Editorial Contributor
The executive director of the European Aviation Safety Agency, Patrick Goudou is an engineer of French nationality who graduated from the École Polytechnique in Paris in 1970, going on to train at the École Supérieure de l'Aéronautique et de l'Espace.
His professional career has mainly been spent in the General Delegation for Armament, primarily in the aeronautical sector. For ten years, he was responsible for testing civil and military aero-engines at the Engines Test Centre at Saclay.
At the beginning of 2002, he assumed the role of chief executive of the Aeronautical Maintenance Agency, an industrial body responsible for engineering, carrying out industrial maintenance and repairs to aircraft, engines and aircraft equipment, and aeronautical parts. He was appointed executive director of EASA in 2003.
The main challenge for the EASA is to be an effective safety regulator without putting an undue burden on the industry.
