Fabrice Brégier


Fabrice Brégier is a French business executive. He was appointed president and chief operating officer of Airbus on 1 January 2017. He is on the executive committee of Airbus, which operates Airbus Commercial Aircraft, Airbus Defence and Space, and Airbus Helicopters. As of October 2018 he is now leading the French operations of Palantir Technologies.

Early life

Fabrice Brégier was born in Dijon in July 1961, and graduated from École Polytechnique and École des Mines de Paris.

Career

Brégier began his career in 1983 as a test engineer at the Creys-Malville Superphénix nuclear plant. In 1984, he became sales manager for French aluminium conglomerate Pechiney in Japan.
He joined the DRIRE in Alsace in 1986 before being appointed director of economic and financial affairs at the Ministry of Agriculture in 1989. A year later, as a technical advisor to the minister of foreign trade, he became responsible for multilateral business affairs. Later he was appointed technical advisor to the minister of post and telecommunications, in charge of industrial and international affairs.
MBDA
In 1993, Brégier joined Matra Défense as chairman of two projects: Apache MAW GIE and Eurodrone GIE. He was appointed director of stand-off activities in 1996, in what had become Matra BAe Dynamics.
From the beginning of 1998, he served as CEO of Matra BAe Dynamics. In 2001, he helped create the new European missile systems company MBDA from Aerospatiale Matra, British Aerospace and Finmeccanica. He was then appointed CEO of MBDA.
Eurocopter
In 2003, Brégier was appointed CEO and president of Eurocopter. He also became a member of the EADS executive committee in June 2005.
Airbus
In October 2006, as EADS reorganized Airbus after delays to the A380 project, Brégier was appointed chief operating officer of Airbus Commercial Aircraft.
Together with Louis Gallois, he was tasked with implementing the Power 8 reorganization plan.
Palantir Technologies
In September 2018, Brégier was to lead Palantir's French subsidiary.

Awards

Brégier is Chevalier de la Légion d'Honneur.