Change of the Guard at EUROCAE

As of 1 December 2011, Abdoulaye N’Diaye has replaced Gilbert Amato as the Secretary General at EUROCAE.

As planned, Gilbert Amato has retired from EUROCAE, after having successfully guided this association since 1 July 2004. Gilbert will remain on board at EUROCAE, as Adboulaye’s advisor, until the end of January 2012.

On behalf of all the UVS International Board of Directors and its members, I would like to sincerely thank Gilbert for his open mind and vision, which allowed, with very little prodding from UVS International, the start-up of WG73 on UAS. Now that our collaboration comes to an end, we would like to wish Gilbert the best of luck with the picking of the juicy fruit from the trees that will undoubtedly present themselves to him.

Abdoulaye N’Diaye, resigned from Thales Avionics, France, in order to be able to take on his new position at EUROCAE. This change of employment automatically terminated Abdoulaye N’Diaye’s position on the UVS International Board of Directors. He is wholeheartedly thanked for his enthusiasm, availability, and the valuable contributions he made during his tenure as Secretary on the association’s Board. UVS International looks forward to continue, and with the help of Abdoulaye, hopefully increase, its fruitful cooperation with EUROCAE for the benefit of the international UAS community.

The European Organisation for Civil Aviation (EUROCAE) is an organisation that has been dedicated to aviation standardisation in Europe and on a worldwide basis, for nearly 50 years. EUROCAE is recognized globally by the International Civil Aviation Organisation (ICAO), which references EUROCAE Documents (ED), as well as by the European Commission and the European Parliament, as the technical body for European Community Specifications (CS) development. EUROCAE has a long standing strategic partnership with RTCA in the USA, with which it often develops standards jointly.

The recently appointed EUROCAE officers are: Jean-Paul Platzer, Airbus (President), Patrick Souchu, DSNA (Council Chairman), Peter Hotham, SESAR JU (Council Vice-Chairman), Luc Baron, Thales Avionics (Treasurer). The current Council Members are: AENA, Airbus, Altran, AustroControl, Dassault Aviation, DFS, DSNA, EUROCONTROL, Indra Sistemas, NATS, QinetiQ, SESAR JU, Thales Air Systems, Thales Avionics.

Abdoulaye N’Diaye (1967) is a graduate (1989) of the National Institute of Civil Aviation (ENAC), France (aircraft design; air operations; management engineer). He is an aviation expert with 23 years of experience both in civil and military domains. He has held senior management positions in the fields of Corporate Strategy, Strategic Marketing and Teaming, Business Development, Project & Program Management, as well as engineering positions in Air Operations, Certification & Airworthiness, Systems Engineering and Safety Critical Software Development. He cumulates 19 years of employment with the Thales Group, interspaced with several years with Rockwell Collins Company. Thanks to his appointments in 3 different countries (France, UK, USA), he has built up close relations with a significant number of the aviation stakeholders and players in these countries, as well as in Australia, Belgium, Brazil, Canada, Germany, Italy, Netherlands, South Africa, Spain.