John Santurbano

John Santurbano joined EUROCONTROL as the Director of the Maastricht Upper Area Control Centre (MUAC) on 1/10/2017. Before joining MUAC, John worked for Administration de la navigation aérienne, the Luxembourg air navigation service provider, where he had been Director since Oct 2013. John spent his entire career in air traffic management, after graduating from the German meteorological institute in 1993. Starting as a meteorological forecaster, he steadily rose in ANA to become Chief Administrative Officer, then Head of the Meteorological Department, and Certification Coordinator. He also holds a master’s degree in Innovation from the University of Nancy.
John Santurbano is a highly experienced senior manager with hands-on experience managing an air navigation service provider. His experience gives him a strong foundation in operational, institutional and financial matters, as well as establishing strong links with various national and international stakeholders in European ATM.

Anna von Groote

Anna joined EUROCAE in 2011 and was appointed EUROCAE Director General in 2022. She has over 15 years of progressively responsible experience in aviation standardisation.
Anna holds a Masters degree in European Studies from the Centre for European Integration Studies, University of Bonn (Germany) and a Master of Laws (LL.M.) degree with a focus on Intellectual Property and Technology law from the University of Liverpool (UK).

Kuldeep Gharatya

Kuldeep joined NATS in November 2023 and is responsible for leading on the company’s technological transformation. He also oversees the day to day Engineering and Programmes operations.

Kuldeep is a successful engineering leader with over 20 years’ systems, delivery and innovation experience in the transport sector. He has a background in systems engineering and engineering delivery and joins NATS from Transport for London (TfL), where he was Head of Engineering for the Major Projects Directorate.

Poh Theen Soh

Soh Poh Theen is CANSO Director Asia Pacific and concurrently Advisor at the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore (CAAS). Before that he spent ten years as the Deputy Director-General (Air Navigation Services) of CAAS.

Apart from directing the provision of air navigation service, development of new systems, and airspace management, he has experience developing Singapore into a Centre of Excellence for Air Traffic Management.

Before joining the Civil Aviation Authority of Singapore, he was Director Air at the Ministry of Transport. At the Ministry of Transport, he participated in the formulation of various air transport policies and air hub development strategies. In particular, he was part of the team that planned and implemented the corporatisation of Changi Airport.

Soh Poh Theen started his career in the Republic of Singapore Air Force in 1984. He has been appointed to various senior command and staff appointments in the Republic of Singapore Air Force and the Ministry of Defence, including Commander of the Air Force Systems Brigade, Head of Joint Plans in the Joint Staff, and Commanding Officer of the E2C Squadron.

He was also the Director of the National Security Coordination Centre and set up the National Security Coordination Secretariat in PMO to achieve a whole-of-government approach to emerging threats

Iacopo Prissinotti

With over 30 years of experience in ATM, Iacopo has occupied a series of senior leadership roles in strategic, technical and operational roles. Starting his career with the Italian air force, Iacopo joined ENAV, the Italian air navigation service provier, in 1988, progressing through a series of managerial roles, finally leading the International Strategies division between 2011 and 2019, before being appointed Director NM in EUROCONTROL in July 2019.

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.

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.

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.

Swaminathan Subramanian

Mr. Subramanian has an extensive career in aviation, serving as the Executive Director Administration at AAI CHQ and an Ex-Officio Board Member at NFTI, Gondia since September 1, 2023. Prior to this, he held the position of General Manager Air Traffic Services at AAI CHQ from November 2, 2020, to August 31, 2023. His experience includes technical expertise in the Indian Delegation at ICAO, where he served as an ANC State Observer and Alternate ICAO Council member. Swaminathan Subramanian has played key roles in drafting significant documents such as the “AAI Training Policy” and the “Manual on Flexible Use of Airspace, India Version 1.0.” His leadership extends to various committees and conferences at both national and international levels, showcasing his contributions to civil-military cooperation, fatigue risk management, and project management.

Antonio Licu

Tony is cumulating Head of Digital Transformation Office and Head of Operational Safety, SQS and Integrated Risk management Safety (NMD/SAF) Unit within Network Manager Directorate of EUROCONTROL (European Organisation for the Safety of Air Navigation). He leads the deployment of safety management and human factors programmes of EUROCONTROL. He has extensive Air Traffic Control operational and engineering background (master degree in avionics).

Tony’s role as head of DTO (the organisational vehicle driving the Digital Transformation of Eurocontrol Network Manager) is to manage technology, innovation and Digital Transformation for iNM (integrated Network Manager Programme) in close cooperation with EUROCONTROL organisational entities and the industrial partners.

Safety Culture and Just Culture are two key areas, where Tony’s aim is to clarify and promote the concepts. In this respect, he leads the initiative to bring together the aviation and judiciary domains. He has particular technical personal developments e.g. safety tools and methods to investigate aviation incidents and accidents, how to mitigate and work under degraded modes of operations and development of contingency plans etc.

In the past years together with his team, Tony is pushing a paradigm change in Safety management thinking. Safety management should move from ensuring that ‘as few things as possible go wrong’ to ensuring that ‘as many things as possible go right’. This perspective is termed Safety-II or rather System Thinking and relates to the system’s ability to succeed under varying conditions. The foundation for that is System focus. Safety must be considered in the context of the overall system, not isolated individuals, parts, events or outcomes.