Past, present and future Directors General of ESO as of May 2017

Past, present and future Directors General of ESO at the Paranal Residence regarding the First Stone Ceremony for the Extremely Large Telescope on 26 May 2017. From left to right: Lodewijk Woltjer (1974–1987); Harry van der Laan (1988–1992); Catherine Cesarsky (1999–2007); Tim de Zeeuw (2007–2017); and Xavier Barcons (2017–). Regrettably, Riccardo Giacconi (1993–1999) could not attend the ceremony.