributors brings you original stories on space technology, business interests, and market trends.