Sir Stephen Hillier became Chair of the Civil Aviation Authority on 1 August 2020.
He previously had a long career in the Royal Air Force, eventually becoming Chief of the Air Staff, the head of the Service. He has extensive military flying experience as a pilot and instructor on a wide range of aircraft types, although his flying career started at age 17 when the CAA issued him his Private Pilot’s Licence.

Robin co-leads the McKinsey Center for Future Mobility and its work in mobility disrupters in the Americas and is a global leader of the Disruptive Aerospace sector within McKinsey’s Aerospace & Defense Practice.

His work focuses on innovative topics in the aviation industry, including advanced air mobility, unmanned aerial systems, sustainable aviation, and super or hypersonic flight. This covers the entire value chain, which includes operators, aircraft manufacturers, part-and-service providers, airports, ground handlers, training organizations, regulators, and investors.

In this constantly evolving, competitive market, Robin leverages hands-on expertise and broad, cross-functional knowledge to support clients across the aviation industry by addressing strategic challenges, and capturing value and growth.

Before joining McKinsey, Robin held department leadership roles in both the commercial and operations branches of a major airline. He is also a certified commercial airline pilot.

Toby is the current chair of the British Aviation Group’s Sustainability Working Group. He is an environmental consultant with more than 25 years’ experience and is a specialist in the environmental impacts of aviation activities.  He has worked on many aviation projects, with experience in the UK, Europe, Africa and the Middle East.  He provided environmental support to the development of Heathrow Airport's expansion proposals including contributing significantly to the evidence provided to the Airports Commission and led the team engaged to produce the EIA to support the consenting application for a third runway.  

Isaiah Cox is the CEO of WheelTug. He leads the impressive team that will be bringing electric taxiing to the commercial aviation market next year. WheelTug has already signed letters of intent with more than 25 airlines representing over 2,000 aircraft.

Isaiah graduated from Princeton, and pursued post-graduate work at King's College London before moving to work on the WheelTug system. He holds more than 120 issued US patents.“

Alexandre de Joybert has joined ACI EUROPE in February 2022 and is responsible for the coordination of all aspects of the association’s sustainability strategy. In this regard, he represents ACI EUROPE in various high-level EU, ECAC and EUROCONTROL fora. He also monitors the administration and ongoing evolution of the global carbon standard, Airport Carbon Accreditation which belongs to ACI EUROPE.

David Hyde leads the World Economic Forum’s efforts on Advanced Aerial Mobility and electric and hydrogen propulsion. In this role David works with leaders from the public and private sectors to lay the groundwork for the adoption of new aviation technologies. David joined the Forum in 2021 from the Aerospace Industries Association, where as Director of Environmental Policy he was responsible for developing and advocating industry positions on issues including climate change and supersonic aircraft. Prior to this, David was an aviation policy advisor at the UK Department for Transport. He holds a Bachelor’s degree in History and Master’s degree in Global Politics, and is currently pursuing a Master of Business Administration degree from Johns Hopkins University.

Adam Freeman has spent 15 years working in sustainability-related roles across MAG’s three airports at East Midlands, London Stansted and Manchester. In his role, Adam leads the implementation MAG’s Corporate Social Responsibility Strategy ‘Working together for a brighter future’ and MAG’s approach to strategic environmental issues including climate change and noise. Adam is a member of the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure Delivery Group of the Jet Zero Council and Vice Chair of the ACI Europe Environmental Strategy Committee.

Paul has worked in the electricity industry since graduating in 1988. He joined the South Western Electricity Board in the nationalised industry, and has experienced the changes through privatisation and market separation. He remains with his original employer, now part of National Grid. Paul trained as an operational engineer and experienced all aspects of distribution network maintenance, replacement and construction. In 1995 he became a Distribution Manager and was responsible for service delivery, operations and performance in a geographical patch which covered most of Devon. In 2011 Paul left his operational roots to take up responsibility as Policy Manager. In this role he brought innovative solutions into a business as usual world whilst retaining the more traditional elements of management of standards for an electricity distribution network. In 2019 Paul’s focus moved to the new Distribution System Operator area. He is currently System Development Manager with a focus on Net Zero transition and decarbonisation. He also leads for Community Energy and once again heads the Innovation team turning ideas into business as usual. Paul is a Chartered Engineer and Fellow of the Institution of Engineering and Technology

Visiting Professor at Cranfield University. For the past two decades he was Chief Economist at the IATA, leading the analysis of issues such as climate change, economic regulation and financing. He was an expert adviser to the UK Airports Commission, the DfT and was on Air New Zealand’s Sustainability Panel. Prior to this he has been Director of the Centre for Sustainable Investment at Forum for the Future, and Head of Global Economics at UBS Warburg.

