35 years of Lufthansa - Flying career started as First officer on B737, then A320, Senior First Officer in B747, Captain on B757 and B767 for Condor, then on A320 Lufthansa and finally the A380. CRM Trainer.
Founding member of Stiftung Mayday in 1994. Involved in Critical Incident Stress Management since 1999. Coordinator and ICISF Advanced Trainer for CISM.
Nuno Aghdassi obtained his Aerospace Engineering degree from the University of London in 1998. He continued his studies at Cranfield University in the UK where he obtained his Master’s degree and developed a keen interest in aviation safety and aircraft accident investigation. While at Cranfield, he wrote a thesis concerning the on-board use of Portable Electronic Devices (PEDs) and their implications on flight safety and obtained wide-ranging industry support for his research into the then emerging issue.
Despite starting his career in Spain, Nuno was soon hired by Embraer to set-up their regional air safety department at the company’s European headquarters in Paris. In this role, he created a dynamic, day-to-day flow of safety information between Embraer, its operators and the authorities within the scope of the corporate Safety Management System (SMS). Responsible for the regions of Europe, Africa and the Middle East, Nuno was primarily in-charge of Embraer’s air accident investigation activities and often nominated as the adviser to the Brazilian Accredited Representative. However, considering the latter’s “non-traveling” status he was directly involved with the accident investigation agencies and developed an excellent relationship based on integrity and cooperation, during the course of over 70 investigations. Nuno played an important role in helping Embraer achieve a greater international presence and exchange of information with the wider safety community through representation at key international aviation safety forums.
Before returning to Portugal in 2007, Nuno was invited to join the group that carried out the human factors investigation into the Zoufftgen head-on rail collision, in October 2006, on behalf of the transportation safety authorities of France and Luxembourg. He was also involved in developing and delivering human factors training on behalf of Airbus.
In 2008, Nuno joined NetJets Europe as Flight Safety Assistant Manager but was soon promoted to the Head of Flight Safety position. At NetJets, Nuno has lead the safety team and developed the company’s SMS to industry-leading standards. His current priorities include expansion of the Flight Data Monitoring programme to include the new aircraft types joining NetJets’ fleet, the implementation of a new Global Safety Data Management System and the roll-out of the company’s Fatigue Risk Management System. Additionally, his other responsibilities include readiness of the Emergency Response Plan (ERP) and safety investigations. Nuno is leader of EASA’s EOFDM Working Group C, an active member of EASA’s CAT Aero CAG safety forum (representing the European Business Aviation Association) and represents NetJets at the European Society of Air Safety Investigators.
Nuno is a visiting lecturer at Cranfield University, is involved in aviation safety and EC funded research projects through his own consultancy firm and holds professional membership from the Flight Safety Foundation (FSF) and the International Society of Air Safety Investigators (ISASI).
Cate Brancart joined GAMA in November 2018. As GAMA’s European Affairs Coordinator, she is part of the Brussels team that represents the general aviation manufacturing industry before the European institutions (the European Commission, Parliament and EU Member States), as well as the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) in Cologne. Cate’s focus is on policy and communications efforts to improve the conditions for GA in Europe, including better safety data, flight training and access to new technologies.
Cate joins GAMA after attending the largest flight training school in Belgium, where she was responsible for communications, events and marketing as well as managing a GA airfield. In addition, she’s a passionate aviator who co-owns a Piper Arrow, and recently won the Spa Air Rally competition in Belgium. A Belgian national, fluent in French, English and Flemish, Cate received her M.A. from City University in London, UK, and her B.A. from the Brussels Institute of Higher Studies of Social Communications (IHECS) in Belgium.
Giovanni Cima is a graduated aeronautical engineer. After a short experience in applied industrial research, he started his career in aviation as Flight Operations and Performance Engineer for airlines, where he gained experience in many of the technical topics of Flight Operations: operations manuals, MEL, aircraft performance and regulatory compliance. in his las position before joining EASA, he was in charge of the Engineering Section of the Flight Operations Engineering and Navigation Department. He has been working for EASA since 2010 in the area of Air Operations dealing mostly with rulemaking and, more recently, with standardization inspections, for which task he is a qualified EASA team member.
