ALL-STAR AVIATION SPEAKERS

Carsten Spohr, born on 16 December 1966 in Wanne-Eickel, has been Chairmanof the Executive Board of Deutsche Lufthansa AG since 1 May 2014. He managesthe Lufthansa Group with the business segments NetworkAirlines, Eurowings andAviation Services with around 135,000 employees worldwide.After...

Joanna Geraghty is President & Chief Operating Officer of JetBlue, responsible for JetBlue’s operations and commercial performance including network, brand and marketing and revenue management.Geraghty’s focus is on delivering a leading customer service experience, enhancing operational and...

Shai Weiss is Chief Executive Officer at Virgin Atlantic and an Executive Director of the Virgin Atlantic board.Shai and the team are keenly focused on Virgin Atlantic and Virgin Holidays together becoming the most loved travel company.Shai joined Virgin Atlantic as Executive Vice President and...

Christina Foerster, born on September 5 1971, obtained her B.S. at the Cornell University, Schoolof Hotel Administration in Ithaca, USA, where she received the Merrill Presidential Award given totop 1% of graduating students. In 1999, she graduated from an M.B.A. at The Wharton School,University of ...

As Chief Executive Officer of KLM Royal Dutch Airlines, Pieter Elbers aspires to make KLM the most customer centric, efficient and innovative airline of Europe. His leadership style thereto is characterized by the conviction that the management of a company is a continuous balancing act between...

Anko van der Werff, appointed by the Board of Directors of Avianca Holdings as the new President & CEO of the Company joined the company on July 15th 2019. He has had an outstanding global career in the airline industry. In his last position with Aeromexico, as Executive Vice President and...

During his time as CEO, Heathrow has consistently improved service levels for passengers, while reducing costs, and it is now rated one of the best airports in the world. John has championed a third runway at Heathrow, building cross party and national support. In 2017 he launched Heathrow 2.0, a...

Johan Lundgren has spent his entire career in the travel industry working his way up through various roles to become most recently the Group Deputy CEO of Tui AG. Johan was also the CEO of the Mainstream Tourism business of the TUI Group (formed from the merger of TUI Travel PLC and TUI AG) where...

Mandy is CEO of HK Express – the first woman to lead a local airline and a part of the small community of 3% female CEOs in the global airline industry.  Having been with Cathay Pacific for close to 2 decades, she has held a variety of positions involving planning, revenue management and sales...

Alexandre de Juniac became the seventh person to lead the International Air Transport Association (IATA) when he took on the role of Director General and CEO from 1 September 2016.De Juniac has almost three decades of experience in both the private and public sectors. This includes senior positions ...

SAS offers the most departures and has an attractive offering for people who travel frequently to, from and within Scandinavia. SAS conducted more than 800 scheduled flights daily in 2018, and a total of more than 30 million passengers traveled to SAS’ 125 destinations and on charter flights in...

József Váradi is the founder and CEO of Wizz Air, one of Europe’s fastest growing airlines and the leading low-cost carrier in Central and Eastern Europe. The company’s low-cost leader strategy has transformed the airline from being one of the many start-ups in 2004 to one of the major European...

Gloria joined the World Travel & Tourism Council (WTTC) in August 2017,following a varied career in Travel & Tourism. WTTC is the body thatrepresents the global travel & tourism private sector worldwide. This sectorthat generates 10.4% of GDP and employs more than 300 million people.Her ...

Paul Griffiths is Chief Executive Officer of Dubai Airports, with the responsibility for the operation and development of Dubai International (DXB) – the world’s busiest airport for international passengers, as well as Dubai World Central (DWC). Paul joined Dubai Airports as its first CEO in...

Mehmet T. Nane became CEO of Pegasus Airlines in March 2016. Before that he served as CEO of CarrefourSA between 2013-2016, CEO of Teknosa between 2005-2013, and Vice Chairman of the Board of Teknosa between 2000 and 2005. After holding various managerial positions at the Türkiye Emlak...

Felix Antelo is Business Administrator of the Pontificia Universidad Católica of Argentina and has more than 19 years of experience in the aeronautical industry, living and working in the most important countries of Latin America. He currently serves as President and CEO of Viva Air Group, the...

Mark Anderson is Chief Executive Officer of Connect Airways and a member of its Board of Directors.Mark and his team are focused on transforming Flybe to be Europe’s most loved and successful regional airline, with Stobart Air significantly growing its successful franchise and ACMI business.Before...

