His Excellency Abdulaziz Al-Noaimi is Chairman of the Board and Managing Director of the Qatar Aviation Authority, Chairman of the New Doha International Airport, Project Steering Committee and Chairman of the New Port Project Steering Committee. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Business Administration and has a Diploma in Air Traffic Control and a Diploma in Telecommunications. He is also a board member of Qatar Airways and Doha International Airport Public Corporation. Al Noaimi started his career in 1975 as Air Traffic Controller where he soon became the Director of the Doha International Airport in 1989, he was appointed Director of the Department of Civil Aviation and Meteorology, and then in 2002 held the positions of Chairman of the Board and Managing Director at Civil Aviation Authority and Chairman of the New Doha International Airport Project Steering Committee. In 2006, he also became Executive Chairman of the Arab Civil Aviation Commission. He is also a member of Qatar National Hotels Company board since 2006 and was a member of the Board of Directors at Gulf Air from 1989 to 2002.

Joe Hof. his aviation career in 1970 when he accepted an appointment to the United States Air Force Academy. He earned a Bachelor of Science Degree there and after graduation served as a navigator in KC-135 tanker aircraft. In 1982, after leaving military service, he joined the Federal Aviation Administration and received an assignment as an air traffic controller at the Colorado Springs Tower in Colorado. In the 24 years since then, Mr. Hof has served in positions ranging from air traffic controller to staff specialist to tower manager. He also completed a Masters Degree in Business Administration at the University of Colorado. In 1997, he began his most recent assignment in traffic management at the Air Traffic Control System Command Center (ATCSCC). He currently serves as Manager, International Operations, ATCSCC. He is also a certified commercial pilot and flight instructor.

John Cookson retired from the Royal Air Force in August 2006 after 36 years as a military air traffic control professional. For the last 10 years of his military service he was involved in the establishment of a 6 year commercial relationship between UK Ministry of Defence and NATS which was an enabler for the NATS PPP in 2000. The RAF extended Mr Cookson’s service beyond normal retirement age to enable him to lead the team which renegotiated the commercial relationship with NATS. On retirement from the RAF he joined NATS as a Defence Business Advisor. As an Advisor John has no fixed portfolio of activities. However he has taken the lead in arranging workshops for overseas Government delegations from China and India both of which involve UK MOD and Civil Aviation participation.

Ali Ahmed Al Naqbi commenced his journey in the Aviation Industry with the high profile and sensitive segment of VIP air transportation and later diversified his interest into Business Aviation with a specific emphasis on the Middle East region. In his twenty years working with Abu Dhabi Presidential Flight as Vice President Finance & Administration, he developed a vast and varied experience in fields such as aircraft procurement, aircraft completion, airport facility development, aircraft sale and aircraft leasing. He also pioneered a business aviation venture from scratch with his contribution to Royal Jet as founder and Managing Director, from the basic business plan till its total organizational and structural formation. His idea of an institutional approach to organize the Business Aviation Industry in the region led to the formation of the Middle East Business Aviation Association (MEBAA) to which he is the founder and Chairman. He is also an elected member of International Business Aviation Council (IBAC), an agency formed to represent, promote and protect the interests of the Business Aviation Community at the international policy and regulatory forums. His strong vision has made a significant contribution to the orderly growth in both Business Aviation and the VIP air transportation fields which culminated in the development of a manufacturing base for such aircraft as well as the set up of a completion center in the region.

Alex Hendriks is EUROCONTROL’s Cooperative Network Design (CND) Deputy Director for Network Development. He has been working for EUROCONTROL since 1991 where he was successively the Head of Airspace / Flow Management & Navigation and Deputy Director ATM Strategies, with specific responsibilities for setting the airspace and navigation strategies. At the same time, he was appointed as Acting Director and Programme Manager for the Central European CEATS project, now called FAB CE. Within EUROCONTROL he established and chairs the Very Light Jet (VLJ) Integration Platform (VIP), in which all VLJ stakeholders participate in preparing Europe’s ATM system for the expected large numbers of VLJs. Between 2002 and 2008 he also served as Director of the U.S. Air Traffic Control Association (ATCA), responsible for the EMEA. From 1981 until 1986 he was elected as Executive Vice President Technical of the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Associations (IFATCA).The early years of his career were spent within the Netherlands Civil Aviation Authority’s ATS Directorate (LVB) where he was appointed radar-controller at Amsterdam ACC and later on he became the Head of the ATS Operations Bureau. He is also an active airline pilot flying B-737-800 aircraft.