Chiara, a degree in business administration from Bocconi University after a career in investment banking and corporate finance in listed and private companies, has joined SEA Group (Milan Airports) in 2011 in the corporate HQ first, reporting to the CEO and moving to aviation business development for the Milan airports company. In 2014, after the acquisition by SEA, Chiara joined SEA Prime, the first business aviation airport manager in Italy, managing the rebranding, the company integration in the Group and the infrastructural development of both Linate and Malpensa airports , with the recent construction of Milano Prime new business aviation terminal in Malpensa, completing the range of services offered to business aviation passengers and operators in Milan. Chiara has two children, aged 13 and 14.
John started his aviation career in the RAF, serving as an Engineering Officer on the Tornado aircraft and within various staff roles in aviation safety, spending the last 6 years working in the field of occurrence reporting and investigation. He joined EASA in 2011 as Safety Analysis Coordinator responsible for collaborative safety analysis initiatives between the NAAs of the EASA Member States. In 2014, he became the Head of the Safety Analysis and Performance Section, which provides safety intelligence to support the European Plan for Aviation Safety and leads collaborative safety risk management with NAAs and industry.
Starting his carreer as ATCO TWR/APP in the Italian Air Force, Roberto has worked for several ANSPs (ENAV - Italy, SERCO & DANS - Dubai) on projects revolving around Airspace Procedure Design and enhancement of Airspace and Runway capacity. He was involved in business development and managed the En-route operation planning service at ENAV, before leading the ATM/D department and chairing the UAE Airspace Strategy NASAC WG4 at DANS. Roberto joined SESAR Joint Undertaking in 2018 as Deputy Programme Manager. In his current position, he was involved in projects such as Airport Integration & Throughput (PJ-02), Multiple Remote Tower (PJ-05), as well as Exploratory Research Projects (Envision).
Johan Glantz, FRAeS, is currently Senior Manager Safety and Regulatory Affairs at the EBAA.
Retired from an airline career late 2017 as a Training and Check Captain flying for Scandinavian Airlines (SAS) on the B737NG fleet. His commercial career started in SAS in 1989 as an FO on DC9 and he has since then flown B737NG, A340 and A330 as FO and MD80 and B737NG as Captain. He has been involved in training as a simulator instructor and examiner as well as line training. Prior to SAS, Johan was a career officer with the Royal Swedish Navy, serving both on Surface Warfare Ships and Anti Submarine Helicopters.
Before joining EBAA and beside flying, Johan held positions as Executive Board Member Technical Affairs at the European Cockpit Association, chaired the Swedish Flight Safety Committee, was a member of the SAS internal investigation and emergency response teams, was active within IFALPA as an expert in Accident Investigation, Safety Management and Flight Data since early 2000.
He has academic studies in Human Factors/CRM from University West, Sweden and the Air Safety Management program, Ciry University, London.
Dr Gill Green (AFBPS, D. Clin. Psy. MA) is a chartered psychologist, as associate fellow of the British Psychological Society and is registered with the UK Health and Care Professionals Council as a clinical psychologist. She is a lead psychologist for pilot assessment with the Centre for Aviation Psychology. She has a deep understanding of the aviation industry, having delivered leadership development programmes over the past 10 years with airline pilots, cabin crew, operational managers and aviation business leaders. She has wide experience of psychometric assessment in clinical and occupational settings and has delivered and designed assessment and development centres in various industry sectors.
Joel HENCKS is the Managing Director of AeroEx GmbH, an aviation consulting company based in Switzerland offering a wide range of services to both commercial and non-commercial aviation organizations.
With several decades of experience in many sectors of the aviation industry, AeroEx support their customers in the implementation and realization of international aviation requirements, Safety Management Systems, compliance monitoring and auditing. AeroEx additionally provides workshops and seminars on a variety of aviation-related topics to management personal and employees of the aviation industry.
