Compagnie d'Entreprises CFE SA

Board/Management Information • May 25, 2022

Stéphane Burton, CEO Sabena Aerospace & CEO Blueberry

Stéphane started his career in 1997 as Attorney at law within major law firms (Stibbe and Nauta Dutilh), where he specialized in collective labour law and corporate operations. He assisted numerous clients from various industries (Automotive, Chemical, Life Science, Bank & Insurance, Fast Moving Goods, IT, etc...and aviation). In 2005 and 2006, he assisted the French TAT group in the acquisition of Sabena technics, as well as other companies in France, Tunisia and the United States.

Stéphane then joined TAT/Sabena technics group in 2007 as Group General Counsel. In this position, he headed the Corporate & Legal operations, as well as the Human resources. In 2008, he joined the Board of Directors of Sabena technics Brussels. Later, he was entrusted with group business development and joined the Board of Sabena technics group. During this period, he was in charge of setting up or development of operations in different locations in Eastern Europe (such as Moscou (Russia), Yerevan (Amernia), etc.), Middle East (Koweit City) and USA (Miami).

In May 2011, Stephane was appointed as managing director of Sabena technics Brussels and initiated the company transformation process.

End May 2014, he conducted a management buy-out of Sabena technics Brussels and its subsidiaries. In December 2014, the new organization adopted the name and brand of Sabena Aerospace.

Sabena Aerospace employs 400+ staff, runs 55 M€ revenues and is growing in EMEA, where it set up local maintenance stations in international airports with lack of technical support, such as Tanzania (2013), Democratic Republic of Congo (2014), Zimbabwe (2015), Republic of Congo-Brazzaville (2016), Antwerp (2016), Luxembourg (2017), Charleroi (2018), Warsaw (2019) and Uganda (2020).

In June 2020, Sabena Aerospace has created with its long-term partner Federal Holding and Investment Company (SFPI-FPIM) a new holding company "BLUEBERRY", which has acquired another Belgian Aviation's pioneer, SABCA, from Groupe Industriel Marcel Dassault. Since then, Stephane is the CEO of BLUEBERRY (in addition to his role as CEO of Sabena Aerospace) and is member of the Board of Directors of SABCA.

BLUEBERRY employs 1200+staff, runs 250 M€ revenues (pre-Covid) and is active both in aviation manufacturing & design (SABCA) and in the aircraft maintenance (SABENA AEROSPACE, including the former SABCA MRO branch). The new group is also active in Space and in Unmanned Aerial Vehicles.

Stephane also serves as director in other aviation-related companies (such as Air Belgium and Liege Airport) and non-aviation related companies (such as SECO).

Stephane Burton holds a Master of Law from the Université Catholique de Louvain (Erasmus Program in Humbolt-Universität in Berlin, Germany), a Master in Social, Economic & Tax Law from the University of Ghent, as well as an Executive MBA from INSEAD. He is fluent in French, Dutch and English. Stephane is married and the father of 4 children.

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