Belonging Spotlight: Pride Month
Madagascar, January 10, 2024. Credit Planet Labs PBC.
StoriesDuring Pride month, Planet's own Yves-Oliviers shares their experiences at Planet and reflections on belonging.
Preferred name and preferred pronouns?
Yves-Olivier Mandereau, he/they.
What’s your job title and department here at Planet?
I am a buyer in Supply Chain, within Space Systems.
So, how did you find Planet and what made you want to join the team?
I had been running my own ceramic design studio for a few years and really wanted to join a team that had a bigger impact, was more cooperative, and had tools to help enrich life on Earth. I heard about a job opening on the Workplace Team as Relations Coordinator and I thought and hoped I could bring value.
After an incredible year on the Workplace Team with the amazing Julie Kuschke, Alfredo Rosales, and Brooke Rapko, I got tapped on the shoulder to see if I had any interest joining the Space Systems team, and I jumped at the opportunity. I shadowed Sandeep Banerjee on Supply Chain, who later became my manager. It felt like the next step and hopefully another opportunity where I could bring some umph and value.
Planet's own Yves-Olivier Mandereau!
What does your day-to-day look like at Planet and what does your role entail?
I support the sourcing and procurement of materials and equipment for our team. With frequent testing, multiple builds, and ongoing lab needs, there’s always something in motion.
Whenever someone on the 1st floor needs something—whether it’s lab equipment, tools, testing rigs and chambers, or satellite components like PCB boards, structural parts, lenses, or solar panels—Supply Chain is the team that turns those needs from concepts into reality.
We coordinate with vendors to gather required documentation and guide them through approvals from Legal, Compliance, and Accounting. Once approved, we either place an order for standard products or send detailed drawings and renderings for custom parts. Vendors then manufacture, mill, and assemble these parts to our specifications.
When parts arrive at HQ, they go through inventory intake and quality inspection. If anything falls outside acceptable tolerances, Supply Chain steps in to coordinate replacements—always working to keep production, testing, and launch timelines on track.
Employee belonging is something that’s very important at Planet, and it’s uniquely personal. I was curious to know what Belonging feels like for you, or how you would define it?
Belonging has often felt like safe space I feel comfortable unfolding in – being held and seen by people willing and capable of witnessing my most authentic self. In public spaces and work, it manifests as the difference between feeling like I need to check myself and my queer expression, versus being able to be a lil camp and fruity even around co-workers.
Mandereau and his cycling team, The Wheel Housewives on the 2025 ALC Ride, at a rest stop somewhere between Pacifica and Santa Cruz..
We’d love to hear about any of your personal passions outside of work. What’s one thing that gets you really excited?
I lean into queer and trans rights activism. We are none of us free until we are all free. Freedom of expression and even freedom of self-identification are under attack, not just nationwide, but globally. There are those among us who are quite vulnerable right now, and it is important to add our bodies and voices to resist the extermination of a way of expression—a way of life.
What was a really good piece of advice that one of your mentors gave you that has made a lasting impact on your career?
Always be mindful of the energy you bring into a space. He was a bit more brutal when he told me “When you walk into a room at your best, you make me believe in magic again; at your worst it’s like you suck the air out of the room.” But the tl;dr is to be mindful of my energy.
I’ve grown to appreciate that I have a big heart and a lot of light, but the other side of that coin is equally powerful and magnetic. When you enter a space, you are not only just bringing energy into it, you are also co-creating the vibe with everyone around you. We are not silos but creatures of community and we bounce so much off of each other.
It's Pride Month! What do you find most meaningful about celebrating Pride
Having been raised by extremely conservative, religious, immigrant parents, my queer identity was not always accepted. Inherited narrow-mindedness and bigotry had me living in shame, fear, and playing small to play safe. So much of every aspect of life all around me reinforced that who I was at my core was something to be ashamed of. It took years of orbiting Pride celebrations, playing with my queer identity and expression, and exploring my gender identity and expression to get to a place where I felt I was able to feel proud of who I was; the feeling of being ok being queer.
Once that popped up, I tried practicing it as much as I could as an antidote to the years I spent practicing shame. Having Pride Month, celebrations, marches, and dances has served an incredible purpose of providing some of the first spaces of belonging I ever felt. Here is where I am not only allowed to unfold, but I am celebrated for it. Celebrated for being queer in a world that can respond to it with violence. Having Pride celebrations at Planet feels especially comforting during these wild times.
Mandereau and their team at a Water Stop somewhere between King City and Paso Robles on the 2025 ALC Ride
Okay, big question: what is something you would like to see more of in the future?
I would love to see a world that values the exchange of ideas, knowledge, and energy as deeply—and as worth protecting—as we currently value the exchange of physical goods made from finite resources.
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