A page is turning within Aérocampus Aquitaine. The structure created in 2011 in Latresne (Gironde) to develop professional training in aeronautical maintenance announces the appointment of a new general manager. This is Anne-Catherine Guitard, until then director of operations and international relations at the business school. Kedge BS, who takes over from Jérôme Verschave after his sudden departure last November. Bruno Loubaresse has been acting since then.
Holder of a Master 2 in “Translation and scientific documentation English-Spanish in renewable energies and sustainable development, Anne-Catherine Guitard is also a graduate of the European Institute of Total Quality. Aérocampus highlights “his expertise and his career over the past 20 years both in industry and in the academic world in France and abroad”.
Expand internationally
The new general manager has in fact assumed management functions within the Antaxia business school, the Junia engineering school, which a vast campus project in Bordeaux Euratlantique, then from Kedge BS. She also worked for three years, about twenty years ago, at Zodiac Nautic. At the same time, specifies Aérocampus, she was in charge of proofreading scientific articles at the Jean-François Champollion National University Institute, in Albi. Finally, Anne-Catherine Guitard is a member of the International Advisory Board of Aston Business School, of the CBSOA (Club Bordeaux Sud-Ouest Afrique), of Eurocham (Council of European investors in Senegal).
His mission at the controls of Aérocampus will include “to establish its development both in France and internationally”. The Aérocampus Aquitaine association, created in 2011 and financed up to 25% by the regional council of Nouvelle-Aquitaine, employs around sixty employees directly, in addition to National Education staff and independent contributors. Focused on aeronautical and space maintenance professions, it provides initial training (300 students, half of whom are apprentices) and continuing education. Aérocampus has an area of 26 hectares on the Château de Latresne, a center dedicated to cabling in Saint-Médard and approval 147 issued by the European Aviation Safety Agency to qualify its training. Continuous training is mainly done on behalf of the big names in the sector such as Thales, Dassault, Sabena, Safran, Airbus as well as French and foreign airlines.
Departure of Jérôme Verschave
Anne-Catherine Guitard succeeds Jérôme Verschave who directed and embodied Aérocampus for ten years before suddenly leaving the structure in November in conflict with his employer. Both parties do not wish to comment on this episode. Since the beginning of 2022, Jérôme Verschave has converted to consulting by launching his own company JV Connexion. Objective: to take advantage of his experience and his large address book – acquired at Thales, the city of Pessac, Alain Rousset’s office in the New Aquitaine Region then Aérocampus – to support VSEs and SMEs from all sectors in their financing and development needs, particularly internationally.
A niche in which another former collaborator of Alain Rousset is already positioned: Thibaut Richebois, who launched TR2i after seven years in particular as deputy director general of the economy and employment at the New Aquitaine Region.