Thibauld Jongen is EASA's Certification Director since June 1, 2026.
He was the CEO of Common Sense Robotics, a company he co-founded in 2023, which develops intelligent robots to enable reliable automation of manual work in the manufacturing industry.
Prior to this, he served as CEO of Sabca Group, where he led a full strategic transformation of this major Belgian aerospace and defence company into a modern innovation-driven player, developing a new product portfolio and ensuring sustainable growth. He also held the role of Managing Director of Safran Test Cells, a Safran Group business unit specializing in the design of aeroengine test facilities worldwide.
As an entrepreneur, he is strongly committed to ensuring that innovation in Europe translates into tangible industrial and societal impact. He advocates for strengthening and repatriating industrial capabilities through technology, as a foundation for preserving European values and autonomy.
His academic background combines an engineering degree in applied mathematics, a bachelor’s degree in philosophy, a master’s in fluid mechanics, and a PhD in computational science—reflecting his ongoing effort to connect technical excellence with broader human and societal perspectives. He has worked and studied in Belgium, the Netherlands, the United States, and Switzerland, and has served on numerous boards, including ADRA (the European AI, Data, and Robotics Association) and Arianespace.
He brings a combination of leadership, strong technical grounding, multicultural experience, and strategic foresight. He is frequently invited to contribute to think tanks and public forums, where he engages with a wide range of stakeholders and topics, from competitiveness in aerospace & defence and system integration with roboticists, to manufacturing strategy with industrialists and policy relevance with public sector partners.