Andrea Thompson becomes first woman to chair Eurofighter board

Andrea Thompson of BAE Systems has been appointed as chair of the Eurofighter supervisory board.

Andrea is managing director of BAE's Europe & International business, which employs more than 10,000 people across sites in Warton and Samlesbury.

Eurofighter is a four-nation consortium made up of industry from Germany, Italy, Spain and the United Kingdom, the partner nations behind the programme, which are represented by Airbus Defence (Germany and Spain), BAE Systems (UK) and Leonardo (Italy).

She becomes the first woman to be appointed to the role, and will now play a leading role in the delivery of major upgrades to the aircraft.

Andrea joined BAE Systems in 2016 when she was appointed senior vice-president of its US programmes business. She was previously executive vice president at Rolls-Royce and the first female managing director of Leyland Trucks.

She said: "This is an exciting time to be taking up this role as we continue to develop the capability of Eurofighter Typhoon to ensure its role as the backbone of air defence for decades to come.

"Eurofighter Typhoon now benefits from a clear roadmap, agreed with the Eurofighter partner nations, which takes us towards the end of the decade - all of which builds on a series of capability enhancements, together with further aircraft acquisition from the German Air Force to continue the aircraft’s capability journey.

"Through the strength of European collaboration, we were delighted to see the first aircraft arrive in Kuwait last year and are preparing to deliver the first jets to Qatar later this year, so there is a lot of work to do now and in the future."

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