Established in 1975 with the ESA Convention, Articles X and XII, the Director General, staff and underlying directorates make up the operational structure of ESA.
It is also referred to as the "Executive".

The structure of ESA assimilated elements of ELDO and ESRO, e.g. transforming ESTEC into the technical directorate, and has undergone several reorganisations throughout the years.

The task of the Executive was to implement, from the decisions of the Council, the internal policies that support the operations of the ESA’s activities, including the Programmes, both mandatory and optional. In theory therefore, for every organ or Programme in the decisional structure, a counterpart in the operational structure existed. In reality, there was at times a significant overlap between the advisory groups working with similar tasks

Part of the subfonds stems from the so-called Van Reeth-Papers, materials deposited by George Van Reeth, ESA’s first Director of Administration.

The files include administrative materials and correspondence from the Director General’s office, from the main Programmes and from various Directorates.
They also include contracts and agreements with suppliers or external organisations, as well as correspondence concerning relations with Member States, non-Member States and international organisations.

Files are arranged in series and subseries, generally according to which Directorate, Office or Centre they originated in.

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