My name is Mireia Colina-Fatjó. To understand who I am you would need to know more about me.

I have a double degree in Telecommunications Engineering. In my fourth year of University, I attended an Astronomy course and I became fascinated with the subject. I discovered a new world of which I knew I had to be part of. Since then, it has been my professional challenge.

For my second degree I went to study in Turin (Italy). Soon after I started working at a research centre called ISRIM, doing research on atomic and hydrogen clocks that would be part of the instrumentation on board of the Galileo satellites.

In 2006, I had the opportunity to work at ESTEC, where I worked directly on the validation of GIOVE-A and GIOVE-B satellites. It had been an amazing period, during which I have grown and learned a lot. In 2009, coming back home, I joined INDRA Barcelona as technical manager for GNSS applications.

Looking for new challenges, in 2013, I left technical work and moved to a more commercial and strategic side.

Since then, I am Space Business Manager on behalf of GTD group. This is a job that I enjoy very much because I am not focused on the same project the whole time but I am actively involved in several programmes, initiatives and international missions. Moreover, I am collaborating with amazing people around the world.

What am I working on?

My main functions are to seek and realize new opportunities. Nevertheless, the challenge is how to do what I do: With a deep knowledge of the market, technologies, and developments, understanding the competition, its prices, its arguments, its strengths and weaknesses, and following the evolution of the market in the complete value chain. In addition, I am involved in my own company projects, where I have to look in depth at the benefits and capacities we have. Building on that understanding, I then have to find partners, organize consortia, coordinate technical teams, prepare documentation for national and international tenders, both in the institutional and commercial market.

My commitment to WIA EUROPE: I am funder and co-Leader of Barcelona’s local chapter. When somebody asks me about why I decided to start it up, I always say that I loved being part of this network from the beginning because it is doing its purpose from an inspirational and inclusive perspective.

You can get in touch with Mireia at WIA-E Barcelona.