Jean Pierson

Jean Pierson was born on November 17, 1940 in Bizerte, Tunisia. He graduated from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l'Aéronautique in 1963 and started his career that same year at Sud Aviation, the French predecessor of Airbus Industrie, where he worked as a production engineer. From 1972 to 1976, Pierson served as director of SOCATA, the light aircraft division of Aerospatiale, and then as director of the latter’s Toulouse site from 1976 to 1983.

Pierson succeeded Bernard Lathière in March 1985 as the Managing Director of Airbus Industrie. In addition to piloting the entry into service of the A320, he expanded the Single Aisle family (A321 and A319) and he launched the Long Range family (A340 and A330). He also created the Large Aircraft division for the A3XX project which went into production as the A380. Under Pierson’s tenure Airbus took its first steps in expanding its international industrial footprint by laying the foundations for the future production of aircraft in China. He retired from Airbus in 1998.

During his leadership the company’s global market share increased from 17% to 40%. In addition to consolidating Airbus’ presence in the North American market, he is also credited with transforming Airbus from a loose consortium to an integrated company. The governance structure devised by Pierson would pave the way for today’s Airbus. Jean Pierson died on November 3, 2021.