Maarten Schippers has been appointed CEO of Airbus Defence and Space Netherlands. As of October, he will be in charge of the local organization and the activities that the space subcontractor carries out in Leiden and Oegstgeest on behalf of the parent company’s product groups, eg building solar panels, launcher structures and instruments. He takes over from Arnaud de Jong, who assumed the CEO position in 2013 (link in Dutch) and is moving on to TNO to become the managing director of the Industry unit.
Schippers joined Airbus in 2016 as Director Industrialization & Manufacturing. As such, he presided over the design and roll-out of the industrialization process for the Ariane 6 and Vega-C launcher structures. Before Airbus, he was Director Service & Manufacturing Technology at ASML and the business unit manager and co-owner of Wijdeven.