Management Board

Graduated as Engineer in Industrial Chemistry (Conservatoire National des Arts et Métiers), Thierry Cotelle has managed several SMIs (Small and Medium Industries) in the aeronautics sector for 25 years and is currently General Director of a Business Unit at Satys Aerospace.
In terms of political commitments, Thierry Cotelle has been Deputy Mayor of Toulouse in charge of employment, economic development, space and aeronautics between 2008 and 2014. Thierry Cotelle is Regional Councillor since 2016 and was previously President of the regional agency for renewable energies (AREC). Since 2021, he is First Vice President for the Commission “Economy, Employment, Re-industrialisation” and belongs to the following thematic commissions “Climate Emergency” and “Water and Risk Prevention”. Thierry Cotelle has been elected NEREUS President in December 2021. He is also a member of the Board of NEREUS-associate member Cité de l’Espace for 20 years.

Vito Bardi,  former Deputy Commander General of the Guardia di Finanza (Army Corps),  has been elected President of the Basilicata Region on 24/03/2019 with 42% of consensus.  He leads the regional government since 16/04/2019. He started his long military career in Guardia di Finanza . He was promoted Colonel in December 1995 and he commanded the Tuscany Region of Florence. He was appointed Brigadier General in January 2001 and Head of the 1st Department of the General Command. He was promoted Major General in January 2005 and he was assigned as Regional Commander of Campania. As General in the Army Corps, promoted in February 2009, he held the posts of Interregional Commander of Southern Italy and then Inspector for Educational Institutes. He was then appointed Deputy Commander General of the Corps (Guardia di Finanza) from 5/09/2013, until 4/09/2014. President Bardi holds a degree in economics, law, international and diplomatic sciences, financial economic security sciences .

 

Vice Minister Tobias Gotthardt began his studies in Political Science and German Studies at the University of Regensburg. After completing the basic studies, he transferred to Freiburg. Additionally, Gotthardt worked as a student assistant in the European Parliament. An important step, as it turns out later: A few weeks after graduating, he began his professional career in September 2003 as a Parliamentary Assistant to Member of the European Parliament Emilia Müller. Just over two years later, in November 2005, he moved to the German Bundestag in Berlin, working as a Research Assistant to the Deputy Chairwoman of the Parliamentary Group and later Vice President of the Bundestag, Gerda Hasselfeldt. The third stage of his professional development took him to the Chemical Employers’ Association as a officer for Education and Public Relations in October 2006. There, he organized university taster days for students, conducted management seminars, designed exhibitions and trade fair presentations, and co-managed political representation with the state government and parliament. In January 2010—after four years in Munich—Gotthardt returned to active politics, back to Brussels: There, he takes over the office management for Member of the European Parliament Martin Kastler and, after Kastler’s departure in 2014, transitions to working with Member of the European Parliament Arne Gericke. In 2018, he was elected to the Bavarian State Parliament for the Free Voters, became their Spokesperson for Federal and European Affairs and became the Chairman of the European Affairs Committee. After his reelection to the Bavarian State Parliament in 2023 he was appointed to the position of Vice Minister in the Bavarian Ministry of Economic Affairs, Regional Development and Energy as a member of the Bavarian State Government. Moreover, he has been deputy member of the European Committee of the Regions for the Free State of Bavaria since 2019.

Władysław Ortyl – Marshal of the Podkarpackie Region, Poland (elected in May 2013), member of the European Committee of the Regions and COTER commission. Degree in aviation construction at Mechanical Department of Rzeszów University of Technology in 1979. From 1992 to 1998 – Chairman of the Board of Mielec Regional Development Agency. From 2005 to 2007 – Secretary of State at the Ministry of Regional Development where he was responsible for the implementation of Integrated Regional Operation Programme and preparation of Regional Operation Programmes, as well as the Eastern Poland Operation Programme and transborder programmes cofinanced by the EU. From 2005 he was also the Member of the Senate where he chaired the National Defence Committee.

Vito Bavaro is in charge of the Digital Transformation Section at the Economic Development Department of Apulia Region since 2021. He holds a degree in electronic engineering from the University Federico II of Naples (2001), a Master of Science in aerospace systems from the Kingston University of London (2003) and a Ph.D. in electronic engineering from the University Roma Tre (2008). In 1995 he joined the Italian Air force Academy of Pozzuoli. From 2001 to 2009 he worked as avionic system test engineer at the Italian Air Force Flight Test Center in Pratica di Mare (Rome). In this period he has been involved in several experimentation campaigns and testing activities of avionics and communication systems. In 2002 he attended the 35th Aerosystems Course at the Royal Air Force College in Cranwell. Since 2009 he has been working at Apulia Regional Government. He was in charge of the Digital Systems, Technology and Infrastructures Section of the Healthcare Department until 2020. Today, within the framework of the smart specialization strategy of Apulia Region, his activity is focused on supporting the digital transformation of public local institutions and private companies and the regional aerospace sector.

Constanze Wolf is a lawyer specializing in international and comparative law and economics. For over a decade, she was responsible for small and medium-sized enterprises, foreign trade and law in the cross-sectoral industry association of Baden-Württemberg before moving to the Forum Aerospace Baden-Württemberg. As network manager and acting managing director, she is now responsible for all matters relating to Baden-Württemberg’s aerospace sector. Since the summer of 2023, Ms. Wolf has also been contributing her expertise to the aerospace strategy of the state of Baden-Württemberg, whose office is provided by the Forum Aerospace. In addition, Ms Wolf also provides project management, legal advice and support for other cluster organizations on a part-time basis.

