EADS Nominates New Heads for Eurocopter And MBDA; Fabrice Bregier To Become New Eurocopter...

Business Editors

AMSTERDAM, Netherlands--(BUSINESS WIRE)--Oct. 16, 2002

The Board of Directors of EADS, one of the world's leading aerospace and defence companies, has appointed Fabrice Bregier (41) to succeed Jean-Francois Bigay (59) as Eurocopter's President and CEO as of 1

Prior to assuming his full responsibilities, Bregier will become Deputy to the President of Eurocopter as of 1 January 2003. Bigay, who has been with Eurocopter and its predecessor companies since 1986, will take on new responsibilities within EADS as of 1 April 2003.

Fabrice Bregier joins Eurocopter after having led since January 1998 the premier European missile and missile systems manufacturer. Under Bregier's leadership, the Franco-British joint venture Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD) completed its integration. In December 2001, Bregier turned MBD into the trinational MBDA when it merged with Finmeccanica's missile activities.

The EADS Board nominated Marwan Lahoud (36) to succeed Bregier at the helm of MBDA. Lahoud is presently Senior Vice President for Mergers and Acquisitions at EADS. He shaped the negotiations between EADS and BAE Systems to create an integrated Airbus company and he also contributed substantially to the creation of MBDA.

EADS CEOs Philippe Camus and Rainer Hertrich commended Bigay for his long and outstanding service to Eurocopter: "Jean-Francois Bigay was a driving force in the creation and integration of Eurocopter, beginning in 1992. His achievements include turning a helicopter consortium into the leader of the worldwide helicopter market. During his tenure, Eurocopter invested significantly in R&D and substantially redeveloped the product portfolio. Thanks to his vision and hard work, Eurocopter now has the most modern product line serving commercial, para-public and defence customers around the world."

At the same time, Camus and Hertrich look forward to working with Bregier with his new responsibilities at Eurocopter: "Under Fabrice Bregier's leadership, the newly-created MBDA has become a global company. He contributed to launching major co-operative European programmes such as Storm Shadow/Scalp-EG, the Aster/PAAMS family and Meteor. We look forward to seeing this same energy put to good use at Eurocopter."

The CEOs added that "Marwan Lahoud will continue the momentum achieved by the Meteor program and its six partner nations (Germany, France, UK, Spain, Sweden and Italy). We believe his business and strategy acumen will help MBDA reach its full potential of global competitiveness and greater customer satisfaction."

Fabrice Bregier worked extensively with the French Department of Industry, beginning in 1986. He also served as a technical advisor to the French Minister of Foreign Trade. He joined the Lagardere Group's Matra Defense in 1993, working on the GIE Apache program, as well as the GIE Eurodrone project. Three years later, he became the Director of the stand-off missile activities at Matra BAe Dynamics (MBD), the MBDA predecessor. In 1998, Bregier was made CEO of MBD.

Lahoud joined Aerospatiale in 1998 and was involved in the merger between government-owned Aerospatiale and Lagardere's Matra Hautes Technologies. As member of Aerospatiale Matra's Management Committee he played an important role in the EADS merger. Before Aerospatiale, Lahoud worked with the French procurement agency, DGA, and was a special advisor to the French Minister of Defence.

About EADS

EADS is the world's second largest aerospace and defense leader, offering the widest array of products and services in the industry. With total annual revenues of nearly $30 billion, and annual defense revenues of $6 billion, EADS is a market leader in all sectors of the defense and aerospace market worldwide. EADS contributes over $6 billion to the U.S. economy annually, supports more than 100,000 U.S. jobs, and maintains subsidiary locations in 35 U.S. cities in 20 states and the District of Columbia, as well as hundreds of suppliers across North America. To learn more, visit the EADS Web site at www.eads.net.