Born in the United States on June 8, 1960, at the beginning of the Space Age, the CSL’s new pilot graduated in 1985 at the ULg in aerospace civil engineering. His career as a manager took shape within the aeronautics industry, notably in the field of aeroplane engines. After an apprenticeship at the University’s LTAS (Aerospace Technologies Laboratory), and then in a small and medium enterprise which specialised in measuring instruments for metallurgy, he in 1992 joined FN Moteurs, which would become Techspace Aero within the French group Snecma. For ten years he had various responsibilities within the production, quality and engineering departments. In 2002, Techspace Aero entrusted him with the management of the military aeroplane engine Maintenance-Repair-Overhaul-Test Department.

In 2008, Snecma-Safran ceded this division to the American aircraft engine manufacturer Pratt & Whitney (United Technologies) through which it established itself in Europe. Thierry Chantraine became the senior manager of Pratt & Whitney Belgium Engines Center at Vottem. At the beginning of this year he left the post over differences of opinion concerning management and local strategy. ‘I consider that a business is above all implanted in the economic fabric of a region, that it feeds of it to create the value of its products, services and jobs. It is the strategic guiding thread which I intend to follow to strengthen the potential and guarantee the future of the CSL.’

It is thus a specialist in testing and quality in the domain of aeronautics who finds himself at the helm of the Liège Space Centre: ‘I am very interested by spatial activity. In addition I would have liked to become an astronaut. The space odyssey remains a great adventure for which much remains to be done. In investing in this mission at the University which educated me, I want to breathe new life, in a progressive manner, into the CSL’s capabilities.’ Between his leaving Pratt & Whitney and his appointment as Director of the CSL he shared his experience as a manager – project management and creativity methods – with Professor Jean-François Leroy and his Social Psychology of Groups and Organisations Department, within the framework of the MecaTech centre of excellence Mint Project (Marshall Plan). ‘This transition was a kind of training to take the helm of the CSL.’