The Malaysian national was part of the launch team of AirAsia Berhad in 2001, where Azmi served as the Executive Vice-President and Group Chief Financial Officer, responsible for financial and accounting, information technology, human resource and revenue management of the airline. Azmi was subsequently appointed the Chief Executive Officer of Fly Asian Xpress Sdn Bhd, now officially renamed as AirAsia X Sdn Bhd, where he ran the turbo prop rural air services and was tasked with setting up a low-cost long-haul airline, a position he held until Jun-2007. 

Azmi brings a dynamic background of business experience in the fields of finance, aviation, property development and construction, facilities management and oil and gas, developed over a career marked by entrepreneurial excellence. 

At flynas, Azmi has successfully achieved maximum route profitability, increase in revenue, at the same time, increase in fleet aircraft numbers and more domestic presence of flynas. 

Azmi is a graduate from the London School of Accountancy, United Kingdom, and received a Chartered Institute of Management Accountants (then known as Institute of Cost and Management Accountants) qualification in 1982.

Before joining DG MOVE, Matthew was a trade negotiator. He was most recently Director in DG Trade in charge of market access and industry matters, but before that, he was deputy chief of staff for five years in Commissioner Lamy's cabinet, covering all trade issues, notably the launch of the Doha Round and China's accession to the WTO. He was also Head of Unit for market access and subsequently Head of Unit for WTO matters in DG Trade. From 2007-2010, Matthew served in President Barroso's cabinet as advisor for all issues relating to trade, energy, development and climate change. Before joining the Commission in 1999, he worked for the British Government in a variety of posts in London, Brussels and Washington (where he was seconded to the European Commission's Delegation). He worked on a range of issues such as US trade policy, competition, the Single Market, and energy. He was born in 1963 in the UK and was educated at Oxford and Harvard Universities. He is married to Emanuela Silvestri with two sons, Lorenzo and Federico.

Since joining Ryanair in Feb-1997 he was centrally involved in the IPO of the company in May of that year, assumed the additional responsibilities as Commercial Director in Sep-1997 and has also seen the company secure a listing on the London Stock Exchange in Jun-1998. In Feb-2003 Michael was appointed Chief Operating Officer & Deputy Chief Executive. Since 1997 Ryanair’s route network has increased from 12 routes to over 1,600 and its passenger numbers from 3 million to an expected 81.5 million in the current fiscal year. 

In Jul-2013 Michael announced he will step down from his full-time Executive role at the end of Mar-2014 and will join the Board of Ryanair Plc in a Non Executive capacity on 1-May-2014. He was appointed as a Non Executive Director of Paddy Power Plc in Jul-2013.

A native of Cork he is married with four children.

Under the leadership of Mr Christov, the team at Affinity Capital Exchange is revolutionising how airlines, banks and retailers leverage loyalty programmes to unlock paths to cash and investment never seen before. Prior to founding Affinity Capital Exchange, Mr Christov served as CEO and Member of the Board of Vayant Travel Technologies and prior to that he was a Principal Corporate Restructuring at American International Group (AIG). He was directly involved with the sale of ILFC and other hallmark assets of the previously troubled insurer. 

Mr Christov began his professional career at McKinsey & Company in New York where he spent almost a decade serving marquee clientele across travel, banking and finance whilst building out McKinsey’s European presence. 

Mr Christov is a Bulgarian who calls New York his home. He holds academic degrees from Amsterdam University, UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing, and an MBA from the Harvard Business School. 

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Prior to that, Mick spent 35 years with Philip Morris International. For 17 of those years, he was with PMI Duty Free, where he held a number of senior sales and marketing positions, the most recent being Director Business Development and Planning, in which he was responsible for the organisation’s strategic planning. Mick is a regular commentator on the travel retail business and has written numerous articles for the trade media analysing the fundamental issues driving the travel retail business. 

Mick holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and an MBA in International Marketing from Columbia University. He lives in St-Prex Switzerland with his wife Uschi.

Giulio has also held a number of other positions, including: Vice Chairman of Assoclearance (2009‐2012); Vice Chairman and member of the Board of Directors of SACBO (2011‐2012); Member of the Board of Airports Council International Europe (since Jun-2008); Member of the Board of Directors of Dufrital (since May-2011);  Member of the Board of Directors of Malpensa Logistica Europa (since Jul-2011).

Sandra holds a Bachelor degree in Environmental Studies from the University of Waterloo and an MBA from the University of Western Ontario (Ivey School of Business).

