Woodburn brings over 20 years’ international experience from the oil and gas industry. He held a number of senior management positions in the Far East, Australia, France and the US during a 15-year career at Schlumberger. For the last five years, he has been CEO of Expro, an oilfield services business owned by a consortium including Goldman Sachs and Arle Capital Partners. He is a non-executive director of Seadrill.
His operational experience has been built on a strong academic foundation having gained a first class honours degree in electrical sciences and a PhD in engineering from Cambridge University. He later completed an MBA at Erasmus University, Rotterdam.
King said: “As a highly qualified engineer with considerable international business experience, Charles will strengthen and broaden the strategic and operational capabilities of the business as a welcome and valuable addition to the leadership team.”
Sir Roger Carr, chairman of BAE Systems, added: “I am delighted that we have secured an individual of considerable talent and proven industrial experience as part of our succession planning programme. Charles will bring fresh perspective to the company’s operations and Board, whilst building a detailed knowledge of the defence industry under the guidance of Ian King.”