Netherlands
Frank Salzgeber
(Head of Technology Transfer Programme Office)
Region: The Netherlands: Noordwijk
Organisation: European Space Agency
EMMIA PLP: European Institutional Expert (Working Group: Better access to finance)
Mr Frank M. Salzgeber is Head of the Technology Transfer Programme Office of the European Space Agency (ESA). Prior this post he was the Head of Commercial Development in European Astronaut Department of the Directorate of Human Spaceflight Micro- gravity and Exploration at the European Space Agency (ESA). Prior to joining ESA, Frank held the position of Chief Operating Officer (COO and CFO) at an IT start-up with the headquarter in Munich, Germany between 2000 and 2003. Frank also spent seven years at Apple Computer (1993 – 2000) initially as an account manager and then as a sales manager covering Central Europe.
He holds a degree in Graduated Industrial Engineering, is married, has two sons and is living in the Netherlands. Frank is member of the advisory board of the Triangle Venture Capital Group, the boards of directors of European Business Network (EBN), and chairman of the EIROforum (CERN, EFDA-JET, EMBL, ESA, ESO, ESRF, European XFEL and ILL) working group on Innovation management and knowledge/technology transfer.
The main mission of the Technology Transfer Programme is to strengthen the competitiveness of European Industry and to demonstrate the benefit of the European Space Programme to European citizens via the transferring of space technologies to non-space applications.
The Technology Transfer Programme Office (TTPO) is responsible for defining the overall approach and strategy for the transfer of space technologies, applications and systems, including the incubation of start up companies and a related venture fund.
The TTPO has transferred 250 technologies since the programmed start and is supporting direct and indirect around 100 start-up a year via the 6 ESA Business Incubation Centers. The TTPO has also initiated as a Limited Partner the Open Sky Technology Fund, a 100 Mio. Venture Fund, which invests in start-ups using Space technology.
