Director General for Defence Industry and Space , European Commission – DG DEFIS
Timo Pesonen is the Director General for Defence Industry and Space (DG DEFIS) at the European Commission since January 2020. His previous functions include Director-General for the European Commission’s directorate general for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs in 2019, and for the directorate general for communication between 2015 and 2019. He also served twice as head of cabinet of European Commission Vice-President Olli Rehn, who oversaw the economic and monetary affairs from 2010 to 2014, and enlargement from 2004 to 2009. Earlier in his career, Timo Pesonen worked as a spokesperson to Commissioner Erkki Liikanen, responsible for budget and administration.
Before joining the European Institutions, he was the foreign policy adviser to the Prime Minister of Finland, Paavo Lipponen. He holds a MSc in Social Sciences-International Politics from the University of Tampere, Finland.