The Australian Government has launched the Australian Space Agency, led by CEO Dr Megan Clark. The government will be contributing a grant of $15 million to start the agency to go towards international missions and space related projects.

Dr Clark was the former Chief Executive Commonwealth Scientific and Industrial Research Organisation (CSIRO). She said her primary focus for her new role will be to grow the Australian Space Industry. “It’s really to improve the lives of all Australians and I think to inspire Australians with what Australia really can do in the space industry. We think we can add another 10,000 to 20,000 jobs by 2030, and importantly grow the industry from $4 billion to $11 to $12 billion, and it [would] be a really important part of our economy,” said Dr Clark.

Dr Clark is a geologist with a BSc (Hons) in Geology and PhD in Economic Geology from Queen’s University Canada. She has had a long and successful career which began as a mine and exploration geologist. She is familiar to high pressure roles, following her mine and exploration career  she led a small high tech venture capital fund with NM Rothschild and Sons Australia and worked in a corporate venture fund with Advent International in Boston.

In her new role Dr Clark aims to support the long term development of space technologies, grow Australia’s domestic space industry, and secure our place in the global space economy.

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