Less noise, more actions for sovereign and sustainable aviation

Jean-Christophe holds an engineering degree and a joint Master’s in Business and Project Management from HEC & ISAE Supaero. He has more than 12 years’ experience in the aerospace and defense industries, including 9 years at Airbus, in business development and as a Bid Manager, Team Manager and Chief of staff before becoming fully involved in the development of sustainable aviation. In 2014 he joined the E-Fan team to lead the historic Channel crossing project and was then appointed as E-Fan 2.0 Programme Manager. It made him aware of the impact of electric and hybrid technologies in aviation and the scale of the challenges to be met on all issues related to their certification, industrialization and sales.

Jean-Christophe has been the CEO of Ascendance since 2018, developing solutions for a cleaner and more sustainable aviation including both eVTOL aircraft and hybrid-electric propulsion technologies.

He was recently awarded the High Five Award by the European CleanSky program, which recognizes 5 personalities in the aeronautics industry working to make the industry more sustainable.

Thibault Baldivia is co-founder and Chief Customer Officer at Ascendance where he leads Business development, partnerships and customer relations. Prior to co-founding Ascendance in 2018, Thibault started his career as an Aerospace Engineer at Airbus involved in several research programs about hybridizing aircrafts ranging from UAVs, rotorcraft and regional airplanes. 

Thibault then moved to the E-FAN program at Airbus - one of the very first 100% electrical aircraft in the world - where he led the development of the Central Electronic Control Unit (ECU) and oversaw the electric propulsion system architecture as System Architect. Thibault holds a MEng. in Aeronautical engineering from Ecole Centrale de Lyon (FRA) and a Msc. in Thermics and Energy from Université Claude Bernard Lyon 1.

Entrepreneur and aeronautical engineer, he focuses his work on the development of more sustainable aeronautical technologies. A graduate from ISAE-SUPAERO, he has worked for the past 12 years in electric and hybrid aviation where he took part in two of the very first all electric aircrafts in the world in a Brazilian SME and at Airbus working on the E-FAN program.

Co-inventor of 10 patents, he then co-founded Ascendance in 2018 with 3 other former members of the E-FAN team to develop Ateaa: a VTOL hybrid aircraft as a more sustainable alternative to helicopters as well as Sterna, its hybrid propulsion chain, which will be offered to other aircraft manufacturers to support the decarbonisation of the entire aviation industry.

Clément has a double degree: MSc from UCL (University College London) with a specialization in space systems design, and from Supélec in electrical engineering, automation and computer science. He has nearly 8 years' experience in hybrid-electric aviation, with experience in Airbus' E-FAN team as head of propulsion chain performance modeling, and since 2018 has been in charge of hybrid-electric technology development at Ascendance as Hybrid Product Director, which he co-founded.

An active contributor to nearly a dozen patents in innovative electric and hybrid aeronautical propulsion architectures and technologies, he pushes every day to drive innovation to enable the introduction of these new technologies into aviation.

Stéphane Viala is program and Engineering director in Ascendance since February 2023. Stéphane Viala was SVP Engineering and Head of Design Organization ATR from August 2018 to February 2023. He was VP ATR Chief Engineer and Head of Engineering Integration in charge of technical definition and development of product, continuous improvement and continuous airworthiness since 2016. 

He previously worked for AIRBUS Commercial aircraft division for more than 16 years. He was A320 Incremental Development Chief Project Engineer in charge of Covering the Overall Physical Design, Overall A/C Design and Overall System Design defining and developing next steps for the A320 program in the chief Engineering team. He moreover participated to define the architecture and technical aspects of R&T Programs during 4 years as head of Overall a/c Design encompassing flight physics, engine, Flight Test Bed and Methods and Tools perimeter after having set up flight test demonstrator organization for R&T. He has been also Head of A30X Flight Physics and Flight Dynamics Integrated team in charge of defining what could be a new Single Aisle a/c. The conclusion of those studies led to the launch of A320 NEO.

Prior to those roles, he was deputy of the A350 Flight Dynamics integrated team. He has been also in charge of France Aerodynamic Methods team same time supporting any development involving fluid mechanics (e.g. Aerodynamics, Aerothermic, Fuel, Bleed Air and Icing). Furthermore, he is the owner of several patents in the Aerospace field and was involved in several tiger teams supporting Airbus a/c programs. He obtained his Ph.D Degree on Turbulence Modeling from SUPAERO/ONERA in 1995 after graduating as an Aeronautics Engineer at ENSMA (École Nationale Supérieure de Mécanique et d'Aérotechnique) in 1992. He received in 2023 the French Aeronautical Medal for his contribution and dedication to Aeronautic.

