Daniel Kleim graduated from the ECAM engineering school, going on to obtain an MBA from CESMA in Lyon. From there, Daniel moved to the United States, working for CLECIM (a subsidiary of Creusot-Loire), before joining Thomson CSF as a sales engineer in 1983.
In 1986 he became National Sales Manager in the US, and later President of Thomson ICS.
Returning to France in 1991, Daniel worked at Thomson Sintra ASM and Thomson Marconi SAS. He then took up the role of Executive Officer Operations at African Defence Systems in South Africa, where he stayed for 2 years, before becoming Business Line Corporate Director at Thales Underwater Systems in 2001.
He joined the Air Systems division in August 2004.