Dominique Colin is a standardisation and certification expert in the civil military Colin coordination directorate of EUROCONTROL. Retired Colonel from the French air force after 25 years of service, he has an extensive and comprehensive knowledge and experience of the military aircraft operations, the joint procurement constraints and the airworthiness requirements for State aircraft. He graduated from the French Air force academy in 1987, from the Ecole Nationale Supérieure de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace (ENSAE) in 1994, and was teaching aerodynamics and flight mechanics at the US Air force Academy from 1997 to 2000. He developed the State aircraft airworthiness regulation in France and led a European defence agency (EDA) task force to harmonize military airworthiness regulation across the European countries.

Robbie Tod is the Director of Air Traffic Services at Dubai International Airport, with responsibility for delivering world class Air Navigation Services to Dubai. He moved to Dubai in 2001 from National Air Traffic Services in the UK where his career spanned 28 years. Before his appointment as Director, Robbie worked as General Manager ATS in Dubai. Prior to this he managed the Air Traffic Control unit where he developed processes and procedures to enable Dubai ATS to function more efficiently. These included the introduction of a Safety Management System, Unit Training Plan and Project Management processes to cope with the rate of change being experienced on the Airport.

Mohammed Abdullah Salmeen Al-Katheeri is Vice President Quality Assurance at Abu Dhabi Airports Company. Prior to this position he was successively Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Vice President Operations and Heading Special Projects for Air Navigation Services. He is a professionally qualified Air traffic Control Supervisor with more than 15 years experience in aviation industry. He has expertise in all areas relating to the air traffic control and services with implementation of ICAO rules and regulations ranging from safety to quality.

Gunnar Emausson is Acting Director Safety, Operations and Infrastructure for the Middle East and North Africa region at International Air Transport Association (IATA). Gunnar leads the implementation work of IATA in the MENA region in close cooperation with member airlines, aviation regulators, airports and air navigation service providers. Prior to joining IATA he retired from ICAO, having served the organisation at the technical cooperation project in Jeddah, the European and North Atlantic regional office in Paris and the headquarters office in Montreal. During his time in Montreal he was Secretary of the air traffic management requirements and performance panel and the flight plan study group as well as the ICAO observer in the A380 wake vortex steering group, an ad-hoc group of experts from manufacturing industry, safety regulators and air navigation service providers. Earlier in Paris he was involved in air traffic management, airports, environment, safety and accident investigation work for ICAO as well as the European Civil Aviation Conference. The early years of his career were spent within the Civil Aviation Administration of Sweden and the Swedish Air Force, where he served as ATCO, reserve officer and training manager.

Olivier Turcas is an experienced civil aviation specialist with more than 30 years of experience in the aviation sector. He has an engineering degree from ENAC (The French Civil Aviation School) and a Master of Business Administration from Paris University. He worked for companies developing ATC equipments such as Thomson-CSF (now Thales) where he started as engineer, then project engineer and finally head of sales and marketing for the European region and the Middle East. In 1999, Olivier joined Bureau Veritas as international director of the aeronautics and space division delivering services in the field of airworthiness and flight operations to civil aviation authorities but also the industry (airlines and manufacturers). Since 2004, he is an independent aviation expert working mainly for the European Commission in the regulatory field and since January 2007 he is the Project Leader of Euromed Aviation through a contract with the aviation engineering company EgisAvia.

Alfonso Arroyo is an official of the European Commission whose primary responsibility is the development of international relations in the field of air traffic management (ATM), representing the Commission in European and Pan-European ATM groups, establishing and developing international relations with main third country partners and relevant international organisations (ICAO, Eurocontrol, NATO) and preparing and overseeing international cooperation projects. He has formerly worked in the negotiations of accession of the new 10 Member States to the European Union, and in the framework of international financial negotiations within the World Trade Organization.

Louis Wepener has 20 years ATC experience which includes Senior ATC Lecturer at the Aviation Training Academy in South Africa and Guest lecturer at the FAA Academy in USA. He joined UAE GCAA in 2001 as the first ATS Instructor with the main objective and priority to train UAE National students to ATC standard. He is UAE GCAA Training Manager since 2008.

