Laurence Barron was appointed President of Airbus China in January 2004. In this position, he is responsible for Airbus' overall activities in China including business development, commercial activities, customer services and industrial co-operation.

Laurence Barron graduated from the Law Faculty of Bristol University in 1973 and was called to the Bar of England and Wales in 1974.

He then came to Paris, France to practise commercial law with Clifford-Turner (now Clifford-Chance) and was qualified as a "Conseil Juridique" in 1978. Between 1978 and 1982 he was seconded to Nakagawa Law Office in Tokyo, Japan.

In 1982, he joined the legal department of Airbus (then Airbus Industrie) as an aircraft financing specialist. He was appointed Sales Finance Director North America in 1984, then in 1985, Sales Finance Director in charge of the Sales Finance team worldwide.

He became Vice President Customer Finance in 1987, then Vice President and Head of Asset Management in 1994. He was promoted to Senior Vice President in 2001.

Laurence Barron is British and was born in 1951 in Dover, England. He is married and has two grown-up daughters. His personal interests include fishing, golf and travel.