Tom Prevot

Tom Prevot is the air taxi product lead at Joby Aviation. He and his team are building the operational tooling and customer facing apps for Joby’s air taxi service that will transport passengers in Joby’s all electric vertical take off and landing aircraft through the urban airspace. Prior to joining Joby Tom was Director of Engineering for airspace systems at Uber Elevate. Before joining Elevate in 2017 Tom spent twenty years at NASA Ames Research Center investigating novel concepts and technologies for air traffic management and control and air/ ground integration. He earned his doctorate in aerospace engineering from the Munich University of the German Armed Forces.

Emile Arao

The Director General is the Chief Executive Officer of Kenya Civil Aviation Authority responsible for the management and administrative activities of the Authority Before his current appointment, he served as the Executive Director of the East African Community, Civil Aviation Safety and Security Oversight Agency (EAC – CASSOA) from October 2018 to April 2022, the Acting Executive Director of EAC – CASSOA from June 2017 to September 2018 and prior to that the Deputy Executive Director – Technical also of EAC – CASSOA from October 2016 to May 2017.
Mr. Arao is a holder of a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aircraft Engineering Technology and Master’s Degree in Business Administration in Aviation, with a specialization in Aviation Systems Management; both obtained from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University.
He is also a holder of a Kenyan and USA Multi-Commercial Pilot License with an Instrument Rating and is also a certified ICAO Government Safety Inspector in Aircraft Operations and Airworthiness. He has also worked as an Airframe and Power plant (A&P) mechanic in Watsonville, CA.
He is the current Vice President (East) African Civil Aviation Commission (AFCAC) and Board Member of EAC CASSOA.
Mr. Arao is a passionate aviation specialist with over 20 years of aviation experience in different operational areas. Emile has worked in several capacities in the aviation management and aerospace industry.
Mr Arao is an entrepreneur at heart, having started numerous business interests as well as being a highly talented and accomplished aviation professional.
Mr. Arao is married with two children.

Kapil Mittal

Ericsson Drone Mobility is driving confluence of Telecom and Aviation leveraging 5G intelligence to fly drones securely and safely, beyond visual line of sight, unlocking true business potential of drones.
Kapil is an entrepreneur and Business leader with global experience in setting up and scaling businesses, digital transformation strategy development and execution, and leadership development. Kapil is driving Ericsson’s Digital Airspace Strategy that aims to position 3GPP technologies like 5G for benefit of stakeholders in space.

Erick Corona

Erick Corona is the Director of ConOps & Airspace Ecosystem Development at Wisk Aero LLC., a company focused on addressing congestion by deploying self-flying, remotely supervised, electric vertical-take-off and landing (eVTOL) aircraft. Working at the intersection of aeronautics, automation, telecommunications, and battery technology, the company aims to deliver a safe, sustainable, affordable, and a beyond-cool novel urban transportation solution.

Before Wisk, as Director of Products at C3.ai, Erick led the development of AI-capable Predictive Maintenance solutions now deployed within DoD. Prior assignments include management, flight test, and engineering design positions at Boeing and GE Aircraft Engines. Erick also led the adoption of data-driven infrastructure asset management efforts at Pacific Gas & Electric.

Erick holds a B.S. in Mechanical Electrical Engineering from the ITESM (Mexico), an M.S. in Aeronautical Engineering from the University of Washington. He is also a graduate of the MIT Leaders for Global Operations (LGO) Program, where he earned an S.M. in Engineering Systems and an MBA from the Sloan School of Business.

Nick Careen

Nick leads IATA’s work on safety, security and operations, including airports, fuel supply, passenger experience, cargo and groundhandling.
Before joining IATA in 2015, Nick was Vice President of Airports, Call Centers and Customer Relations for Air Canada. He built hiscareer in Air Canada and its subsidiary Jazz, where he managed various aspects of airport operations, including Infl ight, FlightOperations, Operations Control, and Maintenance. Nick brings with him a wealth of experience covering all facets airline operations,human resource management, labor and government relations.
He completed his studies in Political Science at Memorial University of Newfoundland and Labrador, and also holds the Master BlackBelt Certifi cation from Six Sigma.