 

Dr. Josep Colomé is leading the Area for the Promotion of the Space Sector of Catalonia at the IEEC since 2022. He holds a degree and PhD in Physics from the University of Barcelona (UB) and has been involved in space technology and research projects since 2002, when he joined the IEEC. He obtained a permanent position at the Institute of Space Sciences (ICE-CSIC, IEEC) in 2007 and, since then, he has had different responsibility roles as project manager (Cherenkov Telescope Array, Warwick 1-m Telescope, CARMENES instrument) and unit director (Director of the Montsec Observatory at the IEEC, Head of the Advanced Engineering Unit at the ICE-CSIC, Head of the Knowledge Transfer Office at the IEEC). He is currently the Spanish national project manager for two missions of the European Space Agency (ESA) – Ariel and LISA –, and he is leading the Area for the Promotion of the Space Sector of Catalonia at the IEEC since 2022, one of the key instruments in Catalonia for the promotion of space sector and the implementation of the NewSpace strategy, in collaboration with other partners and under the leadership of the Catalan Government.

 

ART-ER Executive Director, former ASTER Director, she has an honor degree in statistics and economics. She has been in charge for 10 years of the Resource Center for Guidance and Employment promoted by the Ministry of Labour and the European Commission, through which she lead several initiatives concerning vocational training and development of human resources. In October 2020 she was elected member of the Technical Scientific Committee of APRE – Italian Agency for the Promotion of European Research. Since January 2020 she has been member of the EIC (European Innovation Council) and EIE (European Innovation Ecosystem) Shadow Program Committee as Italian Delegate Alternate designated by the Ministry of University and Research under the new European Horizon Europe Framework Program 2021-2027; in March 2021 she was confirmed as Full Member Expert in the National Task Force of the Italian Delegation. Since July 2022 she is Vice President of the ECOSISTER Foundation – Territorial Ecosystem of Innovation of Emilia-Romagna region focused on sustainable transition, established under Mission 4 – Component 2 – Investment 1.5 of the NRRP – National Recovery and Resilience Plan.

 

Perdita de Buhr is Head of Unit Economics, Energy, Transport and Housing at the Representation of the State of Hessen to the European Union since 2011 and has become a Member of the Management Board of NEREUS 2015. She grew up in the Netherlands and read law at the Universities of Passau as well as Münster. Once qualified as a German lawyer and additionally holding the legal doctorate in 1993, she started her professional carrier in the Saxon State Ministry of Science and Art, from where she moved to other positions related to Economics and Science, among them the Federal Foreign Office in Berlin.

 

Carlos Romero is Telecom Engineer (MSc, UPM) and Executive MBA (IE Business School). He is currently managing ESA BIC Madrid Region, the incubation program of the European Space Agency and Comunidad de Madrid, led by Fundacion para el Conocimiento madri+d. Previously he was Managing Director of Madrid Aerospace Cluster and Head of Incubation at Demium. Carlos has great experience in sales and project management. He is Business Mentor Certified and has collaborated for more than 15 years in different programs to support entrepreneurship and innovation. Carlos currently coordinates the working group on Space at the Official College of Telecommunications Engineers and is a member of the Space Committee at the Spanish Institute of Engineering.

Duarte Cota holds a BEng in Computer Science and a MSc in Computer Science Engineering and Web Technology. He is a technical and scientific consultant for the Portuguese delegation of ESERO – European Space Education Resource Office of ESA – European Space Agency for several educational projects in the aerospace sector and a member of the Technical Evaluation Board of EuRoC – European Rocketry Challenge, an initiative of the Portuguese Space Agency.

Since 2022 he has been a member of the Azores Mission Structure for Space that has the main role of implementing the Azores Space Strategy and is also a member of the executive board for RIS3 Azores (Research and Innovation Strategy for Smart Specialization in the Azores) for the strategic sector of Space and Data Science. He is also member of the Executive Committee of RAEGE (Atlantic Network of Spatial and Geodetic Stations) and the representative of the Azores Region in NEREUS (Network of European Regions Using Space Technologies).

Eduardo Pereira is an Aerospace Engineer, specialized in Airports and Air Transport from the Polytechnic University of Madrid, with advanced training in Business Administration and Financial Management. As a member of the Spanish State Aeronautical Engineer Corps, he has built a distinguished career in the Spanish airport sector, combining technical expertise with high-level public and private sector leadership. He worked for over 15 years at AENA, Spanish company in charge of airport management, holding key positions at the airports of La Coruña, Santiago de Compostela, and Fuerteventura, where he served as CEO for more than a decade. He led the € 500 million expansion of Fuerteventura Airport, which under his management became the 8th busiest airport in Spain. He was also a member of the strategic committee responsible for the development of airport infrastructure across the country. He currently serves as CEO of the Fuerteventura Technology Park SA MP (public company), where he leads groundbreaking initiatives such as the Canarias Stratoport for HAPS & UAS and the Canarias Geo Innovation Program 2030, focused on Unmanned Aerial Systems, High-Altitude Pseudo-Satellite Platforms and aerial R&D operations for innovative solutions EO, Security, Defense and Telecom (a Canary Islands program). He has received multiple institutional and tourism sector awards for his contributions, and he has recently been nominated, by the Canary Islands Government, for the Coordination Regions Committee of the Spanish Space Agency.