Eric Poulain has been Director of the Satellite Systems & Operations (SSO) Line of Business since July 2022. His job involves overseeing operational support at customer sites in mainland France and French Guiana, as well as the development of the ground segment of space systems.

Before joining the private sector, he worked for the French Defence Procurement Agency (DGA) in the field of satellite imagery, for the French Ministry of the Economy and Finance as deputy director in charge of business policy, and at the French Embassy in the USA, an economic advisor from 2005 to 2008. Eric then spent 11 years with Thales Alenia Space, where he held various project management positions, including that of Director of the Syracuse IV Programme from 2015. This major military communications programme, which aims to replace the constellation of communications satellites used by the French armed forces, and the related ground segments, is led by Thales Alenia Space in cooperation with Airbus. He joined Telespazio France in 2019 as Head of the Telespazio facility in Kourou, where 130 employees essentially providing launch services on behalf of ordering parties from the Guiana Space Centre (CNES, Arianespace, AVIO).