NEXTT Vision: From concept to implementation – during and post-COVID-19

Moderators

Jean-Sebastien Pard, Director, Facilitation and Passenger Services, ACI World

Jean-Sebastien provides guidance to airports and represents their interests to regulators, airlines and suppliers. As part of his responsibilities, he is leading the development of best practices, implementation strategies and initiatives in the areas of passenger process improvement and simplified passenger travel solutions. He has 20 years’ experience in the aviation industry (airlines, airport, aerospace manufacturer, industry body).

Andrea Waechtershaeuser, Director, Airport Infrastructure & Regulatory Affairs, IATA

On behalf of the member airlines, Andrea engages with airports, governments and key industry stakeholders on improved collaboration in the areas of effective capacity development, operational improvements and best practice implementation in economic regulation to ensure user charges are set at a reasonable level.

Andrea joined the aviation industry at the beginning of her career, starting at Frankfurt International Airport where she focused on strategic development and design of passenger processes and terminal operations, and continued in Accenture’s aviation consulting unit on various projects for airlines’ cargo and passenger operations, aviation MRO and airport operations before joining IATA in 2010.

Keynote Speakers

Aaron Beeson, Director of Innovation, ANA Aeroportos de Portugal

Aaron Beeson is the Director of Innovation for ANA Aeroportos de Portugal and is also responsible for the Smart Terminal Innovation Centre of Excellence across Vinci Airports. Leading the innovation culture, roadmap and activities across the 10 Portuguese airports requires a diverse subject matter focus and solution set to map with the business opportunities and challenges the group is presented with. Prior to joining ANA, he gathered an extensive international experience with a particular focus on identity management, border security and aviation security topics. He has been based in Belgium, Canada, South Africa, Oman and now in Portugal working on transformational and innovative projects. The multi-cultural opportunities provide a unique experience and insight into change management.

Gonzalo Velasco Zabalza, Business Plan and Innovation Director, Ferrovial Airports

As Business Plan and Innovation Director at Ferrovial Airports, Gonzalo leads the development of business plans for the airports in the portfolio and for bidding processes, integrating current and future innovation initiatives into these. He is a member of the Board of Aberdeen, Glasgow and Southampton Airports, and a member of ACI World Economics Committee and the Airports Centre of Excellence Committee. Before his current role, he worked in several airports around the world, including Sydney Airport and Heathrow, developing their long-term business plans and also worked on the transactional side acquiring and selling airports. Gonzalo has a Master’s in Aeronautical Engineering and an MBA from IE Business School. 

Alexis Long, Chief Executive, Trade and Travel

Alexis Long is Chief Executive of technology accelerator Trade and Travel. Prior to this, he served as the most senior Director responsible for security strategy, cyber defence and related technology transformation matters at London Heathrow Airport. At Heathrow he established the UK’s first joint government and industry department bringing together the UK government security experts with private sector experts in a new public-private partnership to accelerate innovation and the adoption of technology. Until 2020, he also served as the first Chief Innovation Officer at the Transport Security Administration of the U.S. Department of Homeland Security (DHS). He led efforts to foster a culture of innovation and to discover and field new approaches to improve the execution of their mission, accessing cutting-edge thinking and technology from Silicon Valley and it’s international equivalents.

Drawing upon his experiences at London Heathrow and the US Transportation Security Administration, Alexis will talk about what practical steps the aviation sector can take to stimulate the emerging technology market to accelerate action and focus it’s technologies on the industry’s most pressing challenges.

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