Wiener Kernisan

President, Arianespace, Inc., Washington, D.C.

Wiener Kernisan is President of Arianespace, Inc., with responsibility for guiding Arianespace’s customer, industry and governmental relations at the company’s U.S. affiliate. He also is directly engaged with sales activities across the significant U.S. and Canadian launch services markets.

The Washington, D.C.-based Arianespace, Inc. was established in 1982, and is a key element of Arianespace’s international presence. Approximately one-fourth of the launch services contracts signed by Arianespace since its creation in 1980 are with U.S. customers, and over half involve U.S.-built spacecraft.

Kernisan brings more than 35 years of experience in the commercial launch and satellite sectors to Arianespace, Inc. He joined Arianespace, Inc. as its Vice President, Sales and Marketing, in 2000 and was promoted to his current role of President in 2016.

Before coming to Arianespace, he worked as Launch Systems and Spacecraft Systems Engineering Manager at SES in Luxembourg. He also was a spacecraft designer and Systems Engineering Manager at Lockheed Martin Commercial Space Systems, the former Astro Space division of General Electric (previously RCA Astro Electronics) in Princeton, New Jersey.

Kernisan received a Master of Science in mechanical engineering from McGill University in Montreal, Canada. He also holds a Bachelor of Applied Sciences and an Engineering Diploma from Ecole Polytechnique, Universite de Montreal, in Canada.