MBDA appoints Lorenzo Mariani as executive group director for sales and business development

Lorenzo Mariani has been appointed by MBDA as the company’s executive group director for sales and business development, effective from 1 April 2025, succeeding to Giovanni Soccodato.

Reporting directly to MBDA CEO Eric Béranger, Mariani also becomes a member of the executive committee of MBDA and managing director of MBDA Italia.

As executive group director for sales and business development, Mariani will lead an integrated multi-national team responsible for generating the order intake to sustain MBDA’s long-term performance, the understanding of customers’ operational needs and the development of the most effective solutions to meet current and future operational requirements.

As managing director of MBDA Italia Mariani will be the legal representative of the group in Italy, ensuring smooth and effective relations with the Italian customers and end-users as well as with the industrial community. With responsibility for the company’s operations in Italy, he will ensure continuity of the production ramp-up that started in recent years in response to the current military-geopolitical climate.

Mariani joins MBDA from Leonardo, where he held a series of positions with increasing responsibility, most recently as co-general manager and director of business operations.

He previously held various positions at MBDA (in the Sales & Business Development and Strategy departments respectively between 2020-2023 and 2002-2005), after having managed the Land & Naval Defence Electronics Division at Leonardo. From 2017 Mariani was chief commercial officer of Leonardo and additionally was CEO of Leonardo International and a member of the MBDA board of directors.

“I am pleased to welcome Lorenzo Mariani to MBDA again,” Béranger was quoted as saying in a company press release. “He already held positions in our group in the past and hence has a strong expertise in our business and industry to bring to our team, especially to ensure future commercial successes and development. I warmly thank Giovanni Soccodato for his personal and very effective contribution to driving MBDA during these critical times, especially to contributing to raising our backlog at an unprecedented level. I also thank him for generously sharing unique human qualities, personifying our MBDA values, which everyone has appreciated during his time with us.”