Airbus has appointed Christian Scherer, 56, Chief Commercial Officer (CCO), replacing Eric Schulz, who has decided to leave the company for personal reasons.

Christian Scherer will start his new assignment with immediate effect. He will report to Airbus Chief Executive Officer (CEO) Tom Enders.

Scherer has been CEO of the Franco-Italian regional turboprop builder, ATR, since October 2016. ATR is jointly owned by Airbus and Leonardo.

Scherer has held a number of senior management positions within the Airbus group. At Airbus, where he started his career in 1984, he was Head of Contracts, Leasing Markets and Deputy Head of Sales as well as Head of Strategy and Future Programmes.

At Airbus Defence and Space, he headed Marketing & Sales. Before moving to ATR in October 2016, he was Executive Vice-President and Head of Airbus Group International.

ATR said that Scherer's successor would be announced in the coming days.

Born in Duisburg, Germany, and raised in Toulouse, France, Scherer holds an MBA in international marketing from the University of Ottawa and graduated from the Paris Business School (ESCP).