Anita heads global airports operations at Uber. Uber currently operates at 600+ airports across the world and is the largest global ground transportation provider at airports. Prior to Uber, Anita was VP of Operations at A Place for Mom, a senior living marketplace where in addition to operations...

Catherine Luelo was appointed Senior Vice President and Chief Information Officer in August 2017, with overall responsibility for the Information Technology Systems supporting and enabling Air Canada's business. Air Canada is the flag carrier and the largest airline of Canada by fleet size and...

Kenya Airways Appoints Clare Ward as its CIONairobi, January 24, 2019 - National carrier, Kenya Airways has appointed Clare Ward as its Chief Information Officer (CIO) effective 23rd January 2019. Ms. Ward is an innovative and accomplished IT professional with a track record of driving bottom line...

Jamal has over a decade of proven success in marketing and commercial strategy for organizations across the region and globally with a specialization in customer centric growth and new market expansion. During the course of his career, Jamal was responsible for achieving first-in-industry successes ...

Mr. Martin Gauss serves as Chairman of the Board and Chief Executive Officer at Air Baltic Corporation AS (airBaltic), the Latvian airline, since November 2011. Under the leadership of Martin Gauss, airBaltic has been successfully restructured and reached sustainable profitability.  The...

Ms. Salam Al Shawa is the Senior Vice President of Marketing and Corporate Communications at Qatar Airways Group and is a long standing global marketing and communications professional in the aviation sector. She has been with Qatar Airways since 2001, where she created the integrated Marketing...

Mattias is since 2016 Executive Vice President (CIO) for SAS with responsibility for all strategic and operational IT and digital development. Mattias is also currently defining and implementing SAS technology innovation capabilities. Mattias is part of the SAS Group Management and is located...

Senior Vice President and CIO at Korean Air responsible for Global IT Strategy, Planning and Operation that includes, Development, Security, Analytics, Innovation and Standardization along with the daily execution of the entire Operations Systems. Prior to joining Korean Air, Kenneth was head of...

Raj has more than 25 years of experience in the innovation and information technology sectors, asa strategist, leader, VC, and advisor.Currently, Raj is Managing Director and Head of Investing at JetBlue Technology Ventures, thecorporate venture capital arm of JetBlue Airways Corp.Previously, he...

An accountant by education, Lau Yin May started her career in one of the Big 4s accounting firms, but soon realized that her passion lies beyond accounting. She then ventured into management consulting with Accenture, focusing in strategic management and organizational behavior and...

Miri Danai is the CEO at Cockpit Innovation hub. Cockpit is the first airline industry venture arm in the world, with the mission to enhance innovation among its partners and invest in entrepreneurs with disruptive technologies in travel, aviation and aerospace. Cockpit is a partnership of EL AL...

Oliver Bertram, born in Germany, began his career at Lufthansa Technik after his studies in Aeronautical Engineering at the University of Technology in Aachen and Imperial College in London. At Lufthansa Technik he was responsible for the reliability of aircraft engines and managed various...

Ms Angeline Khoo was appointed Vice President Customer Experience on 1 July 2018. Sheoversees the customer insights, business analytics, experience design and changemanagement teams to further improve Singapore Airlines (SIA) emphasis on deliveringexceptional customer experiences worldwide using an ...

Rita has been working in Aviation Industry for more than 12 years, designing, implementing and leading different data and advanced analytics projects with a key impact on airlines strategy. During last 3 years Rita has been the head of Data & Analytics in Vueling where she has led the...

Jeff Lobl is Managing Director – Global Distribution and Omnichannel Strategy for Delta Air Lines. He is responsible for Delta’s commercial relationships with Global Distribution Systems, Online Travel Agencies and Meta search partners (e.g., Google, Kayak).  In addition, he is responsible for...

Dimitris is an internationally recognized leader in the transport, aviation, & technology sectors with over 17 years of experience which has fuelled a passion for the digital ecosystem and disruptive innovation driving him to lead several global multi-sector projects.Today he is the Chief...

Mr. Fornes holds a dual Masters (MSc) in Aeronautics and Astronautics, and Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and a Master in Civil Engineering (UPC). His 7-year professional experience can be classified in four stages. As a Research Assistant at MIT...

Carreer :1982 – 1983 : As trainee, one year for Alcatel Switching System Department1983 – 1984 : Professor in the French Navy (Military period) – OfficerALCATEL1984 – 1986 : Advanced Research Engineer for Alcatel Switching System DepartmentSEMA GROUP1986 – 1995 : Consultant, Project...

