François Lureau’s last position was chief executive of the ”Délégation Générale pour l’Armement” (DGA) by appointment of the French government from February 2004 to July 2008. Reporting directly to the French Minister for Defence, he was managing a 10 billions Euros per year investment budget in research, development and acquisition.

Since 2008, he has been the chairman of EuroFLConsult a firm which he set up at that time, providing consulting services in the Aerospace and Defense sectors.
Born in 1944, ”Ingénieur en Chef de l’Armement”, he holds degrees from ”Ecole Polytechnique” and ”Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique”, as well as a master’s degree in economics and a Ph.D from the University of Stanford in California. He joined French arms procurement agency DGA in 1968.
He held several different positions, in particular program director for the Tiger helicopter, developed jointly by France and Germany. A commissioned French air force pilot, headed the Equipment Group of GIFAS, the French aerospace industry trade association.

His past positions include Director General of Thompson-CSF Airsys (1996-2000), CEO of Thalès Avionics (2000-2002), and CEO of the Defence Business Area of the Thales group (2002-2004).
Previously he was CEO of the Group Aerospace Business Area for two years.
François Lureau is also actively involved in higher education. He has been Board member of the Ecole Polytechnique Engineering school from 2004 to 2013.
In June 2014 he was elected President of the French Engineering Society (IESF, a member of WFEO).
François Lureau was previously Chair of the WFEO Nominations Committee and was elected to the position of Treasurer at the Federation’s General Assembly in San José, Costa Rica, in March 2022.