Afke Schaart

Speaker Bio

Afke Schaart is Executive Vice President of International and Institutional Affairs at Eutelsat Group, based in Paris. She leads the company’s global policy and international engagement strategy, focusing on critical European and international issues across the space and telecommunications sectors.

Prior to joining Eutelsat, Afke was Senior Vice President of Corporate Communications and Chief Global Impact Officer at Huawei headquarters in Shenzhen, China, where she spearheaded global public affairs and policy initiatives. Before that, she served as Regional Head for Europe, Russia, and the CIS at the GSMA, leading public policy advocacy and strategic programs on topics such as Digital Identity, IoT, 5G, spectrum management, and regulatory modernization. She also served as Vice-Chair of the Alliance of European Automotive and Telecoms (EATA), advancing the deployment of connected and automated driving across Europe.

Earlier in her career, Afke led Microsoft’s EU Institutional Relations team in Brussels,managing the company’s relations with the EU institutions, Council of Europe, OECD, and the World Economic Forum. She also oversaw Microsoft’s Citizenship Programs, including BizSpark and YouthSpark, supporting entrepreneurship and youth development.

Afke began her career at Royal KPN in The Hague, where she was responsible for government and regulatory affairs. She later served as a Member of Parliament in the Netherlands for the People’s Party for Freedom and Democracy (VVD), with a focus on economic affairs, innovation, technology, and corporate governance.