Nathalie Ducombeau, Head of Quality at Airbus, received the “La Tribune Women’s Award” in the “Woman Manager of the Year” category last night in Toulouse, France

This year “La Tribune Women’s Awards” brought together 23 women entrepreneurs from the Midi-Pyrénées region, nominated in eight different categories. The “Woman Manager of the Year” category rewards a woman who heads a department or company and manages teams, contributing every day to the success of the company, its strategy and results; while integrating into her daily activities a culture of gender equality and diversity in general.

After joining Airbus in 2008 as Head of Aerostructures for the A400M programme, Nathalie Ducombeau was appointed Head of Quality at Airbus in October 2012. As such, Nathalie is responsible for determining and deploying the Quality Management System, along with its standards, procedures and tools. She is also responsible for all the employees who contribute to Quality in the programmes and functions. Her previous positions at Airbus include heading up the improvement of industrial performance for the A380, A400M and A350 XWB, and later on, steering the production start-up for the A350 XWB.

After beginning her career in the Avionics division of TRT (Philips), Nathalie Ducombeau gained vast industrial and management experience at Matra and then MBDA. Born in 1961, Nathalie Ducombeau is an engineering school graduate, and has a DEA postgraduate degree in instrumentation/microwaves. She was appointed “Chevalier de la Légion d’Honneur” for her industrial accomplishments in Europe.

“I welcome Nathalie Ducombeau’s nomination as Woman Manager of the Year. Nathalie is an example of success and she highlights the fact that women can also build their careers in an industrial sector that is no longer the preserve of men. We are keen to attract a greater number of women into our workforce. It’s not a question of meeting quotas, but rather of achieving a more balanced participation of women at every level of the company, because this diversity is a source of wealth, success and performance,” explained Thierry Baril, Chief Human Resources Officer of EADS and Airbus. “Offering equal opportunities is an essential factor in our company culture,” he added.

Airbus – the leading aircraft manufacturer worldwide – will be hiring about 3,000 people around the world in 2013. Despite the small numbers of female students in the engineering sectors, Airbus is hoping that 25% of these new recruits will be women and is actively seeking to encourage young women and orient them towards careers in aeronautics.

Airbus is a global company, employing some 59,000 people of more than 100 different nationalities in its design offices and on its manufacturing sites in France, Germany, the United Kingdom and Spain, as well as in its subsidiaries in the United States, China, Japan and the Middle East.

Nearly 10,000 new employees have been hired over the last two years to make it possible to cope with an order book representing seven years’ production, and pursue the development of new programmes such as the A350 XWB and the A320neo. Since its very first aircraft entered service, Airbus has sold almost 12,800 aircraft and already delivered more than 7,800 aircraft.