Thompson Aero Seating Limited, a leading supplier of premium aircraft seating to the global aerospace industry based in Craigavon, Northern Ireland, today announced the appointment of Andres Budo as CEO with effect from 1 January 2019.

Andres has been Deputy CEO at Thompson Aero Seating since June 2018, joining the company from Airbus, where he worked primarily in the cabin interiors sector between 2015 and 2018. Before joining Airbus, Andres held a number of senior roles in business development and marketing, business transformation, production development and M&A activity in the United States and Europe, primarily in the aerospace & defence sectors.

The current CEO of Thompson Aero Seating, Gary Montgomery, will move to a new strategic role with AVIC Cabin Systems Co., Ltd (‘ACS’), a parent company of Thompson Aero Seating, and will remain on the company’s supervising board of directors.

Commenting on these changes, Gary Montgomery said: “I am very pleased that Andres has agreed to take on this new role and believe he will be a great fit for Thompson Aero Seating as it builds on impressive growth the company has enjoyed. I am looking forward to taking on my new role at ACS and am pleased that it will allow me to retain a close link to Thompson Aero Seating as it continues its success under Andres’ leadership”.

Andres Budo added: “I am excited to be taking up this new role with Thompson Aero Seating and building on the strong foundation Gary has developed over the previous nine years. I believe we have a great opportunity to develop our customer relationships, products and people and am looking forward to working closely with our partners in the ACS group in the coming years.”