Heads roll at EADS, Airbus as Forgeard, Humbert resign
Monday July 3, 2006
Embattled EADS Co-CEO Noel Forgeard and Airbus CEO Gustav Humbert resigned Sunday under pressure from EADS shareholders Lagardere Group, DaimlerChrysler and the French government (ATWOnline, June 29).
Forgeard will be succeeded by Louis Gallois, head of French government-owned railway SNCF, while Humbert will be succeeded by Christian Streiff, deputy CEO of French building materials group Saint-Gobain. Thomas Enders will remain as co-CEO of EADS and has been nominated as chairman of the Airbus Shareholder Committee.
The resignations came in the wake of announcements of major delays in the A380 program. In a statement, Humbert said, "As president and CEO or Airbus, I must take responsibility for this setback and feel the right course of action is to offer my resignation to our shareholders." Forgeard has been under fire both for the A380's problems and for selling a large block of EADS stock shortly before the announcement of the latest delay.
Those top guys are the “musical chair” guys. They make ten times more than they are worth in a year, but only last a year.
I was talking more down at the nuts and bolts level, where actual problems are dealt with or ignored, as the people who were undisturbed by this screw-up.