Lifetime Achievement Award of Women in Aerospace (Europe) 2016 for Candace Johnson, co-initiator of SES ASTRA and Architect of SES Global
Press Release
Brussels, 30 March 2016
In the presence of the top representatives of European space industry and institutions, among them ESA Director General Jan Wörner, Chairwomen of DLR Pascale Ehrenfreund and President of CNES, Jean-Yves Le Gall, the “Women in Aerospace Europe“ (WIA-Europe) has awarded its lifetime achievement award 2016 to Candace Johnson in recognition of her achievements as a global serial entrepreneur, a telecom networks and infrastructure expert, an investor and business angel. Candace is co-initiator of SES ASTRA and the architect of SES Global, one of the world’s leading satellite networks. She is also the founding president of Europe Online Investments S.A, Loral Cyberstar-Teleport Europe, the VATM, Oceania Womens Network Satellite (OWNSAT), Board Member of KAcific, the Global Telecom Women’s Network (GTWN), and the Global Board Ready Women (GBRW). Besides being a serial-entrepreneur and investor in multiple telecommunications networks, and startups, Candace has consistently initiated and promoted social and educational initiatives for women in the telecommunications business around the world. Currently, she is President of EBAN, the European Business Angel Networks and is promoting commercial investment in space.
In her laudatio WIA-E chairwomen Claudia Kessler emphasized the three „driving forces“ behind the unparalleled success of Candace Johnson as the most successful and renowned woman in the man´s world of space hightech and telecommunications: “Candace has a firm belief:
- in the power of communications to transcend barriers and frontiers,
- in the effectiveness of networking through sophisticated infrastructures, and
- in the boundless inspiration of creativity. “
Kessler about Johnson: „ So, when Elon Musk – with his Hyperloop, Tesla and SpaceX – is today´s visionary of mobility, Candace Johnson is our age´s Leonardo da Vinci of human and technical infrastructures.“
Besides her engagement in numberless activities and positions Candace Johnson today focuses especially on new satellite technologies, be it earth observation and intelligence, satellite situation awareness, micro-launchers and new communication technologies via laser from earth to satellite. She is also looking now for technological ways to make telepathy tomorrow as normal as mobile communications today, since for the not-to-far future she foresees that it will be possible to communicate amongst people, continents, and galaxies via brain-waves.
Women in Aerospace Europe is a networking platform for women in aerospace; it aims at attracting more women to the aerospace sector, fostering the interests of women working in aerospace, and improving the access of women to leadership positions in aerospace. The organization provides specific educational programmes for women, advocates the political commitment to aerospace programmes and recognises achievements of women in aerospace. With its lifetime award which is granted once a year the organization highlights the achievements of the most outstanding female professionals in the aerospace sector in Europe and worldwide.
Women in Aerospace Europe Contact:
executive.director@wia-europe.org
EBAN Contact:
info@eban.org