Mohamed Elkady is acting as Air Navigation Expert in ACAC, based in Morocco. He was previously Director of Cairo Area Control Center and then Director General Research and Development at the Egypt National Air Navigation Services Company (NANSC). From 2006 to 2009, he was managing the Galileo Euro-Med Cooperation Office (GEMCO) in Cairo for the introduction of Satellite based Augmentation System (SBAS) in the MEDA area. He has 25 years experience in air traffic control and air traffic management. He joined the Egyptian Civil Aviation Authority in 1977 as Air Traffic Controller and also served as Senior Air Traffic Controller and Supervisor shift in Cairo Area Control Center. He was also Air Traffic Control Instructor in Cairo Air Navigation Center and Civil Aviation Academy. He has performed implementation, planning and monitoring of RVSM and RNP-5 in the Egyptian airspace and has worked in several regional tasks as a Coordinator for the ICAO GNSS Task Force Action Group. He is currently ACAC Air Navigation Committee Chairman.

Brahim Lakhlifi is a civil aviation chief engineer and has been Director of Air Navigation at Moroccan National Airports Authority since 2006. He started as Operations Manager, followed by Head of Airports Operations then Director of the largest airport in Morocco and next has been nominated Director of Quality, Safety and Security. Since his nomination in the directorate of air navigation, Mr. Lakhlifi conducted miscellaneous navigation projects like the upgrading of airspace capacity, the migration towards a new air control center and the creation of new air routes. Moreover, quality of service being his major concern, he has led project ISO 9001 certification for CNCSA and AIS. He is an ICAO civil aviation security expert, FAA security instructor, fully certified ICAO AVSEC MCP by ICAO/Concordia University, national civil aviation security inspector and auditor and fully certified ICAO security instructor (2009-2013). He has managed the elaboration of the Moroccan civil aviation national security program, and Casablanca airport’s security program and has assessed the Man Portable Air Defence System (MANPADS) threat. He has also a large experience in airport management as he brought into operations Agadir Airport, Casablanca airport’s arrival terminal and Nador airport. In addition to this, he has initiated various projects on a global scale, such as the security audit of Cairo’s air terminal three and Sharm el Sheik’s new terminal, the assessment of the Gabon and Equatorial Guinea’s airport system and the evaluation of the Surinam’s civil aviation security system.

Captain Mohamad Kheir Hassoun is Executive President Africa and Middle East at the International Federation of Airline Pilot’s Association (IFALPA). He is an active member of the Lebanese Pilots’ Association and joined IFALPA activities in the early 80s where he participated in the Security, Legal and Industrial Technical Committees and was elected Regional Vice President Middle East. He joined Middle East Airlines - Airliban in 1997, flew B720/707, B747 and he is presently flying A320/321/330.

Ehab Abdel Galil started his career as an Air Traffic Controller 12 years ago. He is a Radar Approach Controller at Sharm El Sheikh International Airport and an Area Radar controller at Cairo Area Control Center. He has extensive experience within air traffic flow management and airspace data analysis as well as in sector capacity calculation. He obtained a Bachelors degree in Aeronautics Science (air traffic control section) and a Bachelors degree in Business Administration with a specialisation in airspace air traffic management, satellite and augmentation systems and air traffic flow management.

Andrew Charlton is the Managing Director of the Europe-based strategic advisory, government and public affairs firm Aviation Advocacy. He advises airlines, airports and industry suppliers on strategic issues concerning air transport and how the industry is to be shaped in the future. He writes a monthly subscription only intelligence reporter - Aviation Industry Reporter – read by an increasing number of influential industry players each month. Before starting Aviation Advocacy in 2005, Andrew held senior strategic and government affairs roles at SITA and IATA. He was also Chief Legal Officer of Qantas Airways.

Hisham Bazyan is an Air Traffic Control Consultant at the Jordan Civil Aviation Regulatory Commission (CARC). He has 27 years experience has an Air Traffic Controller. For 10 years he has been the Chairman of JATCA, the Jordanian Air traffic Controllers Association. He was also a team leader for more than 10 years at the International Federation of Air Traffic Controllers Association (IFATCA) conferences as well as the Chairman of the Investigation Committee. Since 1982, Hisham has provided Air Traffic Control standard training at Queen Noor Civil Aviation Technical College.