UAC rotates top management

Russia’s United Aircraft Corporation (UAC) has recently thoroughly reshuffled its top management. The UAC Board of Directors in late February elected Mikhail Pogosyan as the corporation’s new president. Former UAC President Alexey Fedorov had stepped down in early 2011. The official reason cited was unsatisfactory performance of the UAC management in introducing innovative solutions in the industry. In late March, Fedorov was appointed head of Irkut Corporation.

Pogosyan said after his election that he was not planning any radical revisions of UAC’s course. "We must strengthen Russia’s leading positions on the global warplane market, and also become a leader in civil aircraft construction by bringing the share of commercial aircraft production to 60-70% [of overall industry output]," he said.

This is not the first time one of the men has replaced the other in a managerial position. Back in 1998 Pogosyan became general director of the Sukhoi company, while his predecessor Fedorov left for Irkut Aviation Plant. Fedorov stayed at Irkutsk until 2005, eventually turning the facility into an aircraft industry leader — known now as Irkut Corporation. Pogosyan, for his part, made Sukhoi into a similarly prominent player on the national aircraft construction market, a state-owned holding company.