Alain Flourens was promoted to Executive VP and Head of the A380 Programme in 2008, following assignments as Head of the Single Aisle Programme, a post he had held since September 2006, and Executive Vice President, Head of the Airbus Centres of Excellence, since 2005. In 1990 he joined Aérospatiale’s Aircraft Division in Toulouse, became Production Manager in Nantes and in 1993 Managing Director at the company’s St Eloi factory. Flourens began his professional career in 1982 at the French Ministry of Defence. He graduated from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris in 1980 and obtained a degree in engineering from Toulouse ISAE Institute in 1982.