A historic date for ISAE-SUPAERO
On Tuesday 10 September, after ten years as Director General of the Institute, Olivier Lesbre, an armament engineer, handed over the reins to his successor, Marie-Hélène Baroux. The Institute’s new Director General praised the legacy of her predecessor, who “placed the Institute at the global forefront of aerospace engineering training”. Also a weapons engineer, she will be responsible for continuing the transformation of the Institute in a context of competition and major societal changes.
“The Institute is at a very important point in its history,” said Marwan Lahoud, Chairman of the Board of Directors of ISAE-SUPAERO. “We need to reinvent both aviation in a finite world and the way we learn and teach.”
A change of dimension
These changes were initiated under the leadership of Olivier Lesbre, who was “determined to open up new horizons and develop partnerships”, emphasised Caroline Krykwinski, Director of Human Resources at the French Defence Procurement Agency (Direction Générale de l’Armement). In the space of a decade, ISAE-SUPAERO has changed dimension, “considerably enriching its range of training courses, increasing the density of its research activities and repositioning the school at international level”.
Caroline Krykwinski also paid tribute to Olivier Lesbre’s “high level of professionalism”, as his ten years at the head of ISAE-SUPAERO marked the end of a career “serving the general interest, aeronautics and the world of defence”. The now ex-CEO emphasised two points that are close to his heart: “promoting the French model of educational excellence that the preparatory classes and the Grandes Écoles represent” and “supporting the aeronautical sector by responding to the new challenges it is facing”.
Major challenges
Marie-Hélène Baroux knows all about these challenges, having served as Deputy Director General of ISAE-SUPAERO between 2019 and 2021. Aware of the Institute’s “considerable societal impact”, she also emphasised the new geopolitical issues it will have to address. She, who had a long career with the DGA, stressed “the strengthening of the Institute’s links with defence, in particular with the introduction of new courses”. She also emphasised “the consolidation of alliances with our partners in the aerospace industry”.
“In a context of rapid change, for both aeronautics and space, we have a duty to provide our industrial and technological base with engineers of the highest scientific level, who are passionate about the aerospace sector, master the complexity of systems, possess the keys to innovate and find solutions, and are aware that they are at the service of tomorrow’s society”, she insisted.
Diversification of profiles
The first woman to head ISAE-SUPAERO, she also advocates “increasing the diversity of profiles, which is difficult in the aerospace sector”: “Diversity brings richness, in the sharing of points of view and ideas, it stimulates and strengthens innovation as well as collective intelligence; I can testify to this through my own professional career”.
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