Lionel Rouby

Head of Digital
Airbus Defence and Space

Lionel Rouby has been SVP Head of Digital within Airbus Defence and Space since 1 January 2023 and is a member of the Airbus Defence and Space and Executive Committee. He is responsible for driving the digital transformation while serving the division with state-of-the-art IT solutions. 

With more than 25 years of aviation experience spanning jetfighter, helicopters, A400M and commercial aircraft, Lionel is passionate about aviation in all its forms and always looking for win-win solutions and customer satisfaction.

Previously, Lionel was SVP Innovation and Digital Solutions for Airbus Customer Services. In this role, he was leading the digital transformation of the Customer Services business, leveraging digital innovation and responsible for the development, delivery and support of digital solutions for Airlines and Lessors, exploiting in particular cloud solutions and big data analytics capabilities.

Lionel also served as Chief Engineer of the A400M programme and NH90 programme where he also held leadership positions of increasing responsibility within the design office and as the Technical director of NHIndustries, the joint venture managing the NH90 program gathering Airbus Helicopters Group, Agusta-Westland and Fokker.

Lionel started his career at the French Flight Test Centre (CEV) at Istres as military test engineer for the Mirage 2000 programme. He participated in and managed several test campaigns to qualify the integration of new armaments or avionic systems.

Lionel graduated from Ecole Polytechnique (ParisTech) and from Sup’Aero (ISAE, Toulouse).

He also has a pilot licence and passed several qualifications (IFR, Multi Piston-Engines). He has logged about 1000 flight hours as pilot, co-pilot or back-seater.

He is 51, married and has 4 daughters.

Lionel Rouby