Since 2006, Joel Hencks is a member of the EASA rulemaking group OPS.001 and was chairing the EASA OPS Review Group 02. These working groups developed the Implementing Rules Air Operations for Europe. Since 2012 Joel Hencks is also member of the EASA Rulemaking Groups Flight & Duty Time for Air Taxi and SMS Cross Domain.
In 2016 Joel Hencks has been appointed by the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) to participate in an Industry Study Group on Operational Safety Data (SIMS-OSD-ISG).
Furthermore, Joel Hencks is an avocational lecturer for Aviation Regulation, Safety Management Systems and Compliance Monitoring at the Center for Aviation Competence (CFAC-HSG), University of St.Gallen and the Steinbeis University Berlin.
Joel Hencks is a professional pilot. He flew for different airlines, air ambulances and on demand air charter operators.
Beside his airline transport licence, he is holding a technical degree in electronics and is an International Standard for Business Aircraft Operations (IS-BAO) accredited auditor.
Geert Hulshof holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Engineering and a master’s degree in enterprise risk management. He started his career in aviation as a military pilot in the Royal Netherlands Navy, where he flew long-range maritime patrol aircraft, continued as inspector pilot at the Netherlands Civil Aviation Authorities and finally became cofounder of a business jet management company in the Netherlands. He held positions as commander, instructor, examiner, Manager Flight Operations and Manager Crew Training. He is also director of Wingstar Institute – a consulting and training organization specialized in management systems – and author of three books on safety and risk management.
Senior Production Test Pilot at Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation for past five years Moving into Developmental Test Pilot role in January 2020 Fly multiple Gulfstream large cabin types (GIV-X/GV-SP/GVI/GVII) Retired United States Air Force Officer and Pilot…served 21 plus years…airlift, trainer, VIP transport Approximately 8,000 hours flight time Most recent flight test experience – GVI Block 3 testing, GIV-X/GV-SP Planeview India testing
Denis started flying in 1977 in the UK becoming a fully qualified flying instructor two years later progressing to chief flying Instructor of his local flying school.
In 1983 he set up and ran his own Air Taxi Company using Piper Navajo and Chieftain aircraft. In 1988 he started his airline career by joining what was then Manx Airlines which eventually became BA City Flyer which became a wholly owned subsidiary of British Airways.
He spent twenty years with this company flying the Jetstream 41, BAe ATP and BAe 146/RJ100 aircraft as captain. He was simulator and aircraft TRI/TRE qualified on all the aircraft types he flew and also a Senior Examiner. During his time there, he was promoted to Fleet Manager and then Training Manager. In this role he was responsible for creating, producing and writing the company training manuals. he was also training and checking extensively in all the company simulators. Denis represented the Company in what was then the JAA for discussions concerning various regulation changes and liaised extensively with the UK CAA in order to obtain approval for various courses.
In 2008 he joined Netjets flying the HS-125 and then after five years, in 2013 joined FlightSafety International as the Farnborough ADOT and then 2015 becoming the Director of Training.
He is a qualified HS-125 TRI/TRE and BE200 SFI/SFE and a Senior Examiner (MPA and SPHPCA) and SFI/SFE Tutor.
Recently Denis has become involved in helping developing the UPRT Program and Phase Recurrent Training for FlightSafety International
Denis has 11,000 hours flying hours with approximately 9,500 hours in command.
He is now the Chief Flying Instructor for EASA ATO.0012
Career Highlights: Tom has over 30 years of experience in Aerospace and is in his 14th year at Gulfstream. Since joining Gulfstream in 2005, he has worked on the Advanced Flight Controls fly-by-wire research project and led the Control Law development team for the G650 fly-by-wire flight control system. He is currently in Large Cabin Sustaining Engineering, and working on future technologies for Gulfstream’s fly-by-wire aircraft. Before joining Gulfstream, Tom was an Engineer at Calspan Corporation, where he worked the development and flight test of numerous experimental Fly-by-wire control systems, as well as Heads-Up and Helmet Mounted Display technologies. Further Professional Experience: Licensed private pilot Education: Bachelor of Science, Computer Engineering – Case Western Reserve University
Frédéric Leboeuf, Vice-President of the Falcon Operational Support, is based in Dassault Aviation’s Saint-Cloud, France headquarters. He joined Dassault in 2002, working first on the Mirage 2000-9 and Mirage 2000-5 programs and subsequently as a technical support team manager serving the Mirage 2000 export effort.
