Chief Technology and Innovation Officer, Leonardo, Italy
Franco Ongaro is the Chief Technology and Innovation Officer of Leonardo since February 2022.
He graduated in Aeronautical Engineering from Politecnico di Milano and joined the European Space Agency (ESA) in 1987, working on the Columbus project.
He held various positions at ESA: among others, he managed the start of Aurora and Iris Program and was the Head of the Advanced Concepts and Technology Planning Department, starting the Concurrent Design Facility and the Advanced Concepts Team.
In the last eleven years prior to joining Leonardo, Franco Ongaro was Director of Technology, Engineering and Quality (D/TEC) and Head of ESA's European Space Research and Technology Centre (ESTEC) in Noordwijk, the Netherlands.
