Eutelsat picks Eva Berneke to replace Rodolphe Belmer as CEO

French satellite operator Eutelsat Communications SA chose Danish executive Eva Berneke as its new chief executive officer, the company said in a statement Sunday.

Berneke takes on the role from Jan. 1, replacing Rodolphe Belmer, who was named chief executive of Atos SE in November.

Berneke, who trained as an engineer, had been CEO of KMD, a Danish IT and software company. She left that position in March. Prior to that, Berneke had been chief strategic officer of Danish telecommunications company TDC. She also worked at McKinsey, first in Copenhagen and later in Paris.

Eutelsat has been the subject of persistent takeover speculation. It rejected a takeover bid from billionaire Patrick Drahi in September that valued the satellite operator at 2.8 billion euros ($3.2 billion).

Eutelsat’s biggest shareholder is Bpifrance, a financing entity owned by the French government. Bloomberg