Yannick ASSOUAD
CEO - THALES AVIONICS

​​Yannick Assouad holds dual French and American engineering degrees, from the National Institute of Applied Sciences in Lyon and Illinois Institute of Technology in Chicago. After many years of experience gained across the aviation sector for many world-leading companies including Honeywell Aerospace, Zodiac and Latécoère, she joined Thales in 2020 as Executive Vice-President, Avionics and member of the Thales Executive Committee.She has always been passionate about aerospace and has been fortunate enough to play a hands-on role daily, both throughout her career and in her personal sphere as a private pilot. Today, her wish is to play an active role to help Thales’s Avionics activity gain new momentum, weathering the complex challenges of the current context.Her favorite quote is: “As for the future, your task is not to foresee it, but to enable it.” (Antoine de Saint Exupery)
Paul BOBSON
Director Business Development & Marketing - OMNI AIR INTERNATIONAL

​Paul B. Bobson
Director Business Development & Marketing – Omni Air International
Paul B. Bobson is an award winning aviation business development and marketing professional. Over the course of his career Paul has led teams and programs for Las Vegas and the State of Maryland in the United States. Paul currently serves as the Director of Business Development and Marketing for Omni Air International where he directs commercial marketing and all nontraditional commercial business. Paul holds a BS in Aviation Business Administration and a MBA in Aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. 
Didier BRECHEMIER
Global Head - ROLAND BERGER
​Didier Bréchemier joined Roland Berger in 2005 in the Aerospace & Transportation Competence Center in Paris. He conducts strategy and performance improvement projects for French and international rail & urban transport, air transport & logistics, business development, due diligence projects, positioning strategy and transformation programs. He utilizes proven methodologies and coaching to help some of the most important firms in his sector confront their challenges. Didier started his career at Air Liberté/British Airways and worked at Bureau Veritas and KPMG Consulting before joining Roland Berger. He holds a Bachelor of Engineering with a major in Aeronautics, two Master’s degrees in Auditing & Financial Controlling and Organizational Engineering, an MBA from IAE Paris Sorbonne and a professional pilot’s license (ATPL – ENAC). He is an active participant in academic research in the field of transaction costs and gives lectures at the University of Paris on Revenue Management and Outsourcing Strategy. He is also the Volunteer Executive Chairman at IAM in support of the development of new care solutions with Repetitive Transcranial Magnetic Stimulation (TMS).
Nick CALIO
President & CEO - A4A
Nicholas E. Calio is President and Chief Executive Officer of Airlines for America (A4A), the trade association for the country’s leading passenger and cargo airlines. Mr. Calio leads the organization which advocates for the U.S. airline industry as a model of safety, customer service and environmental responsibility and as the indispensable network that drives nearly $1.5 trillion in U.S. economic activity and more than 10 million U.S. jobs. Under his leadership, A4A rebranded and honed its focus on being an influential voice in helping to shape legislative and regulatory policies and priorities that improve aviation for the traveling and shipping public. Known for his ability to build consensus, Prior to joining A4A in January 2011, Mr. Calio was Citigroup’s executive vice president for Global Government Affairs and a member of its senior leadership committee.
Previously, he served President George W. Bush as Assistant to the President for Legislative Affairs from January 2001 to January 2003. As the president’s principal liaison to Congress, he worked closely with the leadership and members of the U.S. Senate and House of Representatives.Between the Bush Administrations, Mr. Calio was a partner at O’Brien*Calio, a law and lobbying firm he co-founded in 1993. A 1998 Fortune magazine survey of members of Congress, congressional staff, administration staff and lobbyists rated the firm as one of the “ten most powerful” in Washington.
