PARIS — France has appointed Philippe Schleicher chairman and chief executive of holding company Giat Industries and its explosives unit SNPE, state-owned Giat said in a Monday March 7 statement.
"On 2 March this year, the French council of ministers named Philippe Schleicher as chairman and CEO of the GIAT Industries Group and of its subsidiary Société Nationale des Poudres et Explosifs (SNPE). Under this appointment, he also becomes chairman of Eurenco," Giat said.
Giat is parent company of land weapons specialist Nexter and holds the French 50 percent stake in Honosthor, the newly formed joint venture between Nexter and German partner Krauss-Maffei Wegmann.
Eurenco, the main SNPE unit, produces propellants and explosives for civil and military use.
The previous chairman of Giat was Philippe Burtin, who left the holding company and the chairmanship of Nexter in December. Stéphane Mayer then took up the top job at Nexter.
Schleicher has previously held posts at Safran's Snecma, where he helped develop carbon composite brakes for aircraft and later worked on leveraged buyouts of automated production lines in the food processing industry, Giat said.
In 2011, Schleicher worked on a long-awaited merger of missile and rocket propulsion businesses of SNPE and Safran, and was appointed in 2012 was appointed chief executive of the resulting Herakles company.
Email: ptran@defensenews.com
