Oriel PetrySenior Vice President, Airbus

Oriel is Senior Vice President, Head of Airbus Group UK Public Affairs. Part of the Airbus UK. Leadership team and based in London, she leads the company’s external engagement and strategy in the UK and works closely with the Global Executive Committee. She does this for all parts of Airbus UK (Commercial, Defence and Space and Helicopters) which employs around 12,000 people across 25 British sites. Before joining Airbus, Oriel was a British senior civil servant and diplomat. From 2015 to 2019 she was responsible for commercial diplomacy at the British Embassy in Paris, becoming the first Deputy Trade Commissioner for Europe in 2018. In addition to advising Ministers on EU, economic and FDI policy, she has worked at the European Commission and advised the House of Lords EU Committee. Oriel is Co-Chair of the CBI Global Competitiveness Committee, Chair of the Aerospace Growth Partnership’s Strategy & Engagement working group, a Trustee of the Franco-British Council and sits on the Board of the French Chamber of Great Britain. She is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. She grew up in the Netherlands, has lived and worked in Germany, Belgium and France and speaks fluent German, French and Dutch. She is an active mentor and married with two sons.