Sir Tim CLARK
​President - EMIRATES AIRLINE
Mr Clark has been in the civil aviation business for his whole professional career, having joined British Caledonian in 1972.In 1975, he moved to Gulf Air in Bahrain and subsequently in 1985 to Dubai where he became a member of the founding team of Emirates as Head of Airline Planning.  In 2003, he became President of Emirates Airline. Until the COVID-19 pandemic hit the world in early 2020, Emirates was serving over 150 destinations in 85 countries with a fleet of 270 wide-bodied aircraft comprising the iconic Airbus A380s, and advanced Boeing 777s.Between April 1998 and March 2008, Mr Clark was also the Managing Director of Sri Lankan Airlines, the latter position resulted from Emirates' acquisition in April 1998 of a major stake in the airline with full management control.  Mr Clark is Chairman of the Emirates Airline Foundation, which he was instrumental in founding. The Foundation strives to improve the welfare of disadvantaged children of the world.He holds a degree in Economics from London University and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He also holds an honorary doctorate from the University of Middlesex, and an honorary degree from the Newcastle Business School at Northumbria University.In the 2014 Queen’s New Year’s Honours list, Mr Clark was invested as a Knight of the Most Excellent Order of the British Empire (KBE) for services to British prosperity and to the aviation industry. In November 2009, he was conferred an “Officier de la Legion d’Honneur” by the French government for services to transport and aviation, and he holds the 2009 Gold Award from the Royal Aeronautical Society for his contribution to civil aerospace. At the 2011 Airline Business and Flightglobal Achievement Awards, he was recognised as “Leader of the year”, and in 2013, he received the Center for Aviation (CAPA) Legends award and was inducted into the CAPA Hall of Fame. 
Sergio COLELLA
President - SITA EUROPE
Sergio joined SITA in 2017 as President of Europe. Since his arrival, he is strongly committed to improve the value delivered by SITA across the air transport industry in the region, leveraging the truly global footprint, the differentiating services and innovation capabilities that make SITA’s value proposition unique for its customers. He is transforming the European team towards a more customer centric organization able to partner with the key ATI players for achieving greater business outcome through technology.Sergio has an extensive background in managing complex, large scale international IT transformations within leading companies in several industrial sectors in Europe: he worked 25 years with Accenture, where he was Managing Partner in charge of the Automotive, Industrial Equipment, Infrastructure and Transportation practice for Europe & Latin America (EALA), after holding a variety of leadership positions. Prior to SITA, he covered for 3 years the role of Vice President and General Manager of HP Enterprise Services EMEA South, where he led a significant transformation to align the organization, processes and talents to the fast-changing, solution-led enterprise services business.
Sergio, a French/Italian national, holds an Engineering Sciences degree as well as a Master in Business Administration and is based in Paris, France.
Alex CRUZ
Former CEO - BRITISH AIRWAYS
​Alex is a seasoned travel industry executive having served as Chairman & CEO of multiple airlines such as British Airways and Vueling. He currently serves on the board of Recaro and advises private equity investing in travel. Alex is also an investor and board member of several artificial intelligence companies (Sherpa.ai/Spain, Fetcherr.ai/Israel, Caravelo.com/Spain). He teaches at IESE Business School's Advanced Management and MBA programmes, serves as a judge for the Diana Awards and as a trustee for the Mothers2Mothers charity. He started his career at American Airlines in Dallas.
David CURMI
Executive Chairman - AIR MALTA
​DAVID G. CURMI
David is a financial services professional and corporate executive. He is currently the Executive Chairman of Air Malta p.l.c. the flag carrier airline of the Maltese Islands. David is an Associate of the Chartered Insurance Institute of the United Kingdom and a Chartered Insurer.
Luis FELIPE de OLIVEIRA
​Director General - ACI WORLD
Luis Felipe de Oliveira joined ACI World as Director General in June 2020, bringing with him vast experience in commercial and technical aviation. He successfully led the Latin American and Caribbean Air Transport Association (ALTA) between October 2017 and May 2020, promoting positive change in the organization. Prior to joining ALTA, de Oliveira served as World Fuel Services’ Vice President Supply Development for Latin America and Caribbean where he was responsible for improving World Fuel’s aviation fuel business in the region. 
For 10 years, de Oliveira served IATA, leading fuel and airport campaigns with governments, oil companies, fuel service providers and airports for the Americas, Africa and the Middle East regions, based in Switzerland. He also served 12 years at Shell with a focus on Latin America and the Caribbean, and Africa and Europe, based in the Netherlands. 
Henri de PEYRELONGUE
​SVP Comercial Sales - AIR FRANCE KLM
​Henri de Peyrelongue graduated from l’Ecole Nationale des Ponts et Chaussées.
Following an experience at UTA, he joined Air France in 1992 and contributed to the creation of the hub at Paris Charles-de-Gaulle. After managing Air France network scheduling, he led the airline Revenue Management team from 2000 to 2007. In 2008, he was appointed Air France-KLM Senior Vice President in charge of Network Planning until 2012. In 2013, he joined the sales organization as Senior Vice President, Europe-North Africa.
In 2016, he has been Senior Vice President, Commercial Planning.
