VP
Airbus Operations

and

Chairman of the Board of Directors
Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany (AIREG)
Germany

Siegfried Knecht (55) was appointed in September 2013 as VP Head of Political and External Affairs for Airbus. He holds responsibility for all political matters related to Germany with a particular focus on German or foreign government officials, parliamentarians, business associations and think tanks.

Additionally, he has a direct link to the Airbus Group CTO and to the Corporate Technical Office where he provides support and advice on German R&T policy as well as on general political issues.

After graduating from the TU Aachen with a diploma degree in Computer Science he began his career 1987 at the Research Center Jülich where he was appointed Assistant Director in 1991. From 1994 to 1997 he was with the Federal Ministry of Education and Research in Bonn, finally as PA to the Parliamentary State Secretary.

In 1998 Siegfried joined the German Association of Research-based Pharmaceutical Companies as Head of its Berlin office and became Head of International and Regional Affairs in 2000. He stayed in this position until 2006 when he changed to Airbus Group.

In 2011 Siegfried accepted the appointment as Chairman of the Board of aireg, the Aviation Initiative for Renewable Energy in Germany.