The Board of EADS appointed Johann Heitzmann (50) as the new head of the EADS Military Aircraft Business Unit. Heitzmann succeeds Aloysius Rauen (47), who transfers to the position of Chief Executive Officer of Eurofighter GmbH, located at Hallbergmoos near Munich. Heitzmann, who is to take up his new task in Ottobrunn on 1 May, currently heads the EADS Defence Electronics Business Unit located in Ulm. His successor will be Bernhard Gerwert (50), who at the moment is in charge of the Air and Naval Defence arm in Ulm.
Commenting on Heitzmann's appointment, Tom Enders, chief of the Defence and Security Systems Division, said: “With his many years of experience in the Eurofighter programme and the development of systems and subsystems for all types of airborne platforms, Johann Heitzmann is the right man to take over the leadership of EADS Military Aircraft. He will strongly contribute to the success of the Eurofighter programme and will develop new business perspectives for his Business Unit with more than 7.000 employees in Spain and Germany.”
Heitzmann is an expert in the field of military aeronautics. He is a graduate engineer (University of Constance). In 1980, he began his career as a development engineer at Dornier Luftfahrt GmbH in Friedrichshafen. He later joined MBB (Messerschmitt-Bölkow-Blohm) and was Head of Quality Assurance, Airworthiness and Certification in the Eurofighter Programme for more than four years. He then moved on to areas such as command and information systems before he was tasked to head the Airborne Systems unit. Following the formation of the EADS Defence and Security Systems Division in July 2003, Heitzmann was appointed Head of the new EADS Defence Electronics Business Unit.
The new Head of Defence Electronics, located in Friedrichshafen and Ulm, is Bernhard Gerwert. Gerwert holds a degree in Engineering (University of Bielefeld) and Economics (University of Paderborn). He joined MBB in Kirchheim/Teck as a planning engineer. After a number of different leadership functions, he was appointed Head of Finance and Controlling at Dasa's Defence and Civil Systems Division. In 2000, Gerwert became Head of the EADS Naval and Ground Systems unit in Ulm. Once the turnaround had been successfully mastered, Gerwert led his unit to remarkable expert successes.
“Bernhard Gerwert’s entrepreneurial spirit, his significant international customer orientation and leadership skills will allow for further successful growth of the young Business unit Defence Electronics”, Tom Enders said.
The reason for the changes at the top of EADS Military Aircraft and EADS Defence Electronics is the appointment of Aloysius Rauen as the new CEO of Eurofighter GmbH, which had already been announced on 23 February 2004.
EADS is a world leader in the markets for aerospace and defence products and related services, having achieved revenues amounting to € 29.9 billion with a workforce of over 108,800 in the year 2002. The EADS Group includes the aircraft manufacturer Airbus, the world's largest helicopter supplier Eurocopter and the joint venture MBDA, the second largest guided missile producer in the global market. EADS is the major partner in the Eurofighter consortium, is the prime contractor for the Ariane launcher, develops the A400M military transport aircraft and is the largest industrial partner for the European satellite navigation system Galileo.