Since July 2020, he is appointed Executive Vice President Commercial Sales Air France-KLM.
Franck GOLDNADEL
Chairman of the Board 
​NICE AIRPORTS
Franck Goldnadel is the CEO of Nice Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur since 2020. In 1994, Franck was a Business Development Director of Alyzia Airport Services, a subsidiary of Aéroports de Paris, in charge of ground handling services. At the end of 1997, he joined Aéroports de Paris in the operations department of Terminals 1 and 3 at Paris-Charles de Gaulle Airport , where he became head of department. He later was appointed Director of the the E/F/G Terminals and TGV station at the same airport, before becoming a member of the Executive Committee of Aéroports de Paris. In 2011, he was appointed Director of Paris - Charles de Gaulle Airport. In 2014, Franck was appointed Deputy General Manager, Director in charge of airports operations. In 2018, Franck Goldnadel joins the Atalian group, one of the European leaders in Facility Management, as European Chairman of the group and member of the group's Executive Committee. He finally joined the EDEIS group as CEO in 2019 before becoming CEO of Aéroports de la Côte d’Azur.
Franck is a graduate engineer from the École Nationale d’Aviation Civile (ENAC). He is married and father of three children.
​Ralph KAISER
​CEO - UATP
Ralph Kaiser is president, CEO & chairman of UATP. Appointed in 2003, he has launched and led several important growth initiatives that has more than doubled network charge volume to over US$ 18 billion.  Among these achievements is UATP’s DataStream® suite of products which has lowered the barrier to entry for UATP’s Issuers and provided state-of-the-art data management tools to UATP corporate customers. UATP also launched an innovative Alternative Form of Payment gateway for global airlines under Kaiser’s leadership.Previous to his appointment as CEO, Kaiser was UATP’s general counsel. Before joining UATP, Kaiser worked at the Overseas Private Investment Corporation (OPIC) and the Export-Import Bank of the U.S. (Ex-Im Bank) as an advisor to the senior management and the board of directors for both organizations. He holds an MBA from the Carey School of Business at Johns Hopkins University and a law degree (JD) from the Emory University School of Law.
​Iako KHOMERIKI
​EPD - APG CARGO
​Iako Khomeriki-Rutowicz has been holding an Executive Cargo Director position in APG Inc. for the last 3 years. Since she took over the APG Cargo has been experiencing exciting growth and development.
Iako has over 15 years of experience in logistics, supply chain and aviation fields. Working together with airlines like: British Airways World Cargo, Qatar Airways Cargo, Air France-KLM, United Cargo. She has been part of APG Group since 2009. Iako was born in Tbilisi, Georgia and has an extensive knowledge of Eastern European and South Caucasus export-import trade market and business logistics management. Currently she is in charge of implementing and  developing APG Cargo business in more than 100 countries worldwide. She speaks fluent English and Russian, graduated Business Law from Tbilisi State University and is an Alumni of MBA of Professional Aviation Management in Donau University of Krems, Austria.    
Patrick KY
​CEO - EASA
​Patrick Ky is the Executive Director of EASA. Since 2013 his mission is to further consolidate the role and responsibilities of the Agency and to make the European aviation regulatory system a reliable framework. Before EASA, he was in charge of the SESAR program. He also held various positions in the French Civil Aviation Authority, Eurocontrol, European Commission. He has over 20 years of experience in Civil Aviation. Graduated at Civil Aviation Engineering School in France, he holds degrees in economics from the University of Toulouse and the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
Thorsten LANGE
EVP - NESTE
Thorsten Lange has been the Executive Vice President of Neste Corporation’s Renewable Aviation business unit and member of the Executive Committee since January 2020.
Before joining the company he worked at Lufthansa for two decades in various roles, most recently as the head of Fuel Procurement (Global). He has also had various positions in the oil sector. Thorsten Lange is a member of the IATA Fuel Steering Group. Previously he has also been the Chairman of the IATA Commercial Fuel group, a member of the IATA Fuel
Working Group as well as a member of the Star Alliance Fuel Advisory Group.
