Padraig Mc Carthy

About Padraig Mc Carthy

Padraig McCarthy is a seasoned finance executive with deep expertise in the satellite and space communications industry, and he currently serves on the Board of Directors of Eutelsat Communications. Within the company’s governance framework, he plays a particularly important role as Chair of the Audit, Risk and Compliance Committee and as a member of the Compensation Committee. His profile combines financial discipline, governance experience and risk oversight, making him highly relevant for a listed company operating in a capital-intensive, technology-driven and strategically sensitive sector. McCarthy holds an honours degree in commerce from University College Cork in Ireland. He began his career at KPMG in Cork, where he qualified as a Chartered Accountant and worked in audit and business reorganisation. That early training laid the foundation for a career built on financial rigor and operational oversight. He then moved to Norton S.A. in Luxembourg, a Saint-Gobain subsidiary, where he served as European Finance Director of the Construction Products Division. This role broadened his international experience and exposed him to the financial management of complex industrial businesses. The core of McCarthy’s career was spent at SES, one of the world’s leading satellite services operators, where he worked for 23 years. During that tenure he held a range of finance and business leadership positions, including CFO of SES Astra from 2002 to 2011 and CFO of SES S.A. from 2013 to 2018. Those appointments gave him extensive experience in financial leadership at group level, capital allocation, balance-sheet management, planning, controls and strategic decision-making in a global satellite business. After leaving SES in 2018, he joined NewSpace Capital GP S.A., a private equity firm focused on growth-stage companies in the space ecosystem, where he served as CFO and Board Member until May 2021. He remains active there as a Senior Advisor and Partner. He has also served as an independent director of Shurgard Self Storage, a company listed on Euronext, further strengthening his public-company governance profile. At Eutelsat, McCarthy is valued for his ability to scrutinize financial performance, assess strategic risks and support robust governance in a major European satellite operator.