Piero Messina

Biography

Piero Messina is a Senior Policy Adviser in the Director General’s Cabinet at the European Space Agency (ESA), with more than 35 years of experience in the space sector. He manages relations with ESA Member States and helps prepare ministerial meetings where governments negotiate priorities and funding for Europe’s space programmes. He previously led the team supporting ESA’s Council and coordinated the advisory group that produced Revolution Space, a report on Europe’s role in future space exploration.

As an adviser to ESA’s Director of Human Spaceflight and Exploration, Messina worked with international partners on the International Space Station. He helped develop the Global Exploration Strategy, which brought together 14 space agencies, contributed to ESA’s Moon Village concept and led a joint working group with Luxembourg on space resources. This experience informs his interest in how governments, space agencies and industry can agree on rules for lunar activities and give emerging space nations a voice in shaping them.

His doctoral research at the University of Padua examines how Italy built its space capabilities through European cooperation and its bilateral relationship with the United States. He has taught at the International Space University, NYU Abu Dhabi and the University of Padua, where he uses simulations of ESA ministerial meetings to teach multilateral negotiation. He holds a degree in political science from the University of Florence and master’s degrees from the International Space University and the École des Hautes Études en Sciences Sociales in Paris.

He brings to technology diplomacy a practitioner’s understanding of how governments reconcile national priorities, share the costs and risks of ambitious programmes, and sustain cooperation as strategic interests shift.