John MELCHIOR
​​CEO - TRAVEL GROUP CONSULTING
​​John Melchior is an industry veteran who brings with him experience from a wide range of senior executive positions in most segments of the travel industry, including Travel Management Companies, Airlines, Global Travel Networks and others. He was for many years the Senior Vice President of Washington based Radius Travel, one of the world’s leading TMC networks. Since 2005 he has been Managing Director for Travel Group Consulting and in that capacity he consults and advises the management of many different companies in various segments of the travel community all over the world. He has also taken a number of other positions including becoming the European Corporate Analyst for PhoCusWright. John has been focusing on corporate travel distribution trends in the European as well as global marketplace for many years already. For many years he spent 200 days a year travelling the world, and therefore has built up an in-depth understanding of each of the markets as well as obtaining excellent contacts worldwide. He is used as a frequent speaker and moderator globally including several appearances at previous APG airline forums.
Donald PAYEN
​​Senior Adviser - MINISTRY OF TOURISM MAURITIUS
“Donald Emmanuel PAYEN is a senior airline and tourism professional. He joined Air Mauritius in 1979 and spent most of his career with the national airline. He has held several Management positions in Cargo, Commercial, Communications, Customer Experience and Operations from 1988 and served the Company in Mauritius (Airport and Head Office), Reunion, Singapore and France. He was appointed a member of the Leadership Team in 1999, initially at Director level (Executive) and at Executive Vice President level in 2007.
Donald Payen retired from Air Mauritius at the end of July 2020 and joined the Ministry of Tourism as Senior Adviser at the beginning of August 2020.  Donald Payen holds a “Diplome Superieur en Administration des Entreprises” (University of Mauritius) and a Master’s in Business Administration (University of Surrey). He is a Fellow of the Chartered Management Institute FCMI (UK), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute Logistics of Transport FCILT (UK), a Fellow of the Chartered Institute of Marketing FCIM (UK), a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society FRAeS (UK), a Honorary Fellow of the Aeronautical Society of Mauritius FAeSM, and a Fellow of the Mauritius Institute of Directors FMIoD.  He was made a Knight of the Order of Merit “ Chevalier de l’Ordre National du Merite” by the French Government in 2016.He also received a special Award at the World Travel Awards Grand Finale in Oman in 2019 for his outstanding contribution to Aviation. The British Empire Medal (BEM) was conferred on him by Her Majesty Queen  Elizabeth ll in 2021.
Mark PILLING
​Aviation Journalist
​Mark Pilling is an experienced journalist, editor and publisher covering the global airline and aviation industry for 25 years. In the 1990s and 2000s he was the editor of several leading industry titles, including Airline Business, Airports International and Airport World. He went on to become publisher of the FlightGlobal aviation brands, featuring flightglobal.com, Flight International and Flight Daily News, and helped establish FlightGlobal (now Cirium) as a leading aviation data and information business. Today, Mark is a consulting editor at FlightGlobal, a contributing editor for leading aviation sustainability outlet GreenAir News and a contributing editor at Arabian and African Aerospace and anchor at Times Aerospace TV.
Yves RENARD
Head of Market Intelligence - AIRBUS
Yves has more than 20 years of experience in the airline and aerospace industry. Yves started his career as an aeronautical engineer with Rolls-Royce in the UK, dealing with Trent 900 engine preliminary design. He then worked for Air France, in the Environmental Affairs Directorate, implementing ISO 14001 certification at the airline and successfully contributing to adopt new ICAO standards for aircraft emissions.
Yves then moved to Air France Cargo’s Fleet and Business Planning team, completing several aircraft conversion and acquisition projects, as well as managing the build up of the airline’s new 5-year strategic plan in the frame of the merger with KLM Cargo. Yves was then recruited by Airbus’s Customer Affairs Directorate, successfully marketing and selling aircraft to various airlines from startups to majors. Yves now leads the Airbus team in charge of running network and fleet planning projects with our customers all over the world. Yves holds a Masters degree in Aeronautical Engineering from ISAE-SUPAERO, Toulouse, France.
Marc ROCHET
​​CEO - FRENCHBEE
​Marc Rochet has been in the French aviation industry for quite a long time. He started by Air Inter , Aéromatime a low cost UTA subsidiary,   and then AOM for the Credit Lyonnais ; then was working for the BA group in France with TAT and Air Liberté successfully sold to the Swair Group.
 He managed a lot of airlines mainly to turn them back into restructuration and growth, and even for AKFED, the investment branch of the Aga Khan.
In 2006 he launched l’Avion, a private equity start up for business class only between Paris and New York. In 2008 L’Avion was sold to BA, the name was changed into Openskies
Today he is acting as CEO for Air Caraibes, a French private airline owned by group Dubreuil and profitable into the cloudy french skies. With Dominique Gretz they also manage the own consulting Cy named: Aerogestion.  