Michael Halaby has 20+ years of providing strategic funding advice to C-suite executives in the aviation, automotive and financial institution sectors on accessing the US$ and international bond, secured bank debt, and regional financing markets; he has arranged over US$122 billion in debt financing via ~270 transactions for borrowers in the US, Europe and Middle East.  Michael is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Based in London, Michael Halaby is Managing Director – Head of Aviation Advisory at MUFG Bank, Ltd.  In this capacity, Michael’s role is to build and supervise the Aviation Advisory business for its global aviation partners including lessors, airlines and investors which aims to help its clients raise capital, offer aviation financial consultancy services such as a lease versus buy analysis or fleet financing options and provide advice on ESG strategies. 

Ingrid Holmes is the Executive Director of the Green Finance Institute and Chair of the UK’s Green Technical Advisory Group, which is advising the Government and Minister John Glenn on designing and implementing a green taxonomy in the UK. Ingrid has 20 years of experience working on environmental policy and sustainable finance. 

Arvind Balan is the CFO of Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace. He is a finance leader with over 20 years of finance and commercial experience and has been instrumental in seeing the recovery of civil aerospace from the impact of COVID. 

Marie joined IATA in 2022 as Chief Economist. In January 2023 Marie added responsibility for IATA’s Environment and Sustainability activities to her role.

Marie joined IATA from Lombard Odier where she was Head of Global Trends and Sustainability. Her 30-year professional life includes roles for both investment banks and private banks, including HSBC in London, Merrill Lynch in Paris, and Indosuez in Geneva. Outside of the financial sector Marie worked for IKEA, and she also founded and managed her own company in the equine industry.

Jean has over 25 years of experience in developing and managing renewable energy projects worldwide. After several entrepreneurial experiences in Europe (Spain-France), he became Director of Business Development for one of the world's leading wind energy consultants. Subsequently, he became director of the hydroelectric generation department and senior director of business development for one of the largest independent power generators in Canada. Jean cofounded SAF+ in 2019 to bring his deep expertise to the development of a large commercial SAF project in east-end Montreal. An outstanding communicator, he is regularly solicited as a speaker. Jean holds an eMBA from the John Molson School of Business and a degree in Civil Engineering (B.Sc.) from Concordia University.

Andrew Chadwick is a Chartered Engineer and is the Connected Places Catapult Aviation Technology Innovation Lead. His current work includes the UK Government Drone Pathfinder Catalyst Programme, technical guidance to a number of Future Flight Challenge projects, plus Solution Architect on the Zero Emission Flight Infrastructure project studying the introduction of hydrogen and electric aircraft and supporting infrastructure into airports. Andrew also leads on Future Air Transport, Advanced Air Mobility, and Sustainable Aviation technical initiatives.

Andrew is currently Chair of the Royal Aeronautical Society UAS Specialist Group Committee, a Member of the Industry Advisory Board for the Autonomous Vehicle Systems and Dynamics MSc at Cranfield University, a member of the Royal Academy of Engineering Working Group on the Safety and Ethics of Autonomous Systems, and a member of the Drones Industry Action Group.

Professor of aerothermal technology and director of the Whittle Laboratory. Member of the UK Department for Transport’s Science Advisory Council, the FlyZero Design Advisory Group, and a fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering. He leads the EPSRC Centre for Doctoral Training in Gas Turbine Aerodynamics and the Aviation Impact Accelerator (AIA), an international expert group aiming to build an interactive whole-system simulator to accelerate the journey to climate-neutral aviation.

Mike Kane is currently serving as MP for Wythenshawe and Sale East, and Shadow Minister for Aviation and Maritime. Previously, he was Shadow Minister for International Development from September 2015 to October 2016, when he was appointed Shadow Minister for Schools drawing on his time as a teacher.

Laurence Wildgoose was appointed as the Assistant Administrator for Policy, International Affairs, and Environment at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) in January 2021.

In this role, he is responsible for leading the FAA's policy efforts to improve the safety and capacity of the global aerospace system in an environmentally sound manner. His focus is coordinating the FAA's reauthorization efforts before Congress, improving the safety and efficiency of the National Airspace System, and advancing innovation-friendly policies related to the safe integration of new entrants, including uncrewed aircraft systems. Laurence also oversees the agency's international activity, including advancing the FAA's global leadership on safety and environmental initiatives.

In 2022, Daniel was appointed the Chief Sustainability Officer to develop, implement and review domestic and international climate change targets, policies and strategies across CAAS and the Singapore aviation eco-system. Daniel assumed the post of Senior Director (Aviation Development Group), overseeing air transport policy, aviation industry policy, airport development and planning, and airport operations and economic regulation.

Emilien was previously a policy officer with the European Commission’s Secretariat General, working on delivery of the European Green Deal, and with the Directorate Generals for Environment and for Employment. Before starting a career with the European institutions, Emilien was a consultant with the International Energy Agency and a policy officer for European consumer organisations ANEC and BEUC.