Antoine Crouÿ brings nearly 20 years of experience in the aerospace and defense sectors, including senior roles at Tier 1 supplier Gardner Aerospace.
He has held leadership positions in procurement, program management, and business development.

As Director of Programs at Ascendance, he leads the company’s multi-project Program Management structure and ensures the on-time, on-budget delivery of key milestones.

Cyrille Le Gall is the CFO of Ascendance. He joined the company in January 2022 tasked with building the Finance function and supporting the Series A fundraising. He brings almost 25 years of finance experience in Airbus Group and prior to joining Ascendance, he served as VP Finance of the Intelligence Business Unit of Airbus Defence and Space and Head of Finance of Airbus DS Geo SA subsidiary. Previously, he spent three years as Head of Finance of Cassidian France (Defence and Security business of Airbus in France) and held several additional roles in central controlling, merger and acquisitions financial support and project control.

Cyrille holds a Master’s degree in Finance and Accounting.

Anissa graduated from IAE Toulouse in 2011 with a Master's degree in Human Resources Management. Initially a generalist in HR in France and Ireland, she then specialized in recruitment and spent 5 years as Talent acquisition coordinator at Sigfox.

In 2021, she joined Ascendance's first employees to set up the Talent Department as Talent Manager and then Talent Director, taking Ascendance from 10 people to nearly 80 today with her team of Nicolas and Marie. Today, she is focusing her energy on key HR issues such as skills development, quality of working life and recruitment of future ascenders, in order to bring the project to a successful conclusion.

Vincent Mathe brings over 20 years of experience in the industry mostly in the aerospace sector. Before joining Ascendance, Vincent held multiple leading positions for 19 years at Airbus out of which 14 years were at Airbus Helicopters. He brings end-to-end aeronautical experience encompassing the whole industrial process: from the manufacturing of elementary parts to Final Assembly Line activities and Support and Services businesses. Prior to joining Ascendance, he served as COO of Airbus Atlantic Composites (~500 employees - 60+M€ yearly revenue). Previously, he spent four years in Canada in charge of improving the competitiveness of the A220 Program post merger and three years in Mexico as COO of Airbus Helicopters Mexico accountable for the Support & Services businesses in Latin America (450 helicopters / 24 countries). He held several positions in the Airbus Helicopters HQ for MRO Program, Manufacturing Engineering and Airframe projects. Vincent is tasked with building the Industry and Supply Chain functions including the set up of the future FALs.FR: Vincent Mathe apporte plus de 20 ans d’expérience dans l’industrie, principalement dans le secteur aérospatial. Avant de rejoindre Ascendance, Vincent a occupé plusieurs postes de direction pendant 19 ans chez Airbus, dont 14 ans chez Airbus Helicopters. Il possède une expertise aéronautique complète couvrant l’ensemble du processus industriel : de la fabrication des pièces élémentaires aux activités de la chaîne d'assemblage final, ainsi qu’aux services de support et d’après-vente. Avant de rejoindre Ascendance, il occupait le poste de COO d’Airbus Atlantic Composites (~500 employés - chiffre d'affaires annuel de plus de 60 M€). Auparavant, il a passé quatre ans au Canada, chargé d'améliorer la compétitivité du programme A220 après la fusion, et trois ans au Mexique en tant que COO d'Airbus Helicopters Mexico, responsable des activités de Support & Services en Amérique latine (450 hélicoptères / 24 pays). Il a également occupé plusieurs postes au siège d’Airbus Helicopters dans les domaines des programmes MRO, de l'ingénierie de production et des projets de structures aéronautiques. Vincent est chargé de construire les fonctions Industrie et Supply Chain, incluant la mise en place des futures chaînes d'assemblage final (FAL).

Paul Gallard brings over 20 years of experience, gained notably at Latécoère and Safran, in both France and Canada. Within the Safran Group, he was responsible for both Supplier Performance Management and procurement activities. A graduate engineer from the École Nationale Supérieure des Arts et Métiers, Paul has solid expertise in procurement management and a thorough mastery of the MRP II process. As Procurement Director, he is responsible for defining the procurement strategy, optimizing the supply plan, and establishing strategic partnerships to ensure the robustness and competitiveness of the components required for Ascendance’s solutions.