Airbus co-founder to leave with plane maker’s creation complete

The Airbus strategy chief Marwan Lahoud, one of the founders of Europe’s largest aerospace group and its M&A czar for the past decade, is leaving the company at the end of February, Airbus said.

His successor was not announced but was "subject to further notice", Airbus said, suggesting no decision had yet been taken on how to replace him or with what kind of structure as the company goes through a reorganisation.

Mr Lahoud, 50, was one of a handful of strategists involved in a sequence of mergers that led to the creation in 2000 of what was then called EADS, an aerospace group with diverse interests that included the existing Airbus plane making business.

He was later seen as the architect of an attempted merger with the UK defence major BAE Systems in 2012.

The deal was called off amid German government opposition, but Mr Lahoud was credited with salvaging corporate reforms from the deal that reduced the role of the French and German governments.

EADS was later renamed Airbus Group, which in turn merged with its dominant plane making subsidiary in January, leading to a shake-up of senior roles.

"With the creation of one single Airbus, we finally accomplished the ultimate merger. Now, it’s time for me to move on and I am now looking forward to embracing new challenges," Mr Lahoud said.

The company did not say what Mr Lahoud, who is also president of France’s Gifas aerospace industry lobby, planned to do next.