ATR CEO Patrick de Castelbajac is to become Airbus corporate secretary and chief of staff after he hands over his current role to Christian Scherer in November.
De Castelbajac is leaving ATR 16 months before the end of his four-year mandate, which was scheduled to end in May 2018. He will be succeeded by senior Airbus Group executive Scherer.
“I will start as [Airbus] company secretary and chief of staff and then move on to another role as the organization matures,” de Castelbajac said during a media briefing at the European Regions Airline Association General Assembly in Madrid.
In his new role, de Castelbajac will help Fabrice Brégier to run Airbus’ commercial aircraft activity following the merger of Airbus and Airbus Group. “I will work to improve the organization and make it more lean and more efficient,” de Castelbajac said.
During his term with ATR, de Castelbajac has modernized the company, made it more customer-centric and accelerated product development lead times, with the launch of a higher-capacity derivative and a combi variant within two years.
“Before, these things would have had much longer lead times," he said. "We have improved the flexibility of the company, which I think is a very important step in preparing it for new investment. If you want shareholders to invest, you have got be profitable and we significantly improved the profitability of the company.”
De Castelbajac declined to comment on whether there might be any changes to ATR’s ownership. It is well known that ATR’s two shareholders have differing views on whether the manufacturer should pursue a long-awaited larger turboprop project.
Scherer will be joining ATR for a four-year term and the transition will happen “during the course of November,” according to de Castelbajac. The handover between the two executives has already begun.
“[Scherer] has a four-year mandate, not simply to finish my remaining 16 months. This full mandate is a vote of confidence from both of ATR’s shareholders, bringing stability and continuity at ATR,” he said.
