EADS N.V. - EADS Socata names Jean-Michel Léonard as new Chairman and CEO

The Board of EADS Socata has appointed Jean-Michel Léonard as new Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of EADS Socata. He succeeds Stéphane Mayer, who has been appointed CEO of ATR, the world leader in the 50 to 74-seat turboprop aircraft market and a joint venture of Alenia Aeronautica (Finmeccanica Group) and EADS. The Board of EADS Socata expressed its appreciation of Stéphane Mayer’s contribution to the success of EADS Socata and especially of the TBM 850 programme.

Jean-Michel Léonard, former Head of Airbus' Centre of Excellence Electrics, and previously Chief Executive Officer of ATR, has played a major role in the success of ATR. He is a graduate of the Ecole Centrale des Arts et Manufactures in Paris and of Massachusetts Institute of Technology (Cambridge, USA) where he took an MSc in 1978. He joined Aerospatiale in 1979 as supervisor for fatigue analysis methods in the design office and, in 1982, he moved to the Aerospatiale Sales & Marketing Department where he was responsible for the sales engineering of the Socata TB 30 Epsilon military trainer programme and a participant in the beginnings of the ATR programme.

He continued his professional career as Senior Vice President Product Support at ATR (from 1990 to 1995) and established in 1995 the new AI(R) subsidiaries in North America. Jean-Michel Léonard held the position of President of AI(R) American Support and AI(R) Marketing Inc. from 1996 to 1997, before he became Chairman and CEO of Aerospatiale ATR, the subsidiary of Aerospatiale Matra ATR created in June 1999, becoming EADS ATR in October 2000. From 2001 to 2004, he was CEO of ATR, and from 2004 to 2007 he held the position of ATR's Chairman of the Board.

Born in 1953, Jean-Michel Léonard is a Knight of the National Order of Merit (Chevalier de l’ordre national du Mérite). He is married with three children.

EADS Socata is one of the world’s leading general aviation manufacturers, with more than 17,000 aircraft built since its creation as Morane-Saulnier in 1911. Current products include the TBM family of high-speed turboprops, TB GT piston aircraft and aerostructures for Airbus civil airliners, the A400M military transporter, Dassault Falcon jets, Eurocopter helicopters and Embraer regional jets. EADS Socata is expanding its customer service activities, to support its growing TBM fleet and offer its light aviation expertise for aircraft below 5.7 tons through avionics modernization, maintenance, repair and overall package offers. Headquartered in Tarbes, France, with North American operations in Pembroke Pines, Florida, EADS Socata is a wholly owned subsidiary of EADS, a global leader in aerospace, defence and related services. In 2006, EADS generated revenues of €39.4 billion and employs a workforce of about 116,000.