Safran makes senior manager appointments to support digital transformation

Paris, November 28, 2016

One of Safran’s major strategic challenges is a digital transformation to benefit its different businesses and create value. Safran has already kicked off this initiative, designed to improve performance and competitiveness by fostering a better understanding of its markets, its customers and how its products are used. This will enable Safran to better anticipate and address emerging requirements, in large part by deploying enhanced processes.

Two senior management positions were recently created in the corporate Performance and Competitiveness department, headed by Jean-Jacques Orsini, to accelerate Safran’s digital transformation:

• François de la Fontaine was named Director of the “Factory of the Future” initiative on September 1, 2016, to oversee one of the main aspects of this transformation, the digitization of the Group’s facilities. 
  
   
• Daniel Dubreuil was named Chief Digital Officer, Products and Services on October 1, 2016, and is in charge of another key facet of digital: the development, production engineering and in-service monitoring of Safran’s products.

 

François de la Fontaine started his career with Safran in 1987 as a methods engineer for mechanically-welded assemblies at Snecma’s Corbeil plant. He was subsequently named manager of the rotating parts machining department in 2001, for fan disks and spools on the CFM56. In 2007 he was named head of production and general manager at Messier-Bugatti-Dowty’s Bidos plant, working in particular on the assembly of the main and nose landing gear for the A320 and A400M. In 2012, he was named head of strategy and industrial engineering at Turbomeca’s Bordes plant, where he contributed to the launch of the helicopter engines Arrano, Arrius 2R, Ardiden 3, Vespack/Eastpack. François de la Fontaine, 53, graduated from the ICAM engineering school (1986).

 

 

Daniel Dubreuil started his career in 1982 with Aerospatiale, as production manager on the A300/A310 assembly line, before moving to Digital Equipment Corp. in 1987 as head of marketing. In 1991 he continued his career at MBDA, successively holding the positions of director of information systems (1991-94) and head of the components and equipment business unit (1994-98). From 1998 to 2002, as the A380 was being launched, he was general manager of the Toulouse plant and secretary-general of Airbus France. In 2002 Daniel Dubreuil was named vice president, production at Eurocopter. He moved back to Airbus in 2005 as deputy director of quality for the group. In 2008 he was named director of the A380 Task Force, a position he held until being named Vice President for Information Systems at Safran in 2011. Daniel Dubreuil, 60, graduated from the Sup Telecom engineering school (1982) and holds a master’s in mathematical sciences from the University of Bordeaux.