Now that our interactions are mostly digital, it is the perfect time to introduce you to our team members. Who are they, what is their previous professional experience, and why did they choose ISISPACE to work. Get to know our Sales team members.
Anna Kalabina-Slootweg, Sales Account Manager
How and when did you start at ISISPACE?
I joined ISISPACE in 2015 when I was looking for a new challenge in a different field.
What was your experience prior to joining the company?
Before I joined the company, I was working in FMCG as a Key Account Manager.
Space has always been a passion for you?
Not really, but it has been in my life for more than six years and, so far, it has been fun.
What attracts you the most about your role?
Working with different types of customers and cultures and finding suitable solutions to their needs. Handling front-line communication with a client, I find my role important and responsible in representing ISISPACE, delivering high-quality customer service, and increasing the company’s awareness and share on a global market.
How is a regular day at ISISPACE?
A regular day at ISISPACE is very dynamic and requires a lot of multitasking. On the one hand, you continuously answer dozens of daily customers’ inquiries. On the other hand, you support internal activities for the already made orders, attending various telecons with your accounts and have several team meetings. All that teaches you how to be most efficient and set your priorities right.
What do you like most about working at ISISPACE?
Despite the continuously growing number of employees, ISISPACE is perhaps one of a few companies which manage to keep a family-like environment. We all come from different cultures and backgrounds, and all that in combination adds great value to what we do! ISISPACE knows how to have fun – besides various company’s events and weekly Friday afternoon drinks (on hold during Covid-19 pandemic situation), many of us occasionally cook or bake something for everyone to enjoy, not to mention endless birthday cakes, cookies, and sweets.
Brian Treacy, Technical Sales Engineer
How and when did you start at ISISPACE?
It was a very hot summer in 2019. I ran into the ISISPACE team while supporting a conference in Berlin. A recruitment interview followed. A few months later, my wife and I packed up a van of belongings and drove from Berlin to Delft.
What was your experience prior to joining the company?
My previous experience involved five years as an engineer working on private/commercial jet engines and Azimuth marine thrusters for Rolls Royce. After this, I returned to university to gain my master’s degree, where I participated in several University projects which took me all across Europe for reviews and testing.
Space has always been a passion for you?
I always found space fascinating and become obsessed after following the Rosetta mission. Seeing the ongoing technical achievements and discoveries being made, I’ve decided that I want to play my part.
What attracts you the most about your role?
Interacting with people from across the world on a daily basis is what attracts me the most. In addition to meeting great customers and working with them to achieve their goals.
How is a regular day at ISISPACE?
Lots of video calls and emails with customers to discuss plans and how ISISPACE can enable their plans. Our customers can range from student teams looking to fly a 1U satellite to large new space companies looking to revolution space with their new service. The second half of my day usually involves working with our engineering teams to better understand our range of products. One hour, you can be talking about power systems and the next launch interface equipment.
What do you like most about working at ISISPACE?
I like the most being able to work with great people and having the opportunity to be involved with the newest developments within the Space sector. To date, I have been lucky to work with many great customers ranging from student teams wanting to learn to missions targeting the moon.
Kevin Segura, Technical Sales Manager
How and when did you start at ISISPACE?
I joined the team in 2016 – NewSpace was getting trendy. I was looking for a dynamic, innovative, and international environment where I could express my passion and grow together with like-minded people.
What was your experience prior to joining the company?
Graduating a year before joining ISISPACE – I was mostly shaped by my student projects, in which I evolved in quality of project manager, by my short stay in the UK, as a mechanical engineer. And the additional year spent navigating through the astrophysics research world, both in France and in China, to support the definition of an international science mission as a system engineer.
Space has always been a passion for you?
I always had a keen interest in high-tech and science in general. From studying planets specifications on my dad antique computer as a young boy to shivering when witnessing rockets boosters landing side-by-side for the first time – I am always starving for the next universe unveiling.
What attracts you the most about your role?
On one side, I enjoy being at the interface where I can guide our customers to enable applications I believe in whether they are looking at serving the society with useful space data, building space capacity for their country to grow, or expanding our knowledge base with innovative science missions. On the other side, I appreciate it when I can bring in new projects and provide support to enable our company to grow in a sustainable way for everybody.
How is a regular day at ISISPACE?
Regular is not the most easily term coined in the NewSpace industry. But overall, a typical day will orbit between getting up to speed with space news, getting in touch with new customers to define and assess their needs iterating with our experts to define relevant technical solutions, and aligning both our board and customer expectations with the right value proposition.
What do you like most about working at ISISPACE?
With more than 30 different nationalities – ISISPACE offers a multi-cultural environment which I truly value. I find the dynamism and challenges I was looking at early in my career while enjoying meeting incredible people coming from many horizons.
Steven van de Heijning, Business Development Engineer
How and when did you start at ISISPACE?
I have been with ISISPACE since the summer of 2019.
What was your experience prior to joining the company?
After my studies in Space Systems Engineering at the Delft University of Technology (TU Delft), I had the unique opportunity to work on the YES2 satellite, building and testing re-entry capsules and parabolic-flight testing. Then I completed a professional doctorate in Instrumentation Design and continued my space career, working on gas flow control systems for ion engine. During this time, I worked on several missions, one of which being the Bepi-Colombo mission. I spent the next eight years travelling around the world, working all kinds of jobs, but I never lost my passion for space. So, when the opportunity to join the ‘NewSpace’ industry arose, it was an easy decision.
Space has always been a passion for you?
When I was young, I always wanted to be a carpenter or a mason, a job where I could build and create something with my own hands. But, when the Discovery Channel became available on public television, I always stopped to watch whenever there was something on about space exploration or technology.
What attracts you the most about your role?
The best part is to work with all departments in the company to deliver a solution that fits the exact customer needs. No mission is ever the same; each time is a challenge to bring together mission objectives, technical requirements, budget, timeline, and risks to make them all fit like a giant puzzle.
How is a regular day at ISISPACE?
There is no regular day. One day I could be analysing contracts with a customer and discussing new projects with another. I could be writing proposals, calculation costs, discussing the development and implementation of new features and products, working with the Marketing team, discussing targets and objectives with the board, or all that throughout a single day.
What do you like most about working at ISISPACE? The exciting part is the working environment of everyone coming together with a common goal. There is a shared sense of commitment throughout the entire process, from satellite development to successful delivery in space. The most rewarding piece, of course, is celebrating our successes together as a whole company.
Interested in a career at ISISPACE? Check out our Careers section.