Gerald Weber (61), executive vice president of operations, a member of the Airbus executive committee in Toulouse, France, and head of Airbus Operations GmbH in Hamburg, Germany, will leave the company at the end of March 2011, it was announced on November 22. A successor has been identified from outside the EADS group and will be appointed at the beginning of 2011.
Weber, a passionate pilot with a PPL license, joined Airbus in April 2007. He was hired to contribute to Airbus’ restructuring by bringing in decades of international manufacturing and engineering experience from the automotive industry. He was tasked to change the company’s industrial set-up by introducing state-of-the-art manufacturing methods and processes, fixing the A380 processes and leading it to a steady series production, preparing for the A400M series production and initiating a change management process.
"Gerald Weber has fully accomplished his mission: Airbus today has a state-of-the-art international manufacturing set-up following the introduction of lean principles and processes, A380 and A400M manufacturing is stabilized and set for growth, and Airbus in Germany has found its crucial role in our transnational operation," Airbus president and CEO Tom Enders said. "I am extremely grateful for Gerald's outstanding achievements and I already know that we will miss his engineering creativity, his exemplary dedication to Airbus and his well-dosed Swabian stubbornness when he leaves Airbus next year."
"Seeing a lot of positive and tangible results of nearly four years of intensive work, I feel it is time for me to move on," Weber said. "I am very proud of all that has been achieved with my team. And it is time for my successor to come on board and take the manufacturing to its next level: the A350 XWB. I am looking forward to introducing my successor to the international Airbus manufacturing team, our fascinating products and our great challenges ahead."
Weber apprenticed as a toolmaker and graduated from Stuttgart University in 1977 with a diploma in mechanical engineering. He obtained a PhD in mechanical engineering at the Fraunhofer Institute for Manufacturing Engineering and Automation (IPA), Stuttgart, in 1982.
Weber began his professional career with Audi in 1982 as senior manager of production methods and logistics, before joining Autolatina in 1987 as general manager of the Volkswagen-Taubaté plant in Brazil. In 1990, he became director of Central manufacturing-engineering for Powertrain Projects at Volkswagen, Wolfsburg. In 1991, he was nominated member of the board for technical affairs at Skoda, Czech Republic, a position he held until 1996 when he returned to Volkswagen as general manager and head of the Wolfsburg plant.
In 1999, Weber moved to A.T. Kearney as vice president of automotive practice. He joined DaimlerChrysler AG as head of business unit powersystems in 2002. He was then nominated head of DaimlerChrysler AG truck product creation in 2004.