Eric SCHULZ
​President - SHZ CONSULTING
 Eric has had an exceptional career in the aviation industry. Before he created recently SHZ Consulting, his own consulting business specialised in Aviation, he was the Chief Commercial Officer at Airbus and was part of the Airbus Group Executive Committee. In this role, Eric was in charge of all sales, marketing, contracts and other commercial matters and reporting to the CEO of Airbus. Prior to that, Eric was at Rolls-Royce where he moved up the ladder from being the Chief Operating Officer of Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace to eventually be promoted as the President of Rolls Royce Civil Aerospace, with overall responsibility for the entire Civil Aerospace businesses of the company which includes business jets and large commercial aircraft engines. Eric started his career in the flight test department of Aerospatiale/Airbus and had a tenure with UTA French Airlines/ Air France, and thereafter became the Engineering and Maintenance VP of AOM French Airlines. He also occupied the post of CEO of Air Liberté Industrie, the MRO which was part of the British Airways Group. Eric also spent some time in the US where he was the President of Goodrich Aviation Technical Services (TRAMCO) the largest airframe MRO in the US and thereafter Goodrich Actuation Systems, the largest flight control supplier in the World.Today, Eric is Consultant with his own company SHZ Consulting. In this role, Eric provides support to Private Equities around the World as direct advisor to privately own funds or during M&A activities to clients. Based on his deep commercial aviation background, Eric also supports Airlines, MRO and OEM’s organizations in areas such as  strategic reflections, fleet or network restructuring and operational optimizations. 
Ian TUNNACLIFFE
Founder - IFT CONSULTING
 Ian Tunnacliffe has more than 40 years experience of the application of information technology to the needs of the airline industry. He has worked directly for airlines, for two of the major GDS companies and for several technology suppliers.
 Starting as a programmer on traditional airline reservations systems, he has been part of two of the major changes that have swept through airline distribution in the last thirty-five years. He was instrumental in the deployment of Galileo to European travel agents in the early 1990s and later was part of the team that deployed the first e-commerce offerings from Amadeus. In 2005 he was a founder of Travel Technology Research Ltd, the leading research and analysis company dealing with airline IT. In recent years he has participated in the working groups defining the new standards for airline distribution, NDC and ONE Order.
 He is a frequent writer and speaker on the strategic issues around technology and distribution.
 Ian has a BSc in Applied Physics from University College London and an MBA from the Open University Business School. 
Pierre VELLAY
CEO -  NEW & NEXT CONSULTING
​Till December 2009, Pierre Vellay was Senior VP, New Aircraft and Corporate Fleet Planning of Air France. In 1994 at the merger between Air France and UTA, he was named head of Fleet Planning. Pierre Vellay joined UTA in 1972. he was successively at UTA in charge of special projects, in the electronic warfare area, Project Manager of the assembly of the Super Guppy, the re-engining of the DC-8/62, the installation and check-out of the French AWACS. In 1990, he was appointed as Chairman of two industrial subsidiaries of UTA and as Executive VP of UTA. In 1996, he restructured the fleet after the merger with Air Inter, and Air Charter. He established the future profile of the Air France fleet, focusing the short medium haul fleet around the A320 family, and the long-haul fleet with the A330/A340, 777 and A380. He has played a major role in the introduction of the 777-200ER, the original specification and the launching of the 777-300ER and the 777 F, the definition of the enhanced version of the 747-400ERF, as well as for A318, A330-200 and A380. He has been associated at the definitions of Boeing 787 and Airbus A350. From mid-2000, he has been playing a new role for the rationalization of the fleet of Air France regional partners and from 2004 for the fleet planning coordination between Air France and KLM. Since 2008, he was in charge of Air France and KLM fleet Strategy. From January 2010 to 2012, he was associate of New & Next Consulting, Senior Advisor for AT Kearney, executive advisor Fleet Strategy for the Air France President and CFO and advisor Product Strategy and Technology for the CEO of ILFC. From March 2013 to July 2020, he was appointed as Chairman of FAMAT and since March 2014 as CEO of New and Next Consulting. Pierre Vellay holds Engineering Degrees from ENSAM and ENSPM in addition to a Ph.D. in Physics from the University of Sciences of Paris. He holds other degrees from the CHEAR (Defence), CEDS (Diplomacy), and the Stanford Business School. In 2000, Mr Vellay was elected at the Air and Space European Academy.