Olivier Perrin

Olivier Perrin has been Chief Safety and Security Officer and a member of the Executive Management since 2023. He joined Skyguide as a systems engineer in 2000, and has subsequently held various management positions in military and civil air navigation services, including the Virtual Centre. He holds a master’s degree in engineering from EPFL (Lausanne / Switzerland) and a MBA in aviation from Concordia University in Montréal (Canada).

Benjamin Binet

As the Vice President of Thales for Navigation & Surveillance, Benjamin Binet leads a global business focused on helping civil aviation authorities, airports and military forces to navigate the skies, land safely and get the most accurate surveillance data.
Previously he was Vice President Strategy for the global Thales Airspace Mobility Solutions activity.
Benjamin has always been passionate about aviation and is a member of the CANSO Exec Committee as Associate Member representative.
He joined Thales in 2019 through the acquisition of Gemalto where he held various executive roles in the wireless and secure transactions businesses from 2003 to 2019 in Marketing, Sales, Product Management and General Management at HQ in France but also in Brazil and in South Africa. Benjamin holds a Master of Business Administration at ESCP-Europe Business School, Paris. Half French and half Belgian, he speaks 4 languages and has built strong multi-cultural skills through his time abroad and his trips.

Akbar Sultan

Mr. Sultan is responsible for NASA’s aviation operations and safety research portfolio
of more than $120 million across four research centers. AOSP works with the Federal
Aviation Administration (FAA), industry and academic partners to conceive and develop
Next Generation Air Transportation System (NextGen) technologies to further improve
the safety of current and future aircraft moving through the National Airspace System.
NextGen activity includes research to enable service oriented architecture and integrated
demand management operational efficiencies in the surface, terminal, en route, and oceanic
operational domains for traditional aircraft, unmanned aircraft systems (UAS), and
future autonomous systems. The program is also responsible for aviation safety research
in the areas of aircraft state awareness, prevention of aircraft loss of control, verification
and validation of complex systems, prognostic safety through data mining, and real-time
system-wide safety assurance. A key focus is on developing and demonstrating enhanced
systems that will enable routine access to the airspace by emergent users of UAS, especially
in support of evolving urban air mobility concepts.
Sultan is the NASA co-lead on the NASA/FAA Research Transition Teams, which are
organized to enable efficient and effective transition of NASA research into FAA implementation
roadmaps.
He is also the NASA liaison to the multiagency NextGen Interagency Planning Office,
and leads the program’s international collaboration activities.
Sultan has 20 years of professional experience in aerospace and air traffic management
research and development.
Previously, Sultan was a NASA liaison to the Joint Planning and Development Office
in the ongoing development of NextGen, where he led the development of NextGen
operational improvements. He also served as the Software Configuration, Release, and
Verification and Validation Manager for the Terminal Radar Approach Control automation
system at NASA’s Ames Research Center in California. There he was responsible for
gaining FAA certification for NASA prototype systems in operational field trials.
Sultan received two bachelors of science degrees – in mechanical engineering and in aeronautical
science and engineering – from the University of California Davis, and a master’s
of science degree in aerospace engineering from San José State University.

Peter Kearney

Peter has been CEO of Ireland’s Air Navigation Service Provider (ANSP) since 2018 and played a central role in the restructuring process that led to a new standalone ANSP, AirNav Ireland, in 2023. Peter has worked with the Irish ANSP since 1998, initially as an Air Traffic Controller, and was Director of ATM Operations and Strategy over the period 2012-2018. Peter is currently chairing an EASA Steering Group on ATCO Training and Licencing and recently chaired the Steering Board of the A6 Alliance. He has chaired the COOPANS Alliance over the period 2020-2022 and is currently working closely with his CEO colleagues in COOPANS as they oversee a major upgrade of the main ATM system. Peter holds a PhD in Future Air Traffic Management Systems.

Mariagrazia La Piscopia

Mariagrazia is the Executive Director of the SESAR Deployment Manager (SDM).
The SDM is in charge of coordinating and synchronising the modernization of European ATM infrastructure, ensuring the full involvement of the ATM industry in the delivery of SESAR.
Before being nominated as Executive Director, she was the SDM Chief Strategy and Programme Management, responsible for the planning, coordination and execution of the innovation/digitalization programmes.
She started her career in Enav S.p.A. (Italian ANSP) as Head of International Coordination and ATM Planning. She has more than 25 years of experience in Aviation and Air Traffic Management at technical, operational and strategic level, spanning from R&D to Deployment.