Leaf Space Leadership Refresh - New CEO

10th October 2024

An Italian space company offering Ground Segment as a Service (GSaaS) for the global space industry has announced the reinforcement of its senior leadership team, with a view to positioning itself for further growth.

Leaf Space, who employ 50 staff from their headquarters in Italy and operate close to 30 ground stations in 16 locations worldwide, successfully closed its Series B fundraise last year with more than €30m of total investment. Meanwhile, just last month, the company recorded more than 15,000 tracked passes of satellites in orbit during a single calendar month - an increase of 50% over the past year and a new high for the firm that was set up in a garage in Milan ten years ago.

The news broke during LeafCon, an event organised by the Leaf Space team to cultivate close relationships with the company’s valued customers, and focuses on the expansion of their network and new senior leadership appointments to join the company’s founding partners. Cristina Zanchi was unveiled as the company’s new Chief Executive Officer (CEO), following an extensive recruitment process led by Co-Founders Jonata Puglia and Giovanni Pandolfi Bortoletto. Ms. Zanchi boasts a wealth of experience in senior leadership roles within the telecommunications industry, as well as previous positions at household name companies such as Orange, KLM and Shell. Her proven track record for defining and executing strategic planning, with an emphasis on elevating customer experience and operational excellence, was seen as a major asset for the firm as it seeks to deliver upon its vision for product innovation and further expansion as part of the dynamic, fast-paced, ‘new space’ economy.

Previous CEO Jonata Puglia, who will move into a strategic role supporting Ms. Zanchi and focusing on the facilitation of new strategic partnerships, stated, “During the last ten years, our company has gone from strength to strength. This week’s news, shared during our exclusive customer gathering, marks further evolution and a pivotal moment in the history of Leaf Space. With new investment successfully secured and a host of significant operational achievements in place, the foundations are in place for another exciting decade of growth and success.”  

“From the moment we met Cristina, we could tell that she possessed the experience, vision and ambition required to move our business forward and expand our customer base. What’s more, the fresh perspective that her background enabled is already proving to be an asset - I’m very much looking forward to working alongside her” added Mr. Puglia.

Mr. Giovanni Pandolfi Bortoletto, co-founder and Chief Strategy Officer of Leaf Space, stated “We are growing fast: in the last year we activated 8 new sites worldwide, including the establishment of our own teleports in Chile, Mexico and Iceland. We will soon get to a global coverage with more than 30 active ground stations, also with Ka-band capabilities, which, together with our innovative concept of operations and ease of use, enable us to serve the market in a new way. This, together with the strengthen management team will allow to execute our vision to seamlessly connect space and enable the sustainable development of the space ecosystem”.