A graduate of the French Naval Academy, Leboeuf served 20 years in the French Navy before entering private industry. His naval responsibilities ranged from Atlantic and Atlantique 2 flight operations and Falcon 200 Gardian squadron command duty to supervising maritime patrol crew training. He also served a long stint on the general staff, where he oversaw the Atlantique 2 and Falcon 50 maritime surveillance aircraft programs. Frédéric flew a wide range of other aircraft as well, including the Falcon 10, Alpha Jet and Etendard IV.
Captain Gulfstream 550 and Regulatory Affairs Executive
NetJets
Pascal LHOEST
Pascal Lhoest is currently working for NetJets Transportes Areos as Regulatory Affairs Executive, representing NetJets with external bodies while still holding flying duties as Captain on the Gulfstream 550.
Having held senior managerial roles, including Director of Flight Operations for 7 years at NetJets, helps him to clearly understand the business aviation and support the industry and regulators in the future developments. In this role, Pascal is also supporting EBAA (the European Business Aviation Association) on business aviation needs and has been appointed as alternate representative for airspace users to SESAR Master Planning Committee.
Pascal has been flying and holding managerial roles during his whole career. He started of his in the Belgium Air Force, where after graduation he flew the F-16 and T-38 in the US Air Force followed by 6 years in the airlines with Sabena and SN-Brussel airlines while also keeping his Air Force reserve staff duties.
Antonio Marchetto holds the position of RPAS Technology Expert at the EASA Certification Directorate. PCM for three UAS certifications Projects and expert for some other, he has been deeply involved in all stages of UAS rulemaking for the Open, Specific and Certified category of operations, supports standardization activities and is focal point for some research domains on drones. He has recently supported the development of the draft U-Space opinion. Before joining EASA, he developed a long experience in military UAS design and certification.
Chris has spent over thirty years working within the aviation industry, having a passion about safety, security and technical matters covering airline and airport operations. Since joining the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) in 2013 as Manager Policy and Technical, he continues to represent ERA members' interests on various ECAC, EASA, Eurocontrol and European Commission groups. He deals with regulatory, technical, safety, security and maintenance activities and coordinates consensus member inputs in these areas. Chris is also responsible for the organisation of ERA’s Air Safety and Maintenance Groups on behalf of ERA members. Prior to joining ERA Chris worked in a variety of senior roles at British Airways, Air Foyle/Antonov Design Bureau and SITA, covering various domains including Manager Aeronautical Data, Aircraft Performance, Flight Planning, Navigation Data and Airport/Runway Inspections.
Arvid is a Scheduling Safety Specialist with Jeppesen/Boeing in Göteborg, Sweden. He has worked for Jeppesen with various aspects of crew scheduling for commercial aviation since 2011. In his day to day job, he helps airlines integrate fatigue prediction tools in their crew scheduling processes. Before moving into aviation, Arvid built expert systems for the Dutch finance sector and studied computer science at Uppsala University.
Director, Medical Instructors & Strategic Customer Relationships
MedAire
Brent PALMER
Brent has extensive knowledge and expertise in providing medical support in the most challenging circumstances within both emergency medicine and the military environment. He is registered nurse and served 10 years in the New Zealand Army as a medic working in such diverse remote locations as Antarctica, the Middle East and remote sailing locations around the world.
Brent joined MedAire in 2011 as part of the merger with Yacht Lifeline, a marine medical assistance and training company supporting the international yachting community, where he was co-founder. He played a significant role integrating the former Yacht Lifeline business into MedAire and as the Director of Training spearheading the training agenda for MedAire.