Prof. Doganis served as Chairman and CEO of Olympic Airways in Athens from Feb-1995 to Apr-1996 and successfully implemented a major restructuring programme which produced Olympic’s first profit in 18 years. He set up and headed the Department of Air Transport at Cranfield University (UK) from 1991 until 1997 and established it as the pre-eminent academic centre in Europe for post-graduate teaching and research in air transport. He is now a Visiting Professor at Cranfield. From 1976 until 1992 he was Visiting Professor in Airline Management at the Asian School of Management in Manila. Prof. Doganis is a well-known author in the field of aviation economics. A new enlarged fourth edition Flying Off Course: Airline Economics and Marketing was published in Jan-2010. This has become the basic text in its field. He is also the author of The Airline Business. He wrote one of the very first books on airport management entitled The Airport Business. Japanese, Spanish and Chinese language editions of these books have been published.

In his CEO role, Mr Tewolde has been a triple award winner. In Nov-2012, he won “The African CEO of the Year-2012” award from the African CEO Forum organised jointly by Jeune Afrique and the African Development Bank in Geneva.
In Dec-2012, he won “The Best African Business Leader” award from the Washington D.C. based Corporate Council on Africa, which promotes trade and investment ties between the USA and Africa.
In Jul-2013, he became the first African Airline CEO to receive “The Airline Strategy Award for Regional Leadership” in the award’s 12 year history. The Award is given out annually by Airline Business Magazine, a publication of Flight Global, the world’s leading aviation media brand.
In addition to his duties as CEO of Ethiopian Airlines, he also serves as a member of the Board of Governors of the International Air Transport Association (IATA); and an Executive Committee member of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA); a Board member of Ethio Telecom; and a member of the Airlink Advisory Council.
He earned his B.A. Degree in Economics from the Addis Ababa University in Ethiopia and his Masters Degree in Business Administration from the Open University in the UK.

Olivier Jankovec became Director General of the European Region of the Airports Council International (ACI EUROPE) in September 2006. The organisation represents more than 450 airports in 44 European countries. Member airports handle 90% of commercial traffic in Europe and welcome nearly one and half billion passengers each year. 

He first joined ACI EUROPE in March 2006 as Director of Strategy & Communications. Olivier has 20 years of governmental and lobbying experience, having worked for Alitalia (2002- 2006), Air France (2000-2002) and the Air Transport Directorate of the European Commission (1994-2000). Immediately prior to joining ACI EUROPE Olivier was the Director of Institutional Relations for Alitalia where he was in charge of governmental affairs at national, European and International levels. During this time he was also Chair of the Association of European Airlines Policy Committee.

In 2006 and 2007, he participated in the EU’s High Level Group on the future of aviation regulation in Europe and he is also a member of the Advisory Board of the World Tourism Forum.

After two years of pilot training in Mississippi and Arizona in the United States he became a fighter pilot in the 334 squadron of the Norwegian Royal Air Force, guarding the Norwegian airspace against Soviet intruders between 1969 and 1975. After leaving the air force, Bjørn studied law, and is a Graduate from the University of Oslo. He has over 20 years of legal practise and in 1993, he was granted the right of audience in the Supreme Court. At the same time he became one of the founding partners and the Chairman of Norwegian Air Shuttle who took over the remains of bankrupt Busy Bee.

Norwegian started flights on the west coast of Norway with Fokker 50s in cooperation with Braathens. In 2002, SAS bought Braathens and terminated Norwegian’s west coast operation. In order to save Norwegian and its employees, Norwegian turned into a complete Boeing 737 operation and went into head-to-head competition with SAS on domestic routes in Norway.

Bjørn has been the company’s CEO since Oct-2002. Bjørn is a sought-after speaker on entrepreneurship and executive leadership. In 2009, he won, Ernst & Young’s Entrepreneur of the Year in Norway. Bjørn is a true outdoor person and loves sailing, skiing and hunting. He has a real taste for excitement, which makes him fly a kite with slalom skies on his feet. He is a keen writer, and in 2006 he debuted with the spy thriller, The Murmansk Affair (Murmanskaffæren). He is currently writing a book about the history of Norwegian Air Shuttle.
Bjørn is married to Gerd Helene Kjos (former air stewardess) and they have two daughters and one son. One of the daughters is a pilot at Norwegian.

Previously, Chris led the Sabre Travel Network North America, Latin America, EMEA, and Global Customer divisions, where he was responsible for sales and service for travel suppliers, leisure travel agencies, online travel agencies, travel management companies, and corporations. He was also president of GetThere, Sabre’s leading corporate travel and collaboration solution. 

