Thilo SchönfeldDeputy Director for International Affairs, AEROSPACE VALLEY

In charge of the international business development of small and medium sized enterprises that are member of Aerospace Valley. Further activities comprise the institutional relations with European and international aerospace stakeholders including clusters as well as the elaboration of bilateral R&D cooperation at international scale.

Following his master degree earned in 1988 of Technical University of Darmstadt (Germany), Thilo Schönfeld stayed as software development engineer at the Swedish National Aerospace Research Center (today FOI) in Stockholm. In 1993 he obtained a PhD doctoral degree in the field of Computational Fluid Dynamics awarded by the Institut National Polytechnique de Toulouse (France).

From 1993 to 2001 he occupied several scientific positions at the semi-private non-profit research center CERFACS in Toulouse. Scientific work was focused on computational flow simulations related to both wake vortices and to combustion phenomena. In 2001 he was appointed as managing director of the CFD software provider AEA Technology (today ANSYS group) located in Paris.

In 2003, he became consultant in the field of European project management while part time employed by the CNRT-Aeronautique & Espace. In 2007 he joined the innovation cluster Aerospace Valley located in Toulouse. 

AEROSPACE VALLEY

Created in 2005, with today 800+ members from both industry and academia, Aerospace Valley is the most significant innovation cluster in France in the field of aeronautics, space and unmanned systems.  With its five ecosystems of excellence – Embedded and Communicating Systems, Structures, Materials and Mechanical Systems, Propulsion and Embedded Energy, Data Engineering & Artificial Intelligence and Industry of the Future, Aerospace Valley drives a supportive, competitive and attractive community, aimed at fostering innovation in view of growth. With 130,000 industrial employees, Aerospace Valley represents around 1/3 of the French aerospace workforce. Similarly, 8,500 researchers and scientists are active within the Aerospace Valley territory, thus representing 45% of the overall French national R&D potential in the aerospace sector.