I’m a passionate computer science engineer and PRINCE2 practitioner certified professional with a strong focus on human-machine interaction. I strongly believe project management discipline allows humans to materialize their dreams by providing a methodic way of working.I have experience in working ...

Martine van der Lee is Director Social Media at KLM Royal Dutch Airlines and oversees the largest social media team in the world.  Together with her team, she leverages the latest social media and conversational technologies, including voice, to improve and innovate the KLM customer...

Amy Burr is the Managing Director of Strategic Partnerships at JetBlue Technology Ventures (JTV). Her role is to build an ecosystem of partners and deployment opportunities for the many technologies of JTV’s portfolio companies. Amy has been a leader in creating, sourcing and implementing...

Hari Marar, Managing Director & CEO of Bangalore International Airport Limited (BIAL), is responsible for the management of the Kempegowda International Airport, Bengaluru. From joining BIAL in September 2006 as the Head of Daily Operations, Hari has held various positions at the...

Berit is member of Hannover Airport’s executive board. She serves as VP Corporate Development and Corporate Controlling. Her current areas of responsibility include strategy, digitalisation, investor relations, corporate controlling and portfolio management. She works for Hannover Airport since...

Lennart Dobravsky is the Director of Research & Intelligence at the Lufthansa Innovation Hub – the digital transformation spearhead of the world's largest aviation corporation Lufthansa Group. In this role, he and his team engage in state-of-the-art market research and trend analysis of...

Avi Mannis is Hawaiian Airlines’ Senior Vice President of Marketing, responsible for the airline’s brand, direct sales channels, digital experience, loyalty program and product. Prior to that role he led revenue management and network planning during a period of explosive growth at Hawaiian. He...

Lis joined the board as Chief Marketing Officer in May 2018 after 6 years heading up CRM and insight for the airline. Prior to joining EasyJet Lis spent 5 years as a marketing consultant across multiple sectors and leading brands and marketing agencies including Audi, Barclaycard, Belu and Rapier...

Payments and Fraud Prevention Expert. Conversion Rate Optimization in Ecommerce. Fan of agile methodologies, lean thinking. I manage the global payment strategy and the fraud prevention in Air Europa. It is an exciting challenge, going from negotiation with suppliers to definition of optimal...

Julio Toro was appointed Chief Information Officer of Copa Airlines in 2015.  In this role, Julio is responsible for leading the technology strategy of the company, including the design, planning, implementation, and operation of information technology that support Copa’s...

Senior Vice-President of Strategic Relations and Customer Experience in Avianca Holdings. Responsible of building and developing meaningful relations with global stakeholders such as government officials, media, NGO’s, Customers, Associations, etc. as well as designing the experience and the...

Jonathan Keane is Managing Director of Accenture’s Global Aviation practice and based in London.  Jonathan has spent over twenty years working with the world’s leading airlines, airports, aviation service providers, hotels, tour operators and travel agents across Europe, North America, Asia Pacific ...

Shahar Markovitch is the Chief Digital and Information Officer of EL AL Israel Airlines as of March 2018. Shahar joins El-Al from Bank Hapoalim, Israel largest bank, where he served as Chief Digital Officer. In this role he was recognized as one of Israel's top 100 most...

Nitin brings deep experience in product design and digital customer experience, which he has acquired over the last 19 years across leading internet companies in India. He is currently leading IndiGo as VP Digital to help the group undergo Digital Transformation.He previously built...

Jay is Industry Head for Travel at Google having joined the company in 2012 where he initially ran Google’s relationships with top retailers across Fashion and Luxury. He joined the travel industry in 2018, where he runs the team leading Google’s relationships with the UK airlines, car rental...

Edward Bell is responsible for the development of brand strategy, consumer insights, loyalty marketing and marketing communications for the Cathay Pacific group globally.Mr Bell has spent the majority of his career in marketing strategy and later as a CEO for marketing and communication...

IT Engineer Degree25 years working for the airline industry both from inside the airlines and from the airline suppliers side.During this period I have run my own business for 10 years, supplying airlines with mobile device solutions (pre iOS and Android era).Currently leading Evelop's digital...

Dara is responsible for leading Ryanair’s Digital Transformation and overseeing the roll out of platform & product strategy across all digital channels. He leads a multi-disciplinary team of more than 75 Digital professionals across Product Strategy, Customer Experience, CRM, and...

