Stuart McMuldroch, Managing Director

Dr. Stuart McMuldroch became the Managing Director of the CTAO Central Organisation in April 2023. Since then, Stuart has been leading the Observatory in its new period of growth. In 2024, the observatory’s staff is projected to grow significantly and key infrastructure development will advance at both sites in anticipation of constructing the telescope arrays.

Stuart has a PhD in Astronomy and spent more than 22 years managing large-scale international projects at academic, commercial and government organisations. He was part of the New Horizons and GOES-R space missions as team leader for the design and construction of key optical subsystems. Prior to his appointment, McMuldroch was the Head of the Giant Magellan Telescope program office at the Center for Astrophysics (CfA)/Harvard & Smithsonian.

Federico Ferrini, Managing Director

Prof. Federico Ferrini became the Managing Director of the CTAO Central Organisation in March 2018. During his tenure, he oversaw the achievement of significant milestones for the Observatory, such as the hosting agreement for CTAO’s southern hemisphere array site in Chile and the definition of the Observatory’s Cost Book and Technical Description. He now supports Stuart as Co-Managing Director as the observatory starts its new phase of growth.

Before joining the CTAO, Federico dedicated more than 30 years to astrophysics research and teaching at the University of Pisa. This included directing the Astronomy and Astrophysics Group and being named the Director of the European Gravitational Observatory (EGO) in 2011. As director, he fostered the collaboration and technical advancement of the VIRGO interferometric antenna – one of the three largest gravitational detectors in the world. Some of his other professional positions have included Scientific Attaché at the Permanent Mission of Italy in Geneva and Chair of both the CERN Pension Fund Governing Board and the Investment Committee.

Nadia Defrancesco, Interim Head of Administration & Head of Finance

Nadia Defrancesco joined the CTAO Central Organisation in January 2019, as Head of Finance, within the Administration team. Together with her team of two finance specialists, Nadia prepares and manages the CTAO project’s cash budget, monitoring the spending of the available funds and ensuring invoices are valid and paid on time. Additionally, she supports and coordinates the preparation of the Financial Statement in compliance with regulations. She is also acting as the interim Head of Administration, overseeing the entire department until the position can be filled.

Nadia comes from the private sector, having worked first as a CPA and then many years for a German Financial Institution based in Bologna, where she was responsible for the finance, compliance and legal issues of the company.

Stefan Schlenstedt, Interim Project Manager & Computing Coordinator

Stefan Schlenstedt joined the CTAO Central Organisation as its Computing Coordinator in March 2019, although he has been working on the CTAO since its inception. While at DESY Zeuthen, he was the group lead, helped drive the development of the Medium-Sized Telescope, which he led for many years, and was a member of the CTAO site search committee. Before the CTAO, he worked as the reconstruction software lead for AMANDA and the IceCube collaboration. 

Stefan now leads the Computing Department activities and works closely with the coordinators of the various major software and hardware elements, systems engineering and the contributing institutions throughout the CTAO to implement an efficient and easy-to-maintain computing system. Additionally, Stefan is serving as the CTAO’s interim Project Manager until the position is filled.