Santa Clara, Calif. – June 7, 2005 – Thales, a world leader in satellite navigation and positioning, today announced the appointment of Francois Erceau to the post of vice president and general manager of its survey and GIS business unit. Erceau previously served as director of the survey business, significantly enhancing the profitability and performance of the business.
An industry veteran with more than 20 years experience, Erceau has served for eight years in key product marketing, sales and management positions. In his new role, Erceau assumes product marketing and profit and loss responsibility for the GIS business, which holds strategic value for the Company. Thales is the specialist in delivering premium low-cost GIS data collection solutions to an expanded audience that previously could not access the benefits of GIS due to cost or complexity constraints.
“Francois’ track record is clear and we’re pleased to have the continued benefits of his leadership through his expanded role with the company,” said Henry Gaillard, chief executive officer of Thales’ navigation business. “He is intimately familiar with these markets and customers and knows how to best meet their needs. The opportunities in front of us in both the survey and GIS industries are remarkable and we’re confident Francois will lead these businesses to even greater success.”
Erceau previously headed up all business-to-business European sales and marketing efforts for Thales’ navigation business, where he drove a 20 percent increase in revenue and 8 percent increase in market share during a three-year period.
In addition to his Thales Navigation experience, including his marketing and sales experience in the marine survey division, Erceau ran sales, marketing, and engineering activities at Sercel GPS and Sextant Avionique (now Thales Avionics).
Erceau is an engineering graduate of Ecole Superieure d’Optique ESO, in Orsay, France and holds a Business Administration degree from IAE Nantes.
About Thales
Thales is an international electronics and systems group serving the defense, aerospace, services and security markets. The group employs 61,500 people worldwide and generated revenues of10 billion euros in 2004.
Thales’ navigation business is one of the world’s leaders in positioning, navigation and guidance equipment with global operations. Thales markets its Magellan® brand GPS solutions in the consumer electronics, recreation, and automotive markets, and its GPS and GNSS professional products in the survey, GIS/Mapping, and OEM markets.
Through its joint venture with Hertz, Thales has developed the Hertz NeverLost® vehicle navigation system.