By Bill Strait, Publisher and Editor
November 2008

Patrick Goudou was born in 1950 in Paris, France. After graduating from the Ecole Polytechnique in Paris, he went on to train at the Ecole Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’ Espace in Toulouse with a specialization in aero-engines.

In 1975 he started his professional career at the French General Delegation for Armaments (Délégation Générale pour l’Armement – DGA), where he worked primarily in the aeronautical sector. For ten years he was responsible for testing civil and military aero-engines at the DGA Engines Test Centre at Saclay. He was then appointed to a series of management posts in economic control and industrial strategy, with particular emphasis on the aerospace industry and the question of its restructuring to European level. In 1997 he became Director for Commercial and International Affairs at the French shipyard DCN.

At the beginning of 2002 he was appointed Chief Executive of the French Aeronautical Maintenance Agency (Service de la maintenance aéronautique – SMA), a body responsible for engineering, industrial maintenance and repairs to aircraft, engines and aircraft equipment, as well as for the design and production of aeronautical parts.

He has been Executive Director of the European Aviation Safety Agency since the Agency’s start of operations in 2003.

He is married and has three children.

- Patrick, you were born in France in 1950.  Where in life were you when you heard the call of aviation and aerospace?

I was fascinated by aviation from a very early age, around seven I think!