Airbus Defence and Space has appointed Julian Whitehead Executive Vice-President Global Business and Strategic Programmes, effective 1 October 2019. Currently, he is serving as Executive Vice-President Finance for the division and is a member of the divisional Executive Committee.

Julian Whitehead will be succeeded by Xavier Tardy, also effective 1 October 2019, who currently serves as Head of Business Strategy within Airbus. In his future capacity as Executive Vice-President Finance for the division, Xavier Tardy will become a Member of the Executive Committee of Airbus Defence and Space.

In his new role in the division's Executive Committee, Julian Whitehead will be responsible for driving operational performance, ensuring programme and project management excellence across the division and establishing a robust focus on efficiency improvement.

"Julian's appointment underscores our strong commitment towards performance improvement, which is a top priority. We've substantially improved our operations and project execution but we are convinced we can - and have to - achieve even better results going forward with upcoming opportunities like the Future Combat Air System and Eurodrone programmes. For that key mission in my team, I could not think of anyone better suited as my right hand man than Julian who has done a tremendous job in recent years and who is a top experienced executive in our industry", said Dirk Hoke, Chief Executive Officer of Airbus Defence and Space.

END