Jul 05. Brig. Gen. Erwin F. Lessel III, deputy director, plans and programs, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio, to director, plans and programs, Headquarters Air Force Materiel Command, Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio.

Jul 05. Brig. Gen. Walter L. Davis, commanding general, 20th Support Command (Chemical, Biological, Radiological, Nuclear and High Yield Explosive), Aberdeen Proving Ground, Md. to commander, Joint Unmanned Aerial Vehicle Center of Excellence, Creech Air Force Base (Indian Springs Airfield), Nev.

11 Jul 05. Robin Southwell the former BAE Systems executive who led Airbus’s winning bid to build refuelling tankers for the Royal Air Force, was on Monday named chief executive of UK operations for Airbus parent EADS. Mr Southwell was believed to have clinched the job early last year when the EADS-led consortium he headed beat rival Boeing for the £13bn ($22.6bn) RAF deal, but protracted and sometimes rancorous negotiations with the Ministry of Defence over the terms of the contract called the appointment into question. People close to the discussions said the bitter negotiations had raised concerns about Mr Southwell within the MoD, but those were largely resolved in February, when the two sides came to terms on the disputed issues surrounding the contract’s financing details. The appointment was delayed until EADS formally named its new co-chief executives last month. Phil Blundell, another former BAE executive, takes over from Mr Southwell as head of AirTanker, the consortium bidding for the RAF’s refuellers. This announcement would also indicate that our news that Sir Jeremy Blackham would be leaving the company once Robin Southwell takes over may be correct.
Comment: the Southwell/Blundell double act goes back to the days when BAE and IFS first joined forces and was recognised then for Southwell’s bluffness in dealing with the press in particular. Phil Blundell who reputedly headed BAE’s fledgling C4I unit prior to the formation of Insyte has histo9rically avoided press interviews. If EADS UK is to be run from Germany as reported, the EADS UK PR team must use these appointments to beef up the image of the segment which has suffered from delays in AirTanker, big cutbacks in GBAD and reported liquidated damages being paid for delays in the introduction of Cormorant. Cogent, the largest EADS UK subsidiary after Paradigm, the one big success story, and widely reported on for its Skynet 5 success, has always been loathe to make any press comments or interviews, time for a change?

06 Jul 05. Northrop Grumman Corporation has promoted Paul Gregory to vice president of human resources, from his previous position as controller, at the
company’s Space Technology sector. He reports to Alexis Livanos, president of Northrop Grumman Space Technology. Gregory, 45, will plan and implement the sector’s human-resources strategy, as well as manage employee relations, organization change and effectiveness, compensation and benefits, recruiting, leadership development, training and all other functions of the human-resources process.

01 Jul 05. Didier Lombard is appointed member of Thales’ Board of Directors. Didier Lombar, born in 1942, is French and a graduate of Ecole Polytechnique and Ecole Nationale Supérieure des Télécommunications. He began his career with the Centre National d’ Etudes des Télécommunications (CNET) of France Telecom, where he held several positions between 1967 and 1989. From 1989 to 1991, he was Scientific and Technical Director at the Ministry of Research and Technology. In 1991 to 1998, he joined the Ministry of Industry as Vice President for Industrial Strategy. From 1999 to 2003, he was Delegated Ambassador for International Investment and the founding chairman of the French Agency for International Investment. In 2004, he was appointed Senior Vice President of France Telecom and in February 2005 Chairman and CEO.

11 Jul 05. Hewlett-Packa