Chris Geoghegan

Businesses

Chris Geoghegan was born on 13 June 1954 in Gorton, Manchester and was educated at Bishop Henshow Senior High School in Rochdale, Lancashire. After leaving school he became an undergraduate apprentice with Hawker Siddeley Aviation and gained a Business Studies Honours Degree from Manchester Polytechnic.

In 1976 Chris finished his apprenticeship and joined British Aerospace, Manchester as a Senior Contracts Officer. From there he progressed to Assistant Contracts Manager (Civil Aircraft) in 1979 and, in 1981 was appointed Head of Sub-Contracts - Purchasing.

In 1982 Chris was made Offload Production Manager and then Executive Director, Administration (Manchester) and General Manager, Chadderton site in 1984. He remained in this post until October 1986 when he was appointed Director and General Manager of the Filton site.

On 1 January 1989 Chris was appointed Deputy Managing Director - Operations of the newly-formed Airbus Division of British Aerospace (Commercial Aircraft) Limited. In April 1990 he was appointed Managing Director of the Division which, in February 1992, became British Aerospace Airbus Limited.

Chris became a member of the Executive Board of Airbus Industrie in February 1994 and in June 1998 joined Airbus Industrie to assist the CEO, Noel Forgeard, in transitioning the Airbus GIE towards a single company.

In April 2000 Chris was appointed Group Managing Director responsible for the Avionics Group within BAE Systems - the newly-formed company resulting from the merger between British Aerospace and Marconi Electronic Systems.

In April 2002 Chris was appointed as one of three Chief Operating Officers of BAE Systems and became Group Executive Director in January 2007. He is responsible for all European Joint Ventures, the Company’s Commercial Aerospace interests as well as the UK wholly owned electronics business and Shared Services. In addition, he assumed functional leadership for the Commercial, Procurement and Manufacturing activities within the company.

In July 2002 Chris was appointed to the Board of Directors of BAE Systems plc.

Chris has been a Director of MBDA BV, a joint venture with EADS and Finmeccanica, since July 2002. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and is currently President of the SBAC (Society of British Aerospace Companies).

Chris is married to Rosemary and they have three children - Victoria, Thomas and Harriet. He is a keen sportsman with a special interest in rugby, football and golf.