Sébastien Couturier joined Groupe ADP (Aéroports de Paris), having graduated in economics from the Sorbonne and having received an Master Degree in air transport from the Institut du Transport Aérien in Aix-en-Provence. Since then he has held positions of increasing responsibility in operational...

Wayne Madhlangobe is an experienced advanced analytics leader with an extensive background in developing and implementing Data Science practices in large organisations.  He recently held the role of Data Science IT Leader at Enbridge Inc and a currently a Director at Air Canada leading the AI...

Rami is a key accountable member of the Senior Leadership team and is responsible for leading Toronto's Pearson Airport to become a data centric driven operation by rationalizing information, processes, applications, systems, and people across multiple business lines and IT functions. He is...

Shawn Xuewu Wang, Head of Data Labs at China Eastern Airlines. Shawn focuses on data strategy, big data solution, data transformation and AI innovation. He has successfully built the big data innovation ecosystem through data platform, computing platform, data analysis tools, data science and...

Roland Jaggi is a Swiss citizen who started his airline career at Swissair. After 12 exciting years in Sales and Revenue Management he moved in 2006 to Athens based Aegean Airlines where he has built up the Revenue Management and Pricing teams.After first adding Distribution to his scope of...

Build and execute Finnair Group Brand strategy and generate positive brand perception and revenue growth. Lead all marketing activities in a global omnichannel environment, support and grow partnership relationships (eg, agencies, media companies, advertising and sponsorship's) Manage customer...

Harald holds a degree in Industrial Engineering from the Technical University in Darmstadt / Germany.In 1993, Harald started his professional career with Roland Berger, working as a strategy consultant for airlines, airports and railroad operators. He joined Lufthansa Passenger Airlines in 1999 as...

Guy Johnson is the co-anchor of "Bloomberg Markets: European Open" on Bloomberg Television, covering top business, economic and market-moving stories from around the world. He is based in London.  Johnson brings nearly two decades of experience as a top financial broadcast...

Ido Biger is the Chief Data Officer of ELAL Airlines. Israel's National Airline.In charge of making ELAL a leading Data Driven Organization. The Data Platforms, Rapid BI, Analytical Units and the Data Science team of the company are all under his responsibility. Reports to the company's...

Barbara van Koppen (1966) has been appointed Senior Vice President Corporate Center and General Counsel as of 2015. In this role, she is responsible for managing a large number of Corporate Center departments of the company, including Corporate Legal Services, Compliance and Privacy, Public...

Himanshu Joshi is the Senior Manager of Innovation and Digital Learning at Qatar Airways. He has over 20 years of experience in digital learning and has been an effective change leader in the organisations he has worked with. He managed the region's first mobile and immersive learning project...

Tal Kalderon has been in the content and media field for more than 25 years.  He began as a television producer and director and in 2006 was invited to be EL AL’s consultant for upgrading the user experience in the entertainment systems. Since then he has been building concepts for entertainment...

Is currently leading the group tasked with managing, innovating and improving the “Free Spirit” Loyalty program, the subscription based loyalty program - $9 Fare Club and Cobrand relationships including Bank of America , Promerica and Mastercard plus all mileage related partnerships at Spirit...

Xavier Lagardère is Lufthansa Group’s Vice President in charge of Distribution, leading Lufthansa,Swiss and Austrian Airlines’ go-to-market strategy and channel solutions. Prior positions includeleading Brussels Airlines channel shift as VP e-Commerce, heading Groupon’s travel business inFrance and ...

Jo is Associate Director of Strategy at leading aviation and transport design consultancy PriestmanGoode. Trained in Product and Furniture Design, Jo specialises in insight and strategic thinking, defining solutions that improve the user experience. She has been with PriestmanGoode since...

Nik is based in Manila after joining Cebu Pacific to lead the set up and management of a loyalty program for the airline. The result being GetGo, the first lifestyle rewards program in the Philippines. The program is new generation with innovative features and benefits, continuing to grow strongly...

Bryan Matthews received his Bachelor’s Degree in Electrical Engineering from Santa Clara University in 2002. Since 2001 he has worked at NASA Ames Research Centre and has been a member of the Data Sciences Group since 2005, where he has applied his professional experience in the field of data...

Rachel joined Sun Country Airlines as Director of Marketing Technology in August, 2018. Her team was an integral part of launching a new website on the Navitaire platform and continues to enhance the Digitial Experience at Sun Country. Previous to Sun Country, Rachel held various technology and...