Brent’s strong operational expertise and customer approach lead him to his next role leading the MedAire medical assistance platform. In his role as Head of Assistance, Brent was responsible for overseeing the service delivery platform of the Global Response Centre (GRC), MedLink, the provider network, staff training, and quality assurance with a focus on enhancing synergies and the establishment of best practice across both medical and operations platforms.
Brent Palmer is currently the Director of Strategic Customer and Medical Instructors. Brent works with our global aviation clients to build stronger partnerships, help establish best practices and identify operational efficiencies that lead to an improved business and patient outcomes. Additionally, Brent manages our global instructor base of 180 medical instructors to deliver world class first responder training to the aviation and yachting sectors.
Manager Safety, Data Analysis and Performance Review
EBAA
Luc TYTGAT
Strategy and Safety Director
EASA
Luc TYTGAT
Luc Tytgat is since 1st January 2015 Director of the Strategy and Safety Management Directorate of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA). Luc Tytgat is in charge of raising safety intelligence as one of EASA’s key priorities and developing a better and more agile regulatory framework. Prior to EASA, Luc Tytgat was the Director of the Pan-European Single Sky Directorate at Eurocontrol since 2011, after having worked for 20 years in the field of air transport and space at the European Commission and 10 years in the Belgian Air Force. Luc Tytgat also has a significant experience when dealing with matters related to the European Commission. Luc Tytgat also initiated the GALILEO programme and established the EU competence in the space policy sector.
Captain Rob van Eekeren graduated in aviation science at the Royal Netherlands Air Force military academy. He flew fighters, was instructor, tacteval and staff officer. After his military career he joined Schiphol Airport as duty inspector and airside manager. He joined KLM flying the B747, B737 and A330 as co-pilot and captain. During his whole flying career, Rob was active in improving flight safety, especially runway safety as director safety & security of DALPA and as vice chairman IFALPA AGE. As chairman of the VVD committee of Infrastructure, Waterworks and Environment he coordinated proposals and innovation for the department. He also is/was involved with the Flight Safety Foundation, ICAO, European Commission, Eurocontrol, the FAA and EASA in various working groups dealing with runway safety. Rob is elected President of the World Birdstrike Association, Director of Safe-Runway GmbH consultancy and JAATO trainer.
Juergen Wiese was appointed EBAA Chairman in September 2016. With over 30 years’ experience in aviation, he currently oversees BMW’s global corporate aviation operations including EASA Part 145 and Part M organisations. Juergen began his aviation career as an officer in the German Air Force, serving in the Air Crew Selection Program for Air Force and Navy in his
last assignment. After working as a flight instructor and developing and managing a start-up air charter business he joined BMW AG in 1995. He also served as the Managing Director of BMW’s Global Corporate Travel Service for more than six years.
Programme Director for the International Standard for Business Aircraft Handling (IS-BAH™). Commenced business aviation career in 1984 with McAlpine Aviation based at Luton Airport, stayed with the GEC Marconi owned MAGEC Aviation becoming Flight Operations and Charter Sales Manager with responsibilities for the day to day ground operations of the London based award winning FBO. Prior to joining the IS-BAH™ Programme for IBAC worked for Air Routing International / Rockwell Collins as Manager Ground Operations Standards & Development (Europe/North Africa) responsible for coordination and supervision (ground logistics) of ad-hoc business aviation flights operating to and from the UK’s various airports for a major International flight service company. In 1999 gained BS EN ISO 9002:1994 QMS approval later receiving approval to BS EN ISO 9001:2008. Wide range of exposure over the years to all levels of activities from suppliers to end users including Head of State. Former industry association representative at a number of high level meetings including those connected with the planning for the London 2012 Olympic and Paralympic Games. Regular attendee at International business aviation events making a number of presentations. Council member and previous deputy Chairman for the British Business & General Aviation Association (BBGA), past Chair of the EBAA Airport Handling and Ground Operations Committee (AHGOC) and council member (and Treasurer) of the International Business Aviation Council (IBAC).
