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Franck Poirrier, CEO of Sodern, named Engineer of the Future by Usine Nouvelle magazine 12-06-2017 | 3 minutes
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This award rewards the trajectory of Sodern, which, under the leadership of Franck Poirrier, has been able to anticipate the ruptures in the space sector to consolidate its leading position in its traditional markets, and to successfully position itself in the emerging market of satellite constellations.
The title of Engineer of the Future, category “Industrial Project” was awarded to Franck Poirrier on December 5 at the Engineer of the Future ceremony organised by the magazine “Usine Nouvelle”. He was rewarded for the creation of his internal start-up in 2015, with the aim of designing a star tracker adapted to constellations of small satellites. Two years later, the result is impressive: Auriga, the new-generation star tracker, sets a record for lightness, volume reduction, and competitiveness. Its production capacity of one unit per hour, against one unit per week for old products, makes it perfectly suited to the “new space”. 1800 Auriga units will be produced in two years for OneWeb, the first customer of this little innovative jewel. That’s even more than the number of star trackers ever produced worldwide.
Since his arrival in 2003, Franck Poirrier has fostered a dynamic of innovation within the company, seeking to transform the corporate culture by promoting individual initiative and by merging the business units dedicated to space and neutronics, with the aim of fostering technological synergies and sharing good practices.
At the same time, Franck Poirrier defined Sodern’s strategy of prioritising the production of mass-produced products, a source of increased export competitiveness, in line with Sodern’s objective of consolidating its leading position in an increasingly competitive manufacturing market.