Alastair leads the sustainable aviation team at ICF, supporting companies and governments across the global industry to reduce the environmental impact from aviation. He has delivered projects with airlines and airports to design and implement decarbonisation strategies, countries to develop sustainable fuel roadmaps and policies, and investors to assess the opportunities across SAF, hydrogen, electric aircraft, carbon capture, and the low carbon value chain. He is a Chartered Financial Analyst (CFA) and Chartered Engineer (CEng), with a Masters in Aeronautical Engineering (MEng).

As Head of Sustainability at Virgin Atlantic, Luke is responsible for the development and delivery of the sustainability and decarbonization strategy, upholding the airline’s Mission to Net Zero by 2050.  
Luke’s responsibilities include sustainability policy advocacy and compliance, innovation and investment into technology pathways towards zero emission flights.

Bill Griffin is the Boeing ecoDemonstrator Technical Leader. He is responsible to accelerate technology development on Boeing's ecoDemonstrator flight test platforms.  He manages an innovative technology portfolio through collaboration within Boeing, industry, academia, government, and others.  Griffin serves as the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) focal within the ecoDemonstrator team.  He works closely with the Enterprise Sustainability and BCA Environmental Sustainability teams to implement the demonstrations needed to show commercial airplane’s capability to fly on 100% SAF by 2030.

Alastair is the Rolls-Royce plc Associate Fellow for Fuels and Lubricants and has accountability for the full gas turbine product range in this regard, including commercial aviation, defence and naval marine. He has worked for the organisation for 36 years in this technical field and is currently leading the extensive company activity on sustainable fuels, with a particular focus on ground and flight demonstrations on 100% SAF. He has an Honours Degree in Physics, is a Chartered Engineer and is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society.

Dr Marc Stettler is Reader in Transport and Environment at Imperial College London. His research is developing our understanding of how aircraft engine emissions lead to contrails, their climate impacts and strategies to reduce their impact via operational and fuel-based approaches. He leads the Transport & Environment Laboratory within the Department of Civil and Environmental Engineering.

Kerissa Khan MRAeS serves on the Board of Trustees as the RAeS President Elect.

Kerissa was educated at Naparima Girls’ High School in Trinidad and Tobago. She graduated from the University of Glasgow with a Master of Engineering degree with Honours in Aeronautical Engineering (2012).

Kerissa is a technical expert in complex and integrated aerospace systems and a thought-leader in sustainable future aviation. She leads innovation for the £300M Future Flight Challenge at UK Research and Innovation, creating the future aviation system for the third aviation revolution. She is a member of the UK Trade Organisation for Aerospace, Defence, Security and Space Advanced Air Mobility Group. She has published the Future Flight 2030 vision and strategy for zero-carbon air mobility and Future Flight social science research forward strategy, in addition to socio-economic and market outlook studies for novel aviation solutions. She has also shaped the UK Transport Vision 2050.

Riyadh Khalaf is a broadcaster and digital content creator. He regularly hosts aviation films for BBC’s ‘The One Show’ and ‘Morning Live’. Riyadh recently produced 'Winging it', a documentary investigating sustainable supersonic flight (BBC Reel). His social media has a combined half a million followers who come for his quirky “avgeek” videos amassing over 10 million views. Riyadh also fronted the ground-breaking docuseries ‘Queer Britain' (BBC3) and was crowned champion of Celebrity MasterChef in 2020 (BBC One).

Dr Pippa Bailey is Head of the Climate Change & Sustainability Practice at Ipsos. Leveraging her
background in consumer psychology, and 30 years of research experience, she collaborates with
colleagues to help clients navigate and address the insight challenges and opportunities that
sustainability presents. She is active on the conference circuit (COP26 and Sustainability Live) and
has been widely published in the industry press as well as contributing to Ipsos thought leadership,
most recently Ipsos Almanac.

Rachel is the COO at Connected Places Catapult, the UK’s innovation accelerator for cities, transport and place leadership. She is also a member of the Jet Zero Council and chairs the Zero Emission Flight Delivery Group which has been established in 2022 by the government to put the UK in a leading position in the race to achieve zero emission flight.

Bridget Donaldsons joined the Air League in 2012 as a young member and soon after received a flying scholarship which changed the course of her career and trajectory into aviation. Along with membership of the RAF Air Cadets, Bridget soon received full sponsorship for her Private Pilots License and remained a volunteer of the Air League over the years before moving into a number of Pro-Bono roles, including her current role as Sustainability Lead of the charity. 

Christoph turns strategy into operation at TUI Airline as its Director of Transformation & Change with a strong focus on operational improvements since 2014. He also serves as the overall TUI Airline sustainability lead and, as part of it, manages the airline’s decarbonization roadmap to achieve its Science-Base-Targets. Christoph started for TUI in 2001 as Finance Director for the German airline. He earned master's degrees in Industrial Engineering (TU Darmstadt) and Business Administration (SUNY at Buffalo)