A self-proclaimed futurist, Martin Mitev often feels like he’s living three different lives simultaneously. He scrutinises what has happened and what appears in news feeds and conferences to inspire colleagues to innovate at the office, cultivates two outstanding young citizens at home, and cruises ...

Anthony has lead Customer Loyalty for Virgin Atlantic since November 2019, including accountability for Flying Club, Virgin Atlantic’s frequent flyer programme, continuously improving both commercial performance as well as the experience for customers as part of our corporate ambition to be the...

Mark Nasr was appointed Vice President, Loyalty and eCommerce in July, 2017. In this role, Mark has responsibility for developing the vision and strategies for Air Canada's all-new, digital first loyalty program to be launched in 2020. He will also lead the design, development, implementation...

Truly passionate about moving people and giving them time back for the important things in life, Fabien joined Volocopter to achieve exactly that. While building up Uber in Germany as General Manager, he realised that innovation continues to challenge regulation and that cooperation is crucial for...

Kirstin McCarthy is the Head of Sustainability at Birmingham Airport in the UK.  She is responsible for leading and developing the Airport Company's Sustainability strategy providing technical expertise and leadership on aspects of sustainability including aircraft noise, air quality, climate...

Jean-Charles is a French, trilingual executive with over 20 years of experience in the Air Transport Industry in prestigious corporations such as Air France and Panalpina World Transport.Since he joined IATA in May 2003, Jean-Charles has held different positions as Country Manager, leading the IATA ...

Güliz Öztürk began her career at Turkish Airlines. From 1990 to 2003, she served in various roles including as Manager of International Relations and Contracts, Alliance Coordinator, Sales and Marketing Director at Turkish Airlines. During that time, she managed important projects such as launching ...

Carolyn Prowse is the Chief Commercial Officer of Volaris.  Her areas of responsibility include strategy, network, scheduling, sales, marketing, revenue management, pricing, ancillaries, cargo, marketing, digital and commercial IT.  Prior to joining Volaris in March 2019, Ms. Prowse ran her own...

Fraser specialises in E-commerce, CRM and Digital and has worked in the travel and hospitality industry for more than six years. Currently working for Glasgow Airport, he is working towards building a centralised digital team that works across AGS Airports which collectively generates over £11...

Responsible for all ecommerce activity, digital marketing, digital product management, innovation and customer facing platforms.

Paul Smitton was appointed Chief Executive Officer of Asia Miles Limited in July 2018. He is responsible for managing Asia’s leading travel and lifestyle rewards programme, which has a portfolio of over 11 million members and more than 700 business partners worldwide.Paul has worked in loyalty for...

Guido is a designer, in love with aviation.As the Head of Passenger Experience Design for Lufthansa Group, he manages the overall experience design strategy and execution for Lufthansa, SWISS and Austrian Airlines. Prior to his current role at Lufthansa Group, Guido was the Global CCO of the...

Joined SAS in 2017 and took responsibility for building an Artificial Intelligence team during 2018 to drive adoption of AI across SAS from intelligent automation to chatbots and machine learning. Prior to SAS worked eight years with supporting companies to adopt new technology focusing on...

Kerstin Lomb joined SunExpress, a joint venture of Lufthansa and Turkish Airlines, as Chief Marketing Officer in February 2019. In her role, she is responsible for all marketing and communications related activities of the German-Turkish leisure carrier, which celebrates its 30 years anniversary in ...

Mike leads the Ancillary Revenue team at Frontier Airlines. Frontier is a low-fare airline flying to 100 North American destinations with a fleet of more than 80 aircraft. The Ancillary Revenue team focuses on applying classical and behavioural economics and data science to offer management and...

In September 2014, Paul Rombeek joined Jetstar where he currently is responsible for worldwide sales and business development as well for Jetstar Asia Commercial. In this role he oversees sales, distribution and business development across all four Jetstar branded low-cost carriers. In addition he...

(ATAG), the only global association that represents all sectors of the air transport industry. Its mission is to promote aviation’s sustainable growth for the benefit of global society.He was appointed as Director, Aviation Environment of the International Air Transport Association (IATA) in...

Madhu Unnikrishnan is the editor of Skift Airline Weekly. An aviation journalist for more than 15 years, Unnikrishnan has covered almost every aspect of the industry from Congress to the OEMs, and is a frequent contributor on the industry in national and international media. Prior to...