Jean-Yves Le Gall is Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Starsem, the Arianespace company's European-Russian subsidiary in charge of operating and marketing the Soyuz launch vehicle.

Jean-Yves Le Gall is also Chief Executive Officer of Arianespace, the world's leading commercial launch services company. His mission is to define the company's commercial strategy, and to develop and maintain a close relationship with its international clientele. As part of his job, he represents Arianespace in relations with European governments, space agencies and industrial partners, shareholders in the company.

Jean-Yves Le Gall has devoted his entire career to the European space program. He has held a number of management positions concerning both programs and strategy, in particular at the French Ministry of Industry, Novespace, a CNES subsidiary specialized in technology transfer and the French Space Agency CNES (Centre National d'Etudes Spatiales).

He is a member of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA) and he received the Astronautics Prize from the French Association of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AAAF) in 2001. He was recognized by the magazine Via Satellite as its 2005 Satellite Executive of the Year. Mr Le Gall holds the rank of Knight in both the Legion of Honor and the National Order of Merit.