Thales Aerospace Dvision Announces New Organization

June 2, 2008
Emmanuel Grave is appointed Senior Vice President of the Solutions for Aircraft Sector.

François Quentin, Thales Senior Vice President in charge of Aerospace, will implement as of June 1, 2008 a new organization within Thales’s Aerospace division. The objectives are to achieve new levels of growth, reinforce Thales’s Tier 1 partner status with relation to its customers, and pursue and boost the development of a wider, competitive and innovative offering.

The Division’s activities will henceforth be regrouped within three Sectors:

• Emmanuel Grave is appointed Senior Vice President of the Solutions for Aircraft Sector. This Sector covers activities that concern all cockpit and cabin electronics systems (In-Flight Entertainment, connectivity) along with electrical systems. Emmanuel Grave will handle the interface with aircraft manufacturers, operators and airlines worldwide.

• Pierre-Yves Chaltiel is appointed Senior Vice President of the Solutions for Governments Sector. This Sector encompasses electronic combat activities (airborne radars and electronic warfare), mission aircraft systems (SIGINT, maritime surveillance) and the Group’s UAV (Unmanned Aerial Vehicle) and “ISTAR” systems activities, mainly located in the UK and France. Pierre-Yves Chaltiel will handle the interface with combat systems integrators and platform manufacturers, and defence ministries.

• Pierre-Eric Pommellet is appointed Vice President of the Services and Business Transformation Sector. This Sector comprises customer service and support activities, in civil and military fields. Pierre-Eric Pommellet is also responsible for defining and implementing the strategic business action plans that will ensure the long-term business growth of the division, particularly internationally and in the area of high added value services for our customers.

Furthermore, Alain Paul is appointed Director of Operations, which brings together the Supply Chain and Purchasing departments, the Programme Management department, and Quality and Continuous Improvement initiatives.

Emmanuel Grave, 56, is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (SUPELEC) and holds an MBA from INSEAD. He joined the Thales group in 1978 and, after holding various managerial positions, was in 2002 appointed CEO of Thales Airborne Systems and then, in 2004, Deputy General Manager and General Manager France of the Aerospace division. He is Vice President of GEAD, the aeronautical and defence equipment industry trade association, member of the ASD’s Operations and Defence commissions and has been awarded the insignia of Chevalier of France’s Légion d’Honneur.

Pierre-Yves Chaltiel, 51, is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (SUPELEC) and the Imperial College of Science and Technologies of London. He joined the Thales Group ten years ago, after 18 years spent with Dassault Electronique. Pierre-Yves Chaltiel was Managing Director France of Thales’ Land and Joint Division, running the communications and optronics equipment activities for eight years, before joining Thales International as Director of the Europe, Central Asia, Latin America region. In 2005 he was awarded the “Médaille de l’Aéronautique”.

Pierre-Eric Pommellet, 43, is a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique, Sup Aero and holds a Masters of Science degree from the MIT. He began his career at the French defence procurement agency DGA as Armaments Engineer within the Aerodynamic and Ballistic Research laboratory LRBA, before joining DCN and subsequently becoming principal private secretary to Jean-Pierre Raffarin, France’s Minister for SMEs, Trades and Craftspeople between 1995 and 1997. Pierre-Eric Pommellet then joined Thales. He was Technical Director of the “Navigation” Technical Business Unit before being appointed in 2004 Director of the “Aerospace Military Equipment” Business Line in Bordeaux. He has been awarded the insignia of Chevalier of France’s Ordre National du Mérite and was nominated Vice President of Aerospace Valley in 2005.

Alain Paul, 45, is a graduate of the Ecole Supérieure d’Electricité (SUPELEC). He began his career with Thales in 1989, in the development field of the optronic activity, before joining the Aerospace division in 2001 within the Electronic Warfare domain. From 2007 onwards he was Director of the “Electronic Warfare Solutions” Technical Business Unit.

About Thales

Thales is a leading international electronics and systems group, addressing defence, aerospace and security markets worldwide. Thales’s leading-edge technology is supported by 22,000 R&D engineers who offer a capability unmatched in Europe to develop and deploy field-proven mission-critical information systems. To this end, the group’s civil and military businesses develop in parallel and share a common base of technologies to serve a single objective: the security of people, property and nations. The group builds its growth on its unique multi-domestic strategy based on trusted partnerships with national customers and market players, while leveraging its global expertise to support local technology and industrial development. Thales employs 68,000 people in 50 countries with 2007 revenues of €12.3 billion.