Roger Béteille - former president of Airbus Industrie. Became head of the flight-test department in 1952 at Sud-Est Aviation in Toulouse. From 1957 to 1970 he held senior posts with Sud-Aviation, including deputy technical director of and A300 programme manager. In 1970, Béteille was appointed senior vice-president, technical and programme co-ordination at Airbus Industrie, and executive vice-president and general manager in 1974. From February until March 1985, he was also president and chief executive of Airbus Industrie.
Adam Brown - vice-president strategic planning. Joined Hawker Siddeley Aviation at Hatfield in 1962, working in sales engineering and then in sales. In 1973 he came to Airbus as general sales manager and in February 1989 he became vice-president marketing. After the launch of the A330 and A340 in June 1987, Brown was appointed to the new function of vice-president-strategy, before assuming his present responsibilities in May 1994.
Derek Brown - former vice-president of new products policy co-ordination. Began his aerospace career with de Havilland (later British Aerospace) in Hatfield, UK, where ultimately became head of projects and research. He joined Airbus in 1979, and before his retirement in 1986 was programme manager on the A320 and vice- president of new products policy co-ordination.
Alain Garcia - senior vice-president engineering. Succeeded Bernard Ziegler as senior vice-president engineering in 1996. His previous position had been vice-president general engineering at Airbus. He originally joined Sud Aviation as a flight-control engineer on the Concorde programme. Garcia has been involved in Airbus programmes since 1969, and was head of the consortium's department for powerplant systems in 1972.
Alan Pardoe - product manager A330/A340. Started as a performance engineer at Rolls-Royce in 1976, before joining British Aerospace in 1979 as a sales engineer. Later that year, he joined Airbus Industrie where, between 1979 and 1996, he held various marketing posts. In 1996, he was appointed to his present position .
Jean Pierson - president and chief executive. Joined Sud Aviation in 1963, where he became production manager four years later. In 1972 Pierson was named general manager of Aerospatiale's SOCATA subsidiary. Between 1976 and 1983 he was general manager of Aerospatiale's Toulouse plant, becoming Manager of Aerospatiale's aircraft group in July 1983. In that capacity he was also a member of the Airbus supervisory board. Pierson became managing director of Airbus in April 1985.
Jurgen Thomas - senior vice-president Large Aircraft division.Worked with Airbus between 1976 and 1988, having previously been with VFW in Munich. He then returned to Germany where he managed MBB's MPC 75 regional-jet project, and later became executive vice-president of of the engineering design and technology division. Between 1993 and 1995 Thomas was the European director of the abortive American-European VLCT project, before being appointed head of Airbus' Large Aircraft division in March 1996.
Bernard Ziegler - former senior vice-president engineering. Retired from Airbus in 1996 after a 26-year career with the company. Originally a French air force fighter pilot and test pilot, he joined Airbus as its chief test pilot and head of the flight-test department. On the A300's maiden flight, Ziegler was the co-pilot, and he crewed on the first flights of all Airbus types up until the A340-200 in April 1992. Ziegler was perhaps the most powerful single influence in developing cockpit design and in shaping the fly-by-wire control laws which Airbus introduced first in the A320.
Source: Flight International