Warren East, the former Rolls-Royce Holdings PLC (LSE:RR.) chief executive, will take over as non-executive chair at the UK air traffic provider NATS, an announcement revealed today.
East, who spent seven years in the top job at the aerospace group, joins after British airports suffered a chaotic summer, with thousand of flights having been cancelled.
Chief executive Martin Rolfe says when East joins in September he will be able to bring "enormously valuable" insight into the aviation industry and how technology can transform operations.
The former Rolls-Royce chief left the FTSE 100 company in December 2022 and has experience at the helm of Arm, the Cambridge-based but US-listed chipmaker.
NATS is currently undergoing an overhaul of its IT systems, upgrading the technology used by controllers to manage air traffic.