Starting from 1st September 2020, Lorenzo Mariani has become Executive Group Director Sales & Business Development of MBDA and Managing Director of MBDA Italia. Reporting directly to Eric Béranger, the group’s Chief Executive Officer, he also becomes a member of MBDA’s Executive Committee.

Mr. Mariani succeeds Pasquale Di Bartolomeo following his appointment as Leonardo’s Chief Commercial Officer.

As Executive Group Director Sales & Business Development, Mr. Mariani will guide an integrated multi-national team responsible for generating the order intake to sustain the long term performance of the company. This includes all activities related to the whole product life cycle, and for understanding precisely what customers require and developing the most compelling solutions to meet these requirements.

As Managing Director of MBDA Italia, Mr. Mariani will be the senior representative of the company in Italy. He will lead MBDA’s relationship with both the Italian customer and the Italian industrial community. Whilst as the person responsible for the company’s operations in the country, he will also ensure its business continuity, competitiveness and coherence from a national perspective.

Mr. Mariani joins MBDA from Leonardo where he held several key positions. He had previously been Managing Director of the Land & Naval Defense Electronics Division. From 2017 was Chief Commercial Officer, and additionally from May 2018 he was Chief Executive Officer of Leonardo International, and held both posts until his departure to join MBDA.

As a member of the MBDA board whilst at Leonardo, Mr. Mariani knows the company very well. Moreover, earlier in his career, he worked in MBDA’s Strategy directorate as the head of product strategy from 2002 to 2005.

Eric Béranger, CEO of MBDA, said: “I am pleased to welcome Lorenzo Mariani to the MBDA group Executive Committee. Thanks to his career in the commercial field, I am confident Lorenzo will provide a decisive contribution to the company’s future success. I would also like to take this opportunity to thank Pasquale Di Bartolomeo for having played a key role in the development of MBDA as a market leader.”

MBDA is the only European group capable of designing and producing missiles and missile systems that correspond to the full range of current and future operational needs of the three armed forces (land, sea and air).

With a significant presence in five European countries and within the USA, in 2018 MBDA achieved revenue of 3.2 billion Euros with an order book of 17.4 billion Euros. With more than 90 armed forces customers in the world, MBDA is a world leader in missiles and missile systems. In total, the group offers a range of 45 missile systems and countermeasures products already in operational service and more than 15 others currently in development.

MBDA is jointly owned by Airbus (37.5 %), BAE Systems (37.5 %), and Leonardo (25 %).