Overview

Gender

female

Claudie Haigneré is a Member of the Board of Directors at Orange sinnce June 2012.

Claudie is a French national, born in 1957. From February 2010 to March 2015, the date on which Claudie reintegrated the European Spatial Agency, she has chaired Universcience, a public institution resulting from the partnership between two prominent French science museums: the Palais de la découverte and the Cité des sciences et de l’industrie.

A qualified doctor, Claudie specialises in rheumatology and aeronautical medicine. She holds a Doctorate in Sciences and was an Astronaut with the French space agency CNES (Centre national d'études spatiales) and then with the European Space Agency (ESA). As such, Claudie took part in a mission to the MIR space station in 1996 and to the International Space Station (ISS) in 2001.

Following a term as Associate Minister for Research and New Technologies from June 2002 to March 2004, Claudie was appointed Associate Minister for European Affairs from March 2004 to May 2005. In 2005 she became an Advisor to the Chief Executive Officer of the ESA on European space policy; she held this post until 2009.

Claudie lends her support to several health associations: homes for parents of hospitalised children, the Alliance des maladies rares (Rare Illnesses Alliance) with the Groupama Foundation for Health and the Kourir Association for children suffering from juvenile rheumatoid arthritis.

As well as being the patron of the Fondation Courtin-Arthritis (against arthritis), Claudie
is a Director of a number of foundations. These are the Fondation C-Génial, the Académie des technologies (which both promote science and technology in France), the Fondation de France (fostering philanthropy), the corporate L’Oréal Foundation, École normale supérieure in Paris and PRES Hesam (two prestigious French education and research institutions).

Claudie is a Member of the Académie des technologies, the Académie des sports and of the Académie des sciences et technologies (Belgium) and of the International Academy of Astronautics (IAA).

In 2006, Claudie was awarded the Louise Weiss Prize for her European activities. Claudie acts as the Patron for a wide array of universities and graduate classes, in addition to the space centre Cité de l’Espace in Toulouse and Pitié-Salpétrière hospital’s Institute of Myology. The latter was set up by the AFM (Association Française contre les Myopathies), the French association against myopathy.

Claudie holds France’s highest honour as a Grand Officier de la légion d’honneur.