Enders started out his career with early work experience as an assistant at the
German Parliament. In 1988, he worked as a researcher at the
German Council on Foreign Relations (DGAP) in Bonn and at the
International Institute for Strategic Studies (IISS) in London. Enders also serves as a Major in the German Army Reserve, and spent two years in the planning staff of the
Federal Ministry of Defence from 1989 until 1991. Enders joined the marketing department of
DaimlerChrysler Aerospace in 1991 and held several functions at DASA until he was promoted to head the defence and security systems business in the frame of the merger of EADS in 2000. In 2005, he was appointed co-CEO (first with co-CEO
Noël Forgeard, then Louis Gallois), a role he relinquished in 2007 when the company modified its corporate governance, giving away with double-CEO and double-Chairman structures. As a result of the governance change, Enders was appointed CEO of Airbus SAS, the Group's largest Division. On 15 December 2017, the Airbus board – under the leadership of chairman
Denis Ranque – confirmed Enders would not stay beyond April 2019 amid corruption allegations in sales campaigns. By the end of his time at Airbus, Enders was widely credited with unifying a company previously divided along national lines, as well as simplifying its governance to reduce political influence. In January 2021, Enders joined the advisory board of the aerospace start-up
Lilium. As announced in June 2021, he will serve as Chairman of the Board following the planned business combination with Qell.
Role in politics During his time in office, Enders clashed with the government of
Chancellor Angela Merkel over industrial or defense policy and resigned from the conservative
CSU party over Germany's opposition to the
2011 military intervention in Libya. He frequently accompanied Merkel on state visits abroad. In Germany, he served as chairman of the German Aerospace Industries Association (BDLI) from 2005 to 2012 and in the presidium of the Federation of German Industries (BDI). Under the
premiership of David Cameron, Enders was appointed to the
Prime Minister of the United Kingdom's Business and Advisory Group in his capacity as chief executive of Airbus and later as chief executive of EADS. Between 2010 and 2011, he served on the High-Level Group on Aviation and Aeronautics Research launched by
European Commissioners
Siim Kallas and
Máire Geoghegan-Quinn. Since 2015, he has been serving as a member of the
European Commission's High-level Group of Personalities on Defence Research chaired by
Elżbieta Bieńkowska.
Controversy During his time at Airbus, Enders grappled with scrutiny over the company's sales practices after it uncovered inaccuracies in its filings to U.S. regulators over arms technology sales. He also faced criticism in French media and inside parts of the aerospace group for overseeing sweeping compliance probes that led to dozens of senior departures without specific allegations. In remarks aimed at
Defense Minister Hans Peter Doskozil, he called the claims "cheap election rhetoric," and announced that "we will not let part of the Austrian government use us as a punching bag that it can beat to score cheap political points". Later that year, French anti-corruption investigators questioned Enders and other company executives as witnesses in an investigation centered on the sale of
Astrium satellites to
Kazakhstan in 2010. ==Other activities==