Three members of the Italian Space Agency’s board of directors have resigned, resulting in the board’s dissolution. This clears the way for the appointment of an extraordinary commissioner to lead the agency following the death of its president, Teodoro Valente, on 16 July.
ASI announced on 5 August that acting vice president Elda Turco Bulgherini and directors Stefano Gualandris and Stefano Arcifa had submitted their resignations.
“The three members of the board relinquished their mandates to allow the Italian Space Agency, which will be involved in managing important national, European and multilateral events in the coming months, to return to operating at full capacity as soon as possible,” the agency stated.
In an interview with Italian publication AGEEI/Aerospazionews on 6 August, departing board member Stefano Arcifa explained that the resignations would allow the agency to address the void left by Valente’s death ahead of several key commitments.
“The ASI statute does not provide for the death of the president, but only his absence or incapacity,” Arcifa said. “The law, however, stipulates that, if a third of the Board of Directors is missing, ASI must appoint a special administrator. This was the best solution, the most appropriate for the organization of the ASI, which has a series of important events in the coming months, starting with the European Space Agency (ESA) ministerial meeting to be held in Italy in December, precisely during the Italian presidency of ESA.”
Under Italian law, the commissioner can remain in place for up to 12 months. According to the legislation, the commissioner is appointed to “ensure the functioning of the agency until the new president and new board of directors take office.”
The ASI statement offered no indication of who might be appointed as the extraordinary commissioner. Arcifa said the “nominee will undoubtedly be a high-profile one” but offered no further indication of who it might be.
This will not be the first time ASI has been placed under the stewardship of an extraordinary commissioner. In November 2018, then-president Roberto Battiston was removed from office by Italy’s new government under a law that allows an incoming administration to revoke certain senior appointments made by the previous government shortly before it left office. Additionally, the terms of the agency’s four other board members had expired months earlier, and their temporary extension had ended in September, leaving ASI without a functioning leadership structure following Battiston’s departure.
Piero Benvenuti was appointed extraordinary commissioner on 14 November and led the agency for almost six months, until Giorgio Saccoccia and a new board took office on 3 May 2019.
