SES has confirmed the appointment of Elisabeth (Lisa) Pataki as its new Chief Financial Officer (CFO), effective from 16 June 2025. Pataki, who brings over two decades of experience in finance within publicly listed multinational aerospace and defence firms, will take over from Sandeep Jalan, who has held the CFO role since May 2020.
Lisa Pataki, speaking about her new role, said, “I look forward to stepping into this new position and working with everyone at SES to jointly deliver an exciting future for the years to come.”
Before joining SES, Pataki was with Aerojet Rocketdyne, part of L3Harris, where she contributed to profitability improvements by streamlining operations and focusing on capital investments for sustainable growth. She also served as Group CFO at Comet Group from 2020 to 2023, achieving an EBITDA margin increase exceeding five percentage points. Earlier in her career, from 2005 to 2015, she held various finance roles at RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies), where she led the financial integration of Applied Signal Technologies, one of Raytheon’s significant acquisitions in 2011.
The company’s Board expressed gratitude for Sandeep Jalan’s leadership during his tenure. Lisa Pataki will collaborate closely with him to ensure a seamless transition before his departure at the end of July 2025.
Adel Al-Saleh, SES’s CEO, commented on the change. He said, “I would like to thank Sandeep for his steadfast leadership over the last five years where he has driven continuous execution improvement and transformation while strengthening the company’s balance sheet with a competitive cost of capital and delivering healthy cash returns to shareholders.” He added, “We are pleased to welcome Lisa as our new CFO. Lisa has extensive experience in the aerospace and defence ecosystem and has completed several successful M&A finance integrations. Moreover, her ability to develop financial strategies that prioritise operational focus, efficiency, and profitable investments will strengthen SES’s Leadership Team, helping SES achieve our mission of being a leading satellite player.”
Sandeep Jalan also shared his thoughts, saying: “I would like to thank everyone at SES for their outstanding teamwork.” He added, “I am proud of the strides we have made during the past years, and I will continue to cheer SES’s progress in the industry.”
