Airbus has named Amparo Moraleda chair of its board of directors from 1 October 2026, making her the first Spanish person and first woman to lead the company’s board. She succeeds René Obermann as Airbus navigates governance changes at Europe’s largest aerospace group, while employees in Spain vote on a separate labour dispute affecting the company’s local operations.
Moraleda, who has served on the board since 2015, will seek renewal at the 2027 annual general meeting alongside Oliver Zipse. The move ends Airbus’s long-standing pattern of appointing French or German board chairs and places a Spanish executive at the head of oversight for a group central to Europe’s civil aviation and defence industries.
Airbus also named Mark Dunkerley to take over as chair of the remuneration, nominations and governance committee and as lead independent director. The board transition comes after Obermann previously signalled that he would not stand for re-election at the 2027 AGM, giving Airbus a managed handover at board level rather than a sudden change in leadership.