Excellence with passion
Presidency of ISAE-SUPAERO: handover from Olivier Lesbre to Marie-Hélène Baroux
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Olivier Lesbre is stepping down after ten years as the President of ISAE-SUPAERO.
This decade has seen a major transformation of the Institute, in terms of development and response to new societal challenges.
Marie-Hélène Baroux will be responsible for continuing this momentum.
A historic date for ISAE-SUPAERO. After ten years as the Institute’s President, Ingénieur Général de l’Armement (Engineer General, Armament Corps) Olivier Lesbre handed over the reins to his successor, Marie-Hélène Baroux, on Tuesday, September 10. The Institute’s new President praised the legacy of her predecessor, who “placed the Institute at the global forefront of aerospace engineering training”. Also an Ingénieur Général de l’Armement (Engineer General, Armament Corps), she will be in charge of continuing the Institute’s transformation against a backdrop 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 have to reinvent both aviation in a finite world and the way we learn and teach.”
Change of dimension
These changes were initiated under the impetus of Olivier Lesbre, who was “determined to open up new horizons and develop partnerships”, emphasized Caroline Krykwinski, Director of Human Resources at the Direction Générale de l’Armement. In the space of a decade, ISAE-SUPAERO has thus changed dimension with “a considerable enrichment of its training offer, the densification of its research activities and the repositioning of the school at international level”.
Caroline Krykwinski also praised Olivier Lesbre’s “high level of professionalism”, as his ten years at the helm of ISAE-SUPAERO brought to a close a career “serving the general interest, aeronautics, and the world of defense”. For his part, the now ex-President emphasized two points close to his heart: “promoting the French model of educational excellence that the “classes préparatoires” and the “Grandes Écoles” represent” and “supporting the aeronautical sector by responding to the new challenges it faces”.
“Considerable societal impacts”
Marie-Hélène Baroux is no stranger to these challenges, having served as Senior Vice-President of ISAE-SUPAERO between 2019 and 2021. Aware of the Institute’s “considerable societal impact”, she also emphasized the new geopolitical challenges it will have to meet. Having spent a long career at the DGA, she insisted on “strengthening the Institute’s ties with defense, in particular through the introduction of new curricula”. She also emphasised “the consolidation of alliances with our partners in the aerospace industry”.
“In a context of rapid change, both for 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.
Diversifying profiles
As the first woman to head up ISAE-SUPAERO, she also advocated “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”.
