Aerospace industry veteran Philippe Balducchi joins Lilium’s Board of Directors

Lil­i­um has announced changes to its Board of Direc­tors, with the com­pa­ny intend­ing to appoint Philippe Bal­duc­chi as a non-exec­u­tive mem­ber of the Board.

While Bar­ry Engle and Hen­ri Cour­pron, who have both served as non-exec­u­tive direc­tors, do not plan to stand for re-appoint­ment fol­low­ing the com­ple­tion of their terms.

These changes are sub­ject to approval at the upcom­ing extra­or­di­nary gen­er­al meet­ing of share­hold­ers (EGM), tak­ing place next Wednes­day, Sep­tem­ber 18th.

Bal­duc­chi cur­rent­ly serves as Group CFO of KNDS, a tier one Euro­pean defense tech­nol­o­gy sup­pli­er with pro­duc­tion lines in France and Ger­many and indus­tri­al part­ner­ships through­out the world.

He brings exten­sive aero­space pro­gram expe­ri­ence hav­ing also pre­vi­ous­ly served in mul­ti­ple senior man­age­ment roles dur­ing a 20-year career at Air­bus and its pre­de­ces­sor com­pa­nies.

As CEO of Air­bus Cana­da, Bal­duc­chi over­saw the pro­duc­tion ramp up of the suc­cess­ful Bom­bardier C‑Series, its rebrand­ing as the Air­bus A220, and the estab­lish­ment of a new final assem­bly line in Alaba­ma. Bal­duc­chi is an avi­a­tion engi­neer and holds an MBA from HEC Paris Busi­ness School.

Com­ment­ing on the pro­pos­al to the EGM, Lil­i­um Chair­man Tom Enders, said: “Philippe’s strate­gic insights, his finan­cial acu­men and his expe­ri­ence in man­ag­ing large-scale oper­a­tions in the aero­space and defense sec­tor make him a valu­able addi­tion to Lilium’s board.”

Bal­duc­chi added: “I am thrilled to be pro­posed to join Lil­i­um at such an excit­ing time in its jour­ney. The com­pa­ny’s vision for elec­tric air mobil­i­ty is not only inno­v­a­tive but also trans­for­ma­tive for the indus­try. I look for­ward to con­tribut­ing to Lil­i­um’s con­tin­ued suc­cess and work­ing with the tal­ent­ed team and board mem­bers to advance our shared goals.”

Bar­ry Engle and Hen­ri Cour­pron have both been instru­men­tal in shap­ing Lilium’s tra­jec­to­ry, help­ing the com­pa­ny to grow from a start­up to a mature aero­space com­pa­ny.

Engle served as a mem­ber of Lilium’s Board since Sep­tem­ber 2021. He was the key play­er in secur­ing Lilium’s NASDAQ list­ing via a de-SPAC pro­ce­dure. Since join­ing the Board, Engle was the Chair of the Audit Com­mit­tee. He has now tak­en over an exec­u­tive posi­tion that no longer allows him to be part of a board in Europe.

Com­ment­ing on Engle and Cour­pron, Enders, the Lil­i­um Chair­man, said: “Bar­ry and Hen­ri made out­stand­ing con­tri­bu­tions to Lil­i­um. Serv­ing on a Board on the oth­er side of the Atlantic comes with addi­tion­al chal­lenges and sac­ri­fices. We are very grate­ful for their ser­vice and wish them well for their futures.”