Nick Sanders

About Nick Sanders

Nick Sanders has served as Chairman of the Board of Latécoère since 30 December 2024, following his appointment by the Board after the Annual General Meeting. He brings extensive industrial leadership experience in aerospace and complex manufacturing businesses, built over several decades in the UK and across international companies. Trained as an engineer, he began his career at Rolls-Royce, where he spent 13 years working on engine development and technical support. He then joined Lucas Aerospace, where he became Group Vice President Operations in 1996. That early career gave him a strong foundation in industrial operations, quality management, and large-scale turnaround programs. In 2002, Nick Sanders was appointed Chief Executive Officer of CompAir, leading the company through a buyout with Alchemy Partners. Under his leadership, the business moved from significant losses to profitability within five years, demonstrating his ability to execute deep transformations and restore operational performance. He later served as interim Chief Executive Officer of Deloro Stellite before co-founding Better Capital, an investment platform focused on turnaround situations. From 2010 to 2019, he was Executive Chairman of Gardner Aerospace, where he oversaw the company’s transformation from a distressed business into a profitable and growing industrial group that became one of Airbus’ top detailed-parts suppliers. Outside Latécoère, Sanders sits on the boards of several companies in aerospace, industrial manufacturing, and transition technologies, including Doncasters, Elcogen plc, and Walker Precision Ltd. He is a Chartered Engineer and a Fellow of both the Institute of Mechanical Engineers and the Royal Aeronautical Society. At Latécoère, his chairmanship reflects the company’s focus on stronger governance, operational discipline, and long-term value creation, aligned with his track record in industrial restructuring and performance improvement.