Ben Olivier

Ben has more than 30 years of experience in space engineering and in particular photonic systems. He served as CEO of Thales Alenia Space UK for five years, building a business of approximately 200 staff producing spacecraft and ground equipment. TAS UK built on the acquisition by TAS of SEA’s space division, which Ben co-founded, serving for 10 years in various technical and operational roles. Prior to that Ben specialised in space and defence technical and programme leadership, with a significant expertise in optical systems dating back to his role as the Design Authority for the Photon Detector Assemblies on the Hubble Space Telescope. In 2020 Ben was appointed a Council member for the STFC, which designs, builds and operates the UK’s large science facilities and provides the UK’s contributions to international facilities such as CERN. Ben is a non-exec for two deep-tech start-ups and an expert advisor to the UK Space Agency.