Chris started with the company 25 years ago in market research and held subsequent positions in product marketing, sales planning and regional sales. Chris is active in the travel industry, having served on the ASTA Allied Marketing Council and on the GBTA Allied Leadership Council in recent years. In 2011, he was named ASTA Allied Member of the Year. 

Chris earned both bachelor and master of business administration degrees from the University of Texas at Austin.

In late 2000 Conor left Ryanair to establish his own aviation consultancy company, PlaneConsult. Over the past 14 years Conor has worked with a large number of clients including easyJet, Aer Lingus, AirAsia, Qantas-Jetstar, Pegasus, Copa, AirAsia X and VivaAerobus. During 2006 PlaneConsult, Irelandia and Mexico’s largest coach operator established a new LCC, VivaAerobus, which currently operates 19 aircraft and is a vibrant, profitable and growing force within Mexican aviation. Conor is a shareholder in VivaAerobus. 

Conor is a co-founder and former director of AirAsia, Southeast Asia’s largest low-cost carrier. He remains a shareholder in AirAsia Berhad. He joined the Board of Pegasus Airlines, the largest LCC in Turkey, in 2012. 

In 2009 Conor established Dublin Aerospace, a new MRO company with a unique approach in the Aircraft, APU and Landing Systems Overhaul sector enabling this Irish MRO to compete with the Middle East/Far Eastern MROs. The enterprise reached profitability after 12 months in operation and has grown its revenue by 5X in just four years. He is Executive Chairman of Dublin Aerospace. 

Following on the successful launch and growth of Dublin Aerospace, Conor won the 2011 Ernst & Young Irish Entrepreneur of the Year (Emerging Category).

Before joining LOT Mr Mikosz worked for Arthur Andersen in Paris specialising in investments in emerging markets, as well as for the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland and the Foreign Investment Agency. Mr Mikosz is an experienced manger who took part in establishing the first independent online brokerage house in Poland and worked as a corporate and investment banking Advisor for Societe General in Poland. He graduated from the prestigious Institut d'Études Politiques de Paris (majoring in economics and finance) and completed several business management courses and training programmes. 

Sebastian Mikosz is married with three sons. Politics and aikido are just a few of his numerous interests. He speaks fluent English and French.

Cathal began his career in Aer Lingus in 1980 working in a variety of IT, strategy and management roles, including leading the project to develop the Aer Lingus website in 1995 and overseeing the programme to adapt the airline for membership of the oneworld alliance in 2000. 

In 2002, Cathal became Commercial Director of Aer Arann, introducing the ATR 72 and international services to the airline. Cathal joined Eastern Airways in 2003 as Director of Strategy before returning to Aer Arann in 2006 as Head of Strategy and Planning, restructuring the airline’s network in the face of intense pressure from LCCs. More recently, he implemented the programme to transform the airline to operating fully as an Aer Lingus Regional franchise. A keen private pilot, Cathal holds an MBA in Strategic Change and Business Transformation Direction from Henley Management College.

Timothy was a founding management team member of Expedia where he headed the international portfolios and ground portfolios, before founding T2Impact in 1998. He has worked in aviation and travel distribution for more than 30 years, including time with Worldspan as head of technology where he managed international technology services from product to infrastructure. 

He is also a permanent advisor to the World Economic Forum. He writes for TNooz as well as the Professor Sabena blog.

From 2005 to 2006 Peter was a member of the supervisory board of dba, which was sold to the INTRO Group by British Airways in 2003. In this particular case INTRO succeeded in leading the loss-making Deutsche BA to success for the first time in its 12 year history within 15 months. 

In 2005, Christine was promoted to General Manager, Air France-KLM, UK and Ireland, a post she held for three years and where she oversaw increases in sales, year on year passenger growth and UK market share growth.

Following her success in the UK market, in 2008 Christine became the first ever Vice President-General Manager of Air France-KLM, USA, before moving to her current position of CEO of CityJet in Sep-2010 - to become the first female CEO of an Irish licenced airline – one out of 15 female CEOs of commercials airlines (out of 200).

