Noël Forgeard

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Noël Forgeard (born December 8, 1946) is a French industrialist, and was joint CEO of EADS.

Until June 2005 Foregard was CEO of the aircraft manufacturer Airbus SAS. In late 2004 he was nominated as the next French CEO of EADS. This position is shared with a German - then Thomas Enders - in a system which was established with the creation of EADS in 2000. Forgeard had suggested that this system should be abolished in favour of a single CEO in a move that EADS' German shareholders have seen as an attempt to engineer a French dominated management team.

Forgeard is married with three daughters and one son. He studied at École Polytechnique (X-Mines).

1 Appointment
2 Alleged insider dealing
3 Concorde
4 External links

[edit] Appointment

Following protracted arguments, which caused embarrassment to EADS at the Paris Air Show, the appointment was confirmed by the EADS Board of Directors on June 25 2005. At the same meeting the Board, in consultation with partner BAE Systems, named Gustav Humbert as President and CEO of Airbus.

[edit] Alleged insider dealing

News reports in June 2006 focused on possible insider dealing at EADS. Joint CEO Noël Forgeard made a 2.5 million Euro profit on the sale of EADS shares, just weeks before news of Airbus A380 delays was released. Mr. Forgeard has denied any wrongdoing.

Mr. Forgeard resigned as CEO of EADS on July 2, 2006 and replaced by Christian Streiff.

[edit] Concorde

Mr. Forgeard was largely responsible for the withdrawal of BAC-Aerospatiale Concorde supersonic airliner from service. As airbus specified the maintenance regime and supplied the necessary spare parts for British Airways and Air France's Concorde fleets, Concorde could not feasibly fly without the backing of airbus. When Mr. Forgeard, the then CEO of the company, withdrew Airbus' backing of Concorde, possibly because of pressure from Air France, who were failing to operate the aircraft profitably, it was impossible for either Air France or BA to continue flights with the aircraft, despite British Airways' supersonic operation remaining profitable at the time.