Juan M. Gomez

Juan M. Gomez, CEO is a seasoned airline executive with an extensive career in aviation spanning corporate finance, airport affairs, and Hub airport operations. Notably, he is not only a passionate aviator and pilot but also boasts extensive experience with renowned airlines like United, TWA, and ultimately American Airlines over a 20-year journey. His comprehensive understanding of the industry, from the executive floor to the tarmac, sets him apart. At Synaptic Aviation he is working with technologies like computer vision and AI to help airports, airlines, and service providers to transform ground operations.

Munish Khurana

Munish is a customer focused, strategic thinker with entrepreneurial passion who has delivered mission critical technology solutions globally. He currently works for EUROCONTROL as a Senior Manager – Business Development in the European Green Sky Directorate. In this role, he is responsible for developing U-space/AAM capabilities with partners of EUROCONTROL. On behalf of EUROCONTROL, he chairs the European Network of U-space Stakeholders in partnership with the DG Move, EASA and SESAR Joint Undertaking. Munish is also responsible for EUROCONTROL’s stakeholder outreach programme, designed to align priorities of Member States with the business strategy of EUROCONTROL.

In his previous role, Munish defined and implemented customer centric strategy for Dubai Air Navigation Services to enhance its ATM capacity, efficiency, and safety of its operations. For project managing delivery of 360-degree flight simulator at Dubai Air Navigation Services, Munish was awarded the best “Technology implementation of the year” at Business Awards 2013 in the Dubai.

He has published ten papers on Technology management in international conferences and journals. Munish holds a research degree (MPhil) in Software Engineering from Nottingham Trent University (UK) and Global Executive MBA from Rotterdam School of Management (NL).

Marina Estal

Marina Estal is an aeronautical engineer; she has been working in ATM for more than 10 years. Now, as the Head of Airspace Policy Area she is in charge of the civil-military coordination and the development of the drone sector in airspace matters which includes the implementation of the U-space in Spain.

Ken Stewart

Ken Stewart has served as the President and Chief Executive Officer of NUAIR since Dec 2020. Prior to joining NUAIR, Stewart held several leadership positions at General Electric including CEO of AiRXOS, a GE aviation company, where he led innovation, development, and commercialization of Unmanned Traffic Management services, and Managing Director at GE Ventures overseeing the new business creation function for GE. Prior to that Mr. Stewart served in executive roles with several venture capital and private equity-backed companies commercializing and scaling pre-revenue start-ups and transforming organizations for growth. Mr. Stewart also serves on the board of New York Aviation Management Association (NYAMA) as well as the Commercial Drone Alliance, (CDA) organizations that work with federal policymakers and industry stakeholders to help create relevant rules to scale commercial UAS and Advanced Air Mobility operations.

Vlad Vorotovic

Vladimir holds a Master of Engineering in Transport Planning and Traffic Engineering from the University of Belgrade, Serbia, and a Master of Business Administration from Cardiff Metropolitan University, in the United Kingdom.

Before joining ERTICO in 2020, where he is an expert in urban mobility, transport planning, traffic engineering and MaaS, Vladimir was involved in numerous traffic modelling and visualisation projects in the UK and globally, including the first shared space project in Exhibition Road, the 2012 Olympic Games in London and the East West Cycle Superhighway project. He has been responsible for the delivery of TfL’s Traffic Modelling Guidelines and updates of TfL’s Model Auditing Process.

A British and Serbian national, Vladimir speaks English, Serbian, Croatian, Bosnian and Russian.

Daniel García-Monteavaro

Daniel García-Monteavaro (Aeronautical Engineer from the Polytechnic University of Madrid) works at ENAIRE, the public Air Navigation Service Provider in Spain. He has been in the air navigation sector for more than 20 years and since 2018 he is the Head of the Drone Business Development. From this unit he coordinates the definition, deployment and certification of ENAIRE’s U-space platform, as well as the participation in national and European drone and U-space projects. He is also involved in regulatory activities and other actions related to the commercial development of U-Space services for UAS, both at national and international level.

Adefunke Adeyemi

Adefunke Adeyemi was elected and appointed the Secretary-General of the African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) resuming office on 1st September, 2022. AFCAC is the Specialized Agency of the African Union (AU) on all Civil Aviation matters and the Executing Agency of the Yamoussoukro Decision (YD) and the Single African Air Transport Market (SAATM). Her role is to promote Safety, Security, Air Transport Liberalization, Environmental protection and overall sustainability of the African Air Transport sector across the continent.
With an international career spanning over 20 years, Adefunke is recognized as one of the 50 Most Inspirational Nigerian Women. She was recently honoured as one of the 200 globally Most Influential People of African Descent (MIPAD) in affiliation with the United Nations Decade for People of African Descent. She is also the 2021 Recipient of the Ato Girma Wake Lifetime Achievement Award for Services to African Air Transport and Trade development.
She studied Law at the University of Lagos, Nigeria and qualified as a Barrister and Solicitor of the Nigerian Supreme Court in 1998, holds a Master of Laws (LL.M.) from the prestigious University of Cambridge, United Kingdom and a Master of Business Administration (MBA) from Nanyang Business School, Singapore in collaboration with Wharton Business School, Philadelphia and Berkeley Hass Business Business School, California.

Eduard Gringinger

Hannes Alparslan

Hannes has been working with Information and Communication Technology (ICT) for over 20 years, starting as ICT architect and gradually broadened his experience as a project manager for ICS (industrial control systems) in the oil & gas and aviation sectors.
He holds a degree in Electrical Engineering and a Master’s degree in Information Systems Management with a focus on Cybersecurity and Forensics.
Before joining EDA, Hannes has been working in Air Traffic Management (ATM) where he found his passion for aviation and continues to follow it ever since.
Amongst others, he was responsible for system architecture management, advising the top management on strategic developments of the ATM/ATC to ensure the future-readiness of the organisation. Cybersecurity, safety and improving resilience were and still are an integral part of his responsibilities. Hannes is also trained and has gained experience in Human Factors, Safety Management and Aviation Accident & Incident Investigation.
At EDA, he implemented and manages the programme for Aviation Cybersecurity for Military Aviation. His activities include the representation of military interests in regulation and standardisation, the identification and analysis of the impact of new and emerging technologies on cyber resilience and the facilitation of cooperation between civil and military aviation entities at EU and international level. Since 2020, Hannes also acts as trainer for EUROCAE where he teaches Aviation Cybersecurity civil and military aviation stakeholders.

Kai Bauer

Kai Bauer is Principal Advisor Sustainable Mobility at the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) responsible for strategic sustainability actions, including the Innovative Air Mobility Hub Project. He previously launched the Agency’s Environmental Label Programme and served as Head of Environment Department in EASA’s Certification Directorate. Over his 10+ years of service at EASA, Kai held management responsibilities for safety and environmental impact assessments as well as strategy and programmes. Before joining EASA, Kai worked as Programme Manager at the Delegations of the European Union in Slovenia and Turkey. Kai holds a PhD in Environmental and Resource Economics from Bonn University, Germany.