Founder & CEO of The Exploration Company (TEC), the fastest growing European space tech startup. In 4 years, TEC grew from 4 to 400 employees, raised 225 million EUR from tier-1 European venture funds, signed 850 million EUR contracts, and opened offices in France, Germany, Italy, USA and UAE. TEC is the only European startup where both French and German governments seat as Board Observers, and TEC is the first and only European space company having signed a space act agreement with NASA.
TEC produces space capsules which carry goods and humans to space stations. These technologies also serve defense needs to protect space assets in situ. TEC has won the European capsule competition, pioneering a new private-public partnership business model to finance European space infrastructures.
TEC mission is to build space vehicles across nations to foster cooperation and peace. TEC vision is to master end-to-end the space transportation chain, starting with capsules (2 flown in space - final product in development), lunar vehicles (1st prototype developed with the UAE), and rockets (TEC has started the development of the biggest European rocket engine).
Prior to founding TEC, Helene has served as an executive at Airbus Defence & Space and ArianeGroup both in operational and strategic roles: from starting as Head of Innovation to leading major European space programs. She is the Founder and Chair of Urania Ventures, a deep tech investment company. She is the Founder and Chairman of The Karman Project, a non-profit foundation which fosters trust, independent dialogue and cooperation between the ones who shape the future of space. She graduated from ENS-Ulm, Sciences-Po Paris and ENA.
She is married, has 4 kids, and loves cello, tennis and ski touring.