Meet ESA’s latest feminine management

The theme of this 12 months’s Worldwide Ladies’s Day on 8 March is #GiveToGain, emphasising the significance of reciprocal help and group. Advancing gender equality is about multiplying alternatives for everybody to thrive. Whether or not by way of visibility, advocacy, schooling, coaching, mentoring, or time, contributing to ladies’s development helps create a extra interconnected world.

This mentality is mirrored within the consideration to gender stability as one of many principal pillars of ESA’s Range and Inclusiveness efforts. Over time, ESA has applied concrete actions to extend the illustration of ladies on the company and to make sure an inclusive and supporting work setting, from strengthening expertise acquisition measures and dealing to scale back bias within the hiring course of to selling inner ladies networks and offering alternatives for skilled progress.

Thanks to those measures, feminine illustration within the company is on the rise. On the finish of 2025, Ladies represented 37% of all new recruitments, with the most recent determine bringing ESA very near the goal of 40% new feminine recruits set by Agenda 2025. Ladies additionally reached 27% of prime administration positions, a outstanding consequence in comparison with the 8% recorded in 2016.

Ladies in management at ESA come from very totally different backgrounds and be part of the company by way of many alternative paths. To offer a snapshot of the varied experience of the ladies at ESA and present the human facet of the statistics, we’re delighted to current a few of the ladies who joined ESA in 2025 by getting into management positions: Céline Begon, Christine Boelsche, Céline Folsché and Ildiko Raczne Szoke.

Céline Begon

A graduate of the Toulouse Institute of Political Research, Céline Begon joined the French Embassy in Washington, D.C., the place she served as a defence analyst (2011-2012) after which as deputy attaché for area affairs (2012-2014). She was then appointed to a mission on the safety of European area applications on the Common Secretariat for Defence and Nationwide Safety (2014-2018) on the French Prime Minister’s workplace. In August 2018, she was appointed advisor for area affairs on the Everlasting Illustration of France to the European Union and chair of the Area Group on the Council of the European Union from January to June 2022. In October 2022, Céline turned Director of European Public Affairs at Thales Alenia Area. She was  then EU Key Account Supervisor at Thales, from Might 2025. 

In November 2025, Céline joined ESA as the brand new Head of EU relations workplace and Head of the ESA Brussels workplace, appearing as the primary channel of communication in the direction of the EU establishments (European Council, European Parliament and European Fee).

Christine Boelsche

Christine Bölsche is an skilled chief of Digital , Information, and IT issues throughout the pharmaceutical, healthcare, life science, and chemical industries. Her candy spot lies on the intersection of enterprise and expertise — the place synthetic and human intelligence come collectively to place organisations for the longer term. With robust entrepreneurial pondering and deep strategic perception, she shapes digital transformations with a concentrate on sustainable enterprise progress, innovation, effectivity, and scalability. She combines technological excellence with organisational transformation, enabling corporations to handle operations in a data-driven manner, make sooner selections, set up digital merchandise, and develop extra resiliently. Her work delivers measurable influence and positions digitalisation, knowledge, and expertise as central drivers of competitiveness and long-term enterprise success. She has labored as Chief Digital and Info Officer of a world enterprise unit at Merck KGaA, the place she was liable for driving digital and knowledge strategic transformations alongside your entire worth chain.

As of 2025, she serves as Chief Digital and Info Officer at ESA. Right here, she leads IT groups throughout all institutions, with a mandate to advance ESA’s “Federation of IT”, aligning expertise, processes, and folks to offer a resilient, scalable, and future-ready technological spine for the company.

Céline Folsché

Céline Folsché serves because the Head of the Public Worldwide Legislation Division inside the Authorized Providers Division at ESA, the place she leads a devoted staff of attorneys liable for advising the company on issues of public worldwide legislation. Her position encompasses the negotiation of agreements with worldwide companions and offering in-depth authorized evaluation on the company’s governance framework.

Having being admitted to the New York State Bar, Céline beforehand headed the Worldwide Legislation Unit on the Organisation for Financial Co-operation and Improvement and has held advisory positions on the French Ministry of Overseas Affairs. She has represented governments earlier than worldwide courts and lectured at main French universities.

Ildiko Raczne Szoke

Ildikó Raczne Szoke is an skilled HR skilled, having labored for greater than 30 years in each the non-public and public sectors in worldwide contexts. All through her profession, she has held quite a lot of senior management roles overlaying the complete breadth of Human Sources, together with over a decade as Head of HR in a number of entities. Adept at translating complicated strategic wants into sensible, value-adding folks options, she is deeply dedicated to growing expertise, strengthening organisational capabilities and fostering inclusive, excessive performing cultures.

In September 2025, Ildikó joined ESA as Head of the Human Sources Division, after main the Centre of Experience in HR on the European Central Financial institution for greater than eight years. At ESA, her mission is to drive a renewed HR coverage agenda with a powerful concentrate on growing a future-ready workforce, strengthening abilities and enhancing profession growth.

Ildikó is keen about her position and is at all times on the look-out for progressive HR options that help folks’s growth and construct high-performing groups, whereas additionally selling well-being and an inclusive organisational tradition. She performs a central position in supporting ESA’s long-term transformation and Technique 2040, making certain the company continues to draw, develop and retain distinctive expertise throughout Europe.