In her position as CEO, Christine is responsible for the entire operations of the company, including network, distribution, finance, marketing and communications, quality assurance and airport operations to name a few. Since taking over her position, she has undertaken a number of cost-cutting measures which have markedly turned the finances around for the loss-making airline. Notably, she has introduced an aircraft utilisation programme which has seen the introduction of a number of new destinations to the airline's network which has expanded to serve 21 destinations across Europe whilst ensuring schedules meet the needs of CityJet's niche business audience. Currently, she is spearheading projects across the company to introduce the airline’s own operating code in order for the company to be more independent and dynamic – both commercially and operationally.

Christine holds a Master of Aeronautics degree from the Ecole National Supérieure d’Ingénieurs and an MBA from Essec Business School.

Between 2007 and 2011, Andrew was CEO of Russia’s leading LCC, Avianova. The airline reached the number three position in the Russian domestic market, operating 32 city pairs and carrying two million passengers annually. Prior to moving to Russia, Andrew founded the medium-haul low-cost airline Viva Macau and served as its first CEO between 2004 and 2007. The airline operated Boeing 767s from Macau to Japan, Korea, Indonesia, the Maldives and Australia. 

Andrew spent nearly 20 years in Hong Kong, serving within the pre-1997 government as chief air services negotiator and then working in various senior positions at Cathay Pacific. Prior to moving to Hong Kong, he started his aviation career with British Airways, in the UK and Ireland, and then its charter arm, British Airtours.

Quest’s dynamic and distinctive style has made him a unique figure in the field of business broadcasting. He has regularly reported from G20 meetings and attends the World Economic Forum in Davos, Switzerland each year. Quest has covered every major stock market and financial crisis since Black Monday in 1987 and has reported from key financial centers globally including Wall Street, London, Sao Paolo, Tokyo and Hong Kong. In addition, Quest is the established airline and aviation correspondent at CNN. He currently presents the monthly CNN Business Traveller show, the definitive authority on making the most of doing business on the road - moving from A to B on company time. As a business travel specialist, Quest has become a voice of authority on subjects like the launch of the Airbus A380. 

In 2012 Quest covered the US Election campaign with his own series, American Quest, in which he travelled across the country interviewing a diverse range of voters. Quest is also the face of CNN’s coverage of major UK events. In 2012 he guided an international audience through the Queen’s Diamond Jubilee celebrations live from the banks of the River Thames and used his expert knowledge of the British Royal Family to front the channel’s coverage of the 2011 marriage of Prince William and Kate Middleton, now the Duke and Duchess of Cambridge. 

His coverage of breaking news, which has spanned two decades, has seen him report on a range of stories from, the death of Yasser Arafat, the Lockerbie Pan Am 103 crash to the death of Michael Jackson. Quest is more than just business; there are few journalists who have had guests as varied, from His Holiness, The Dalai Lama to actress Joan Collins to founder of Playboy Magazine, Hugh Hefner. Prior to joining CNN he worked at the BBC, where he was the North America business correspondent, based on Wall Street for 12 years. 

Quest is British, holds an LLB (Hons) degree in Law from Leeds University, and was called to the Bar.

Ulrich studied law in Freiburg, Germany, and after graduation in 1980, began as political liaison officer at Lufthansa German Airlines in Cologne in 1981. Ulrich coordinated the political activities of former Secretary of State and then CEO Heinz Ruhnau in Brussels and Strasburg. After assuming diverse management functions in the airline in such areas as HR and marketing, Ulrich was appointed Vice President Government Affairs in 1992, and as such was deeply involved in the privatisation of the airline as of 1993. Ulrich secured Lufthansa’s interests in the negotiations of an Open Sky between the USA and Germany and subsequently the anti-trust approval for the airline’s alliances with United Airlines and SAS.

In Sep-2002, Ulrich was unanimously elected as Secretary General of the then 28 airline member strong Association of European Airlines, based in Brussels. He represented the interests of his members publicly and politically, and coordinated efforts of the European airline sector to contribute to a European regulatory framework for the entire aviation value chain. This led to an intense exchange between the association and the EU institutions, notably the European Commission, culminating in several regulatory proposals in areas such as aviation security, safety, infrastructure and environment. Ulrich was also involved in the negotiations of a comprehensive EU-US Aviation Agreement.

After 10 years, Ulrich left the then 36 airline member strong association in Sep-2012 and founded his own firm “Aviation Strategy & Concepts”, based in Brussels. His firm, which he likes to call a “networking agency” offers airlines, airports, EU institutions, NGOs and partner firms a platform to establish contacts and develop new solutions.

Ulrich has two children, Felix aged 19 and Julia, 17. He enjoys skiing, jogging, chess and reading.

