Lynred appoints Hervé Bouaziz as executive president and Xavier Caillouet as CEO

• Both appointed as executive corporate officers and legal representatives of the company

Grenoble, France. 11 January 2024. Lynred, a  global provider of high-quality infrared detectors for the aerospace, defense and commercial markets, today announces the appointment of Hervé Bouaziz as executive president and Xavier Caillouet as CEO.

Hervé Bouaziz and Xavier Caillouet bring more than 30 years of executive-level high-tech industrial expertise to Lynred. Their decades of experience in aerospace and defense at Safran and Thales, respectively, will usher a new business dynamic within the company. Their objective is to leverage together the company’s technological skills and the €85M ($93.7M) Campus industrial project to increase Lynred’s offering in state-of-the-art infrared detectors, while strengthening its global market competitiveness.

“I am proud to join Lynred,” said Hervé Bouaziz, executive president at Lynred. “I look forward to working alongside all the teams in accomplishing the company’s ambitions and furthering the growth of this French industry technological flagship.”

As the European market leader in infrared detection, Lynred has pioneered many breakthrough developments. Currently, it is leading the EU HEROIC project, a consortium of 10 European partners developing next-generation devices for defense and security. It is also designing infrared detectors for imaging satellite instruments for several European Earth observation missions, such as LSTM. Among other projects, the company is collaborating with partners to help car makers improve the reliability of collision prevention systems by detecting pedestrians or obstacles in adverse visibility conditions, particularly at night.

“It is an honor to join Lynred and to be able to contribute to this great industrial adventure,” added Xavier Caillouet, CEO at Lynred.

Hervé Bouaziz has 30 years’ aerospace, defense and security experience. He joins Lynred from Europrop International, where he served as CEO for four years. Previously, he worked for a decade at Safran where he held several executive and strategic roles in electronics and defense, including his appointment in 2013 as executive VP for strategy and M&A at Safran Electronics and Defense, and in 2016 as VP for military engines programs at Safran Aircraft Engines.

Prior to that, Bouaziz had a 20-year career at the French defense procurement agency DGA, where he first started as a test engineer in 1994. Subsequent promotions within the organization led to his taking charge of the air-to-ground capabilities of the Mirage 2000 and Rafale in the DGA’s aircraft program directorate and being named director of the Mirage 2000 N and D program. Following that, in 2005 he was appointed deputy armaments attaché at the French embassy in Washington, D.C. He returned to France in 2008 and to the DGA as head of the armed forces systems division at the Defense Analysis Center.

Bouaziz holds degrees from the Ecole Polytechnique (1988) and Sup’Aero (1993) engineering schools, as well as the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in the United States (2005). He also earned his air force pilot wings in 1994.

Xavier Caillouet comes to Lynred following a 30-year career in international roles within various Thales divisions. Recently, he was VP of Radiology at Thales and CEO of Trixell, a position he held for five years. Between 2013 and 2018, he served as VP of operations in airlines support for Thales Avionics, where he oversaw operations in four countries, including the US and China. Prior to that, Mr. Caillouet managed strategy and product policy as VP of navigation and surveillance for Thales Air Systems in Europe and the US, a position he held following his two-year role as director of projects and development. For a period of 10 years earlier in his career, Xavier Caillouet undertook successive managerial roles within Thales, including managing director of Thales Avionics Asia in Singapore and CFO of Thales Avionics Inc. in the US. He holds a degree in engineering (1983) from Sup’Aero, a leading French institution for aerospace.