Thierry Casale, 49, was appointed Senior Vice-President of the newly created Programs directorate of ATR. In this position, Casale will be in charge of supervising, coordinating and setting priorities in all serial developments as well as fleet in service activities, set to anticipate and meet customers' expectations. He will manage product improvement projects, coordinate engineering activities and propose new developments to support the ATR fleet. In his role, Casale will perform program management, chief engineering, production (final assembly line, delivery), program quality and supply chain activities. He will report to ATR's Chief Executive Officer Patrick de Castelbajac, and will sit on the Executive Committee.
He joined ATR in 2005 as Vice-President Industry, in charge of the new aircraft assembly line and industrial support for the second-hand aircraft market, before being appointed Senior Vice-President Operations of ATR in 2011.
Casale started his career at EADS Sogerma in Bordeaux, where, in 1998, he became Director of Maintenance of the Airbus aircraft. In 2001, he was named Vice-President Operations where took the responsibility for line maintenance, fleet engineering, maintenance control center and field support. In 2004, he was appointed Vice-President Industrial Operations and managed MRO activities for aircraft and components, cabin completion for VIP aircraft and industrial support for the EADS Sogerma plants of Bordeaux and Toulouse, leading a team of 600 people.