Ms. Catherine Kavvada was born in Greece in 1969.
A trained lawyer with a degree in Law from the University of Athens, she is specialised in Air and Space Law with a Master’s degree from the University of Aix Marseille III.
Ms Kavvada joined the European Commission, in Brussels, in 1997 and worked initially in the Research Framework Programmes. Subsequently, as from 2000 her main service at the Commission related to space, in particular the European flagship Satellite Navigation Programmes Galileo and EGNOS (Head of Unit from 2011 to 2019 at DG GROW).
Her mandate continued in the realm of development and applications in the space sector as Head of Unit in the newly created DG DEFIS in January 2020, until her appointment as Director at the same DG as from 1 December 2020.
The career path of Ms Kavvada comprises various areas and stages of policy formulation, legislative and budgetary decision-making, delivery of large-scale space programmes including their security governance, international relations, communication, and human resources management.
Currently the mandate of Ms Kavvada at the Directorate ‘Secure and Connected Space’ at DG DEFIS comprises new space initiatives with prevalent resilience and security features, space data management policy with reinforced European credentials, mainstreaming of the European New Space as a vector for society and economy, space research, synergies between space and defence industry, and international relations and communication for the whole of DG DEFIS.