Paul enjoys a strong reputation and high profile presence in the UK aviation industry. Prior to easyJet, Paul was in the hotel sector as EVP at Oberoi Group and Global VP Marketing at InterContinental Hotels. His earlier career was in primarily FMCG marketing at companies including Procter & Gamble, S.C. Johnson, Helene Curtis/Unilever and Kelloggs.

He continues to advise senior executives in airlines and related businesses as well as senior government policy makers on the changing dynamics of the global aviation industry (evolving consumers, competitors, collaborators, government policies, and technologies—information and aircraft); and evolving airline business models (based on market fragmentation and segmentation, organisational structures, aircraft technology, and new-generation information and enabling technologies, as well as best global business practices).

Before moving to US, Kevin held a number of other positions with Glanbia. He joined the company in 1999 as Director of Strategy and Marketing, before being promoted to Chief Executive of its Consumer Foods Division and subsequently becoming Group Development Director. Prior to joining Glanbia, Kevin held a number of senior management positions with Coca-Cola Bottlers in Russia and with Grand Metropolitan in Ireland and Central Europe. He is a fellow of the Institute of Chartered Management Accountants and holds a Diploma in Applied Finance from the Irish Management Institute. Kevin is from Navan, Co. Meath and is married to Aisling who is from Dublin. They have three boys: Ben 14, Josh 12 and Matthew 10.

Erik has also served a term as Chairman of the Airlines Association of South Africa and is currently a Director on the Board of Imperial Air Cargo. 

As a married man with two daughters, Erik has a busy lifestyle but finds time for his hobbies which include painting, building custom made cars and re-modelling furniture.

IAG is the parent company of British Airways and Iberia. It is one of the world’s largest airline groups with 377 aircraft flying to 200 destinations and carrying more than 54 million passengers each year. In Apr-2012, IAG purchased British airline bmi which was integrated into British Airways.

At BA, Willie guided the company to its first-ever 10% operating margin in 2007 and introduced permanent changes across the airline to bring it through the worst recession in aviation history in 2008/9. He secured the airline’s long-term strategic objective to establish a trans-Atlantic joint business with American Airlines and Iberia and set up the merger with Iberia that led to the formation of IAG.

Prior to joining BA, Willie was CEO at Aer Lingus, a position he was appointed to in the aftermath of 9/11. Faced with bankruptcy and heavy losses, Willie radically restructured the airline and this culminated in it posting an EUR107 million profit in 2004, making Aer Lingus the most profitable state-owned airline in the western world.

Born in Dublin in 1961, Mr Walsh joined Aer Lingus in 1979 as a cadet pilot and worked his way through the ranks to become a captain in 1990. He began his move to management in 1989 where he fulfilled various roles in the flight operations department. He completed a Master of Science in Management and Business Administration at Dublin’s Trinity College in 1992.

His managerial skills led him to being appointed CEO of Futura, Aer Lingus’ Spanish charter airline, in 1998. He returned to Dublin with Aer Lingus in 2000 where he took up the role of COO and was subsequently appointed as CEO in Oct-2001.

Willie is president of the London Chamber of Commerce and Industry. He is married with one daughter and enjoys all sports, especially football and golf.

Gareth studied Maths and Computer Science at the University of Manchester and, on the first day of his course he met Bonamy. After graduating and working as a programmer, Gareth became frustrated in finding flights to visit his brother in the French Alps. From here came the idea of an easy-to-use way of tracking down the best travel deals. At a pub brainstorming session, Gareth and Bon met physics graduate, Barry, who liked the idea of searching flight prices for every single airline in the world. As the site began to grow by word of mouth, the three decided to give up their day jobs and Skyscanner was officially launched in 2003. Skyscanner now receives over 25 million unique visitors per month worldwide and its multi-award winning mobile apps have been downloaded over 25 million times. The company employs over 300 staff from more than 40 different nationalities in its offices in the UK, Barcelona, Beijing, Miami and Singapore. In his limited spare time, Gareth enjoys playing chess and has a love for literature and the arts, and enjoys sculpting and drawing.

A recognized industry leader, he was a founder of online travel agency Orbitz and industry standards organizations Open AXIS Group and the Open Travel Alliance.Mr. Young has also been involved with academic community as a Fellow with the Wharton School’s Operations Information Economics faculty and the 2007 Executive in Residence at the Georgia Institute of Technology School of Management. In 1999, and again in 2004, Business Travel News and Travel Agent Magazine recognized Mr. Young as one of the most influential people in the industry.