Guus Dekkers, currently Chief Information Officer (CIO) with Airbus and Airbus Group, has decided to leave the company to pursue other opportunities outside Airbus Group as of end of September 2016. Dekkers will be succeeded by Luc Hennekens, currently CIO of Qantas Airways, effective as of October 1st, 2016. In his new role Luc Hennekens will report to Marc Fontaine – Group Digital Transformation Officer – for Airbus Group matters and to Tom Williams – Chief Operations Officer Airbus – for Airbus matters.
Hennekens studied industrial engineering at the Eindhoven University of Technology, and moved into IT later. Before he joined Qantas, he has worked with Procter & Gamble and Hewlett-Packard among others.
The Chief Information Officer is not only responsible for the company’s IT systems in the offices and shop-floors. The position’s scope includes also digital solutions for the company’s products, information and communication systems for employees, partners, airlines and MRO’s, protection against cyber-attacks or the implementation of new, digital tools for the entire product lifecycle.
In more than eight years, Guus Dekkers and his team have achieved impressive results in harmonising the companies previously very fragmented IT-structure, enabling an efficient Design and Manufacturing process at Airbus, which has led to his recognition as CIO of year in 2013 by German magazines Computerwoche (Computer Week) and CIO-Magazin. More recently he drove the set-up of one of the world’s largest high-performance computing environments and rolled out new, cross divisional platforms for digital initiatives such as Big Data, Cloud Services, Internet of Things, 3D Printing and Augmented Reality.
“I regret Guus’ decision, but fully respect it,” said Airbus Group Chief Executive Officer Tom Enders. “He has been at the helm of our Information & Communication Technology function since he joined the company in 2008. Guus has been a pillar for the further integration of IT and communication within Airbus Group as a key business enabler. I would like to thank him for his great contribution and strong engagement during his career within the company and I wish him all the best for his professional and personal future.”
Concerning the appointment of Luc Hennekens, the Airbus Group CEO stated: “Luc brings extensive experience from different industries in IT and Transformation across the globe. During his assignment at Qantas, Luc was at the heart of Digitisation and Big Data deployment in various innovative fields, for example passenger experience or Performance of Aircraft.”
