ATR will install Vittorio Lorenzo Della Bella as its next Chief Executive Officer on November 1, 2026, the Airbus–Leonardo turboprop joint venture announced on September 24.

The Italian national currently serves as president of Leonardo Helicopters US. He succeeds Nathalie Tarnaud Laude, who has led the Toulouse-based manufacturer since September 2022 and exits at the close of a fixed four-year cycle.

Della Bella built his career in the helicopter industry. He previously held the post of Senior Vice-President Customer Support, Services & Training at Leonardo Helicopters and earlier served as Managing Director of NHIndustries, the European consortium that builds the NH90 military helicopters.

ATR simultaneously named Patrick Bergues, Airbus's former US-based Chief Financial Officer, as its new CFO. Bergues takes office on the same date and replaces Andrea Coccetti, who returns to the Leonardo group. No executive comments accompanied the announcement.

Why is ATR rotating leadership now?

The 50/50 ATR shareholder pact between Airbus and Leonardo imposes a fixed four-year term on the CEO and requires that the two parents alternate the top post. Stefano Bortoli, a Leonardo executive, led ATR from 2018 through 2022 before Tarnaud Laude took over in September 2022.

That statutory handover arrives as ATR works through an industrial streamlining program Tarnaud Laude launched in 2022 to ease supply-chain pressure on its turboprop assembly line. The program's intent was to scale up production and deliveries after years in which parts shortages throttled output at the Toulouse final-assembly hall.

ATR has not updated backlog or delivery figures in its September 24 statement. The disclosure on the EVO program also remains limited to the timeline and propulsion framing that the company has carried in earlier communications.

What does the EVO program demand of Della Bella?

Beyond the manufacturing reset, the new CEO must steer ATR through its next major product decision: the EVO program. ATR has framed EVO as its next-generation turboprop development effort, with targeted entry into service by the start of the next decade and a propulsion architecture that will likely involve some form of hybrid element.

That propulsion bet will shape ATR's competitive position in the 50- to 90-seat regional segment. The chosen architecture will govern certification milestones, maintenance intervals, and the training footprint operators must absorb as the airframe enters revenue service.

A hybrid configuration would lengthen integration work before entry into service. A more conventional turboprop path would compress the timeline but limit ATR's differentiation against existing competitors in the regional bracket.

What signals will lessors and operators watch first?

Della Bella steps in with a customer-support pedigree rather than a factory-floor background. His tenure at Leonardo Helicopters US, where aftermarket support carries commercial weight, may tilt ATR's planning toward lifting services revenue and broadening its training footprint for lessor and airline customers.

The first market test sits in 2027, when ATR's next delivery total and any disclosure on EVO's powerplant supplier will set the narrative for the new management term.