UN Secretary-General Antonio Guterres has appointed Indian-origin Aarti Hola-Maini as the Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs (UNOOSA) in Vienna. UK’s Hola-Maini will replace Italy’s Simonetta Di Pippo.
UNOOSA promotes international cooperation in the peaceful uses and exploration of space and using space science and technology for sustainable economic and social development.
Aarti has over 25 years of experience in the space sector, including managerial and advocacy assignments. Given all this, she has been entrusted with the responsibility of the Director of the United Nations Office for Outer Space Affairs.
Most recently, she was Executive Vice President of Sustainability, Policy and Impact at Northstar Earth & Space. Before this, Maini spent more than 18 years as Secretary General of the Global Satellite Operators Association, a statement released on Sunday said.
- Aarti Hola-Maini previously served as the World Economic Forum’s Global Future Council member.
- Has been a member of the Advisory Group for the Space Sustainability Rating managed by eSpace at the Ecole Polytechnique Fédérale de Lausanne (EPFL) Space Center.
- Aarti has also been responsible for being a member of the Advisory Board of the Satellite Industry Association of India.
- She has also been a senior space policy advisor to Forum Europe.
- Aarti Hola-Maini has been an expert advisor on Space Traffic Management for the European Union Study 2021-2023.
- She was one of the main architects of the Crisis Connectivity Charter established in 2015 for emergency telecommunications via satellite with the United Nations World Food Programme’s Emergency Telecommunications Cluster.
Aarti Hola-Maini has graduated in German Law from King’s College London, UK. She has also done a Master in Business Administration from HEC, Paris. She has also been an alumnus of the International Space University. She knows many languages. She speaks English, French, German and Punjabi and knows a little Dutch.
