Marie Owens Thomsen

Marie joined IATA in 2022 as Chief Economist. In January 2023 Marie added the responsibility for IATA’s Environment and Sustainability activities to her Chief Economist role, and joined the Management Committee as Senior Vice President.
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.
Marie holds an MBA from the University of Gothenburg in Sweden, and a PhD in International Economics from the Graduate Institute in Geneva, Switzerland. She speaks Swedish, English, and French fluently.

Ramón Tàrrech Masdeu

Ramón Tàrrech is the Director Air Traffic Strategy and Innovation at Indra. He has worked in management and technical domains of transport technology for 30 years, the last 20 in ATM at Indra. He is actively involved in European and International industry fora. He holds a MEng from the Catalonian Politecnica and a MSc from the MIT.

Ahmed Al Jallaf

Ahmed Al Jallaf is the Assistant Director General Air Navigation Services at the UAE General Civil Aviation Authority. He was amongst the first UAE nationals to validate as an Air Traffic Controller in 2000. Ahmed holds an MSc degree in Aviation Safety Management. He has led many successful projects. The most notable is the UAE Airspace Restructuring Project implemented in 2017, which resulted in a significant increase in airspace capacity to cater to future global air traffic demands. He was awarded the prestigious 2018 Aviation Executive of the Year Award at the Aviation Business Awards. In 2019, he completed the “Impactful Leaders Program” from the Mohammed bin Rashid Center for Leadership Development (MBRCLD), whose vision is to “create leaders for tomorrow.” His passion for aviation drives him to innovate and constantly aim to raise the bar in this field. He is the Chairman of the UAE National Airspace Advisory Committee, GCC Air Navigation Committee, and the ICAO MID Air Navigation Planning & Implementation Group.

Thabani Myeza

Thabani joined CANSO as Director for Africa Affairs in January 2022. CANSO is the Global voice for air traffic management (ATM) and is shaping the future skies. The focus in the region is the creation and coordination of a platform for the ANSPs to learn, share, collaborate, co-create and deliver on joint initiatives.

Prior to joining CANSO Thabani worked as Executive for Commercial Services at Air Traffic & Navigation Services (ATNS). In this portfolio, he was charged with driving the AFI growth strategy implementation for the organization. He has extensive experience in developing and implementing growth and new market strategies including establishment of start-up operations in the region. Thabani has previously worked for multinational business organisations such Vodafone, General Electric, Tata Africa and SembCorp Utilities.

Thabani’s career transcends diverse industries, mainly telecommunications, utilities and infrastructure development. He has been part of various start-up operations throughout the Sub-Saharan Africa region, including as a co-lead for the establishment of commercial businesses in the region and was part of the team that set up Vodacom/Vodaphone business in Tanzania and the Democratic Republic of Congo (DRC). Thabani’s core strength lies in working with initial concepts, aligning these with strategy and actualizing implementation.

Thabani holds a B Com degree (Accounting) from the University of Zululand and an MBA in General Management from Texas Southern University.

Nikolaos Iosif

Despoina Papandreou

Philip Bobson Trye

My name is Philip Bobson Trye, my parents were mere peasants that struggled to see me through primary and secondary school education.
After completing my high school education, I joined the Sierra Leone Airport Authority as an aviation security.

In 2002, I enrolled with the Aviation Training Academy, Air Traffic & Navigation Services (ATNS), South Africa.
Presently, I’m a senior student pursing my Bachelor in Business Management at the African Methodist Episcopal University (AMEU) of Liberia.

Currently, I am the Chief of Air Traffic Services for the Roberts Flight Information Region, where I’m focused on managing the ATS operations and liaising with key stake holders such as the CAAs, ICAO, AFCAC, IATA, etc.

I’ve spent the last 20 years learning everything there is to know about the Air Navigation Services Provision, and my experience gives me the advantage in the discharge of my duties as Chief of ATS for the Roberts FIR.

I’ve held a number of roles, from Aviation Security to Operational Controller but my latest challenge has been helping the Roberts FIR improve in safety and facilitation with sister organizations through my contributions as the Chief of ATS.

I am presently residing in Liberia where the Roberts FIR headquarters and ACC is located.

Karl Thompson

As Sales Director for ATC radar and military IFF for Hensoldt Sensors GmbH, Karl Thompson builds on extensive operational experience in the Royal Air Force, where he was a specialist in air combat operations and electronic warfare. Today he works as a specialist for renewable energy and aviation issues at Hensoldt. He is committed to ensuring that international energy targets are achieved through a resilient and balanced mix of cooperation, appropriate funding measures and technical excellence.

Michael Poiger

Michael Poiger has been working in the safety-critical industry for over 2 decades. He was responsible as TAPtools Product Manager to develop supportive solutions for the operator, (i.e. the Integrated Controller Working Position.) Afterwards, Michael was responsible for the timely execution of various projects in User Experience, Data Visualization and Service Oriented architecture within SESAR. Today, Michael is managing the Control Room Consulting portfolio, always aiming to reveal new perspectives to operational processes and technical concepts, supporting mission-critical organization`s targets.

Veit Voges

Veit joined DFS Aviation Services GmbH in 2022 as Product Manager for RTC. In his former roles at Zurich Airport AG and PwC he gained extensive knowledge, both on RDT and airport operations.