On Thursday 12 February 2026, Luxembourg non-profit organisation Asteroid Foundation announced it had elected Błażej Gładysz-Lehmann as incoming Chair, Edgar Milic as new Board Director and Djamila Aouada as Second Vice Chair.
The Asteroid Foundation is a non-profit organisation founded in 2017 in Luxembourg, home of Asteroid Day, a UN-recognised event that unites institutions, industry, businesses and academia each year on 30 June.
The Foundation reported Gładysz-Lehmann follows Markus Payer, who has served as Chair of the Asteroid Foundation since March 2020 and who remains one of the nine Directors on the Foundation’s Board. Edgar Milic follows Daniel Biedermann, who leaves the Board after six years’ service. The Board also elected Board Director Djamila Aouada to the role of Second Vice Chair.
Błażej Gładysz-Lehmann is a Partner in the corporate law and mergers and acquisitions practice at Arendt & Medernach in Luxembourg. He advises institutional and retail investors, as well as private equity funds, on local and international transactions, restructurings and day-to-day corporate law matters relating to the structuring and creation of companies and joint ventures in Luxembourg. He has been a Board Director of the Foundation since June 2024.
Edgar Milic is a senior space industry executive, Managing Director of GomSpace Luxembourg and Vice President of the Advanced Missions business unit. Previously CEO of OHB LuxSpace, he held senior roles at SES and other space companies across Europe, bringing over 25 years of experience in satellite programmes, deep-space missions and international business leadership.
Professor Djamila Aouada is the Deputy Director of the University of Luxembourg’s Interdisciplinary Centre for Security, Reliability and Trust (SnT). She is the founder and head of the Computer Vision, Imaging and Machine Intelligence (CVI2) research group, heads the Computer Vision Lab and co-heads the Zero-Gravity Space Lab. Professor Aouada joined the Foundation’s Board in June 2024.
“The Asteroid Foundation is honoured and delighted to appoint Błażej as new Chair,” said Asteroid Foundation’s First Vice Chair, Dorin Pruniaru. “We express our deepest gratitude to Markus, who has led the organisation with a steady hand, and to Daniel, for his crucial contributions to the development of the Foundation. We welcome Edgar as our newest Board Director and Djamila in her new role as Second Vice Chair. Together, we will continue the Foundation’s successful journey and take it to the next level of activity and engagement. We are committed to focusing on space science and education and engaging with young generations in Luxembourg and around the world. We are grateful for the support and recognition from Luxembourg’s government, the Luxembourg Space Agency (LSA), our sponsors, founders and institutional as well as international partners.”
The Asteroid Foundation’s mission is to promote public awareness and education about asteroids and space through global and local events, educational initiatives and strategic partnerships. The Foundation strives to inspire a greater understanding of asteroids and space and to inform broad audiences about their significance to our planet and to humanity’s future.
