REDEFINING THE END-TO-END PASSENGER EXPERIENCE AND BUSINESS PERFORMANCE

Future Travel Experience Team and Advisory Boards


Future Travel Experience has become a renowned hub through our in-person & digital events, media, accelerator, working groups and industry change initiatives where the world’s most progressive airlines, airports, vendors, government agencies, cruise and rail operators, destination partners and various other travel industry stakeholders share their latest passenger experience and business performance plans and visions, to collectively define the future of our sector. Having initially started with a standalone event in North America in 2006, we are now part of the Airline Passenger Experience Association and set for explosive growth. We host four annual events around the world – FTE Global, FTE APEX Asia Expo, the co-located FTE EMEA and FTE Ancillary, plus the Aviation & Robotics Summit. There are also regular in-person and virtual meetings for our FTE communities: the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub, FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group, and FTE World Airport Retailing Working Group. Members of these communities are driving real industry change today through knowledge sharing and POCs. We engage with 50k+ industry executives globally on a weekly basis and our events attract thousands of senior attendees, as well as the leading suppliers and service providers in the field as exhibitors. We are also renowned for our Think Tanks, Power Lists & Industry Awards and supported by continual input from our Advisory Boards.

Meet the boards:

Executive Board

Chris Annetts

Chris Annetts - Chief Strategy Officer, Heathrow Airport

Chris is an Executive Director with extensive experience in the airlines/aviation and retail/hospitality industries. Skilled in Stakeholder Management, Economic Regulation, Negotiation, Strategy and Planning, Commercial Revenue Development, Customer Service and Digital. Chris has worked for airports across London for close to 20 years now and was recently promoted to Chief Strategy Officer at Heathrow Airport as the Executive Committee lead for Strategy, Regulation and Economics, Forecasting, Masterplanning and Customer Insight.

Christina Cassotis

Christina Cassotis - CEO, Pittsburgh International Airport

As CEO of the Allegheny County Airport Authority, Christina Cassotis has led a dramatic turnaround at Pittsburgh International Airport – a near doubling of nonstop destinations served, four years of record passenger traffic growth, and a recently announced billion dollar Terminal Modernization Program. During her tenure, Pittsburgh International was named Air Transport World’s 2017 Airport of the Year and Regional Airport of the Year by the CAPA Centre for Aviation.Ms. Cassotis also received the 2017 Excellence in Visionary Leadership Award from Airports Council International – North America, and was named the 2017 Director of the Year for medium-size airports by Airport Revenue News. A frequent speaker at national and international aviation events, Ms. Cassotis holds an MBA from the MIT Sloan School of Management and a BA from the University of Massachusetts.

Dimitris Bountolos

Dimitris Bountolos - Chief Information and Innovation Officer (CIIO), Ferrovial

Dimitris Bountolos is the Chief Information and Innovation Officer (CIIO) for Ferrovial. He was previously Chief Digital Officer at Latam airlines. He replaces Federico Flórez, who is leaving the company after 12 years in this position, in line with the succession plans. Dimitris will take office in early July.

Bountolos has spent his career in business and entrepreneurship, with a proven track record in aeronautics and consulting. Dimitris Bountolos (Granada, 1978) spent much of his career in Iberia, where he was Director of Madrid-Barajas airport, Transformation and Hub Development Director, and Vice-President of Customer Experience.

As an entrepreneur, he has been a founder and partner of such startups as Zero 2 Infinity (Europe’s first investor-owned aerospace transport company), Guudjob (Employee Experience); BlueSouth (Drones); and IllusionBox (VR and immersive environments). He was also formerly a senior advisor to the Chief Innovation Officer at NASA in Houston; and senior advisor to McKinsey on digital processing for the travel, transportation and logistics industry. He holds a Master’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Granada and post-graduate qualifications from Stanford, ESADE and IESE Business Schools. He is fluent in Spanish, English and Greek.

Dr. Bjoern Becker

Dr. Bjoern Becker - Head of Future Intercontinental Experience Program, Lufthansa Group Airlines

Bjoern has over 20 years of experience within Product Management, Passenger Experience, Cargo Operations, Production Planning & Control and IT, holds a PhD in Revenue Management and has published articles on Revenue Management, Production Control and Service Management.

He is responsible for the introduction of the new intercontinental fleet experience of Lufthansa and Swiss as well as the customer related topics of the Lufthansa Group ReStart program during the Covid19-crisis.

Tangible service innovations, e.g. fully digitalized Lufthansa Customer Service Experience, as well as comprehensive solutions for the experience are his focus. He has won various innovation and experience awards with his team.

Bjoern represents Lufthansa Group within the Star Alliance Customer Experience Strategy committee and is member or the advisory board of FraCareS GmbH.

Kevin Kleist

Kevin Kleist - Senior Emerging Trends Advisor, Southwest Airlines

Kevin is helping to drive change within Southwest by exposing the company to new and emerging technologies that will help solve for the unique challenges that face the airline today and in the future. He builds meaningful relationships for collaboration with innovation-driven companies and startups to study, design, develop, and test emerging technologies in real-world environments. Through those collaborations, Kevin gathers key insights and learnings that are used to better understand a solutions viability, its risks, and how the solution would integrate with the company’s existing technology and infrastructure.

Already a Captain of the FTE Baggage Innovation Work Group, Kevin will now work to support the development of the entire FTE portfolio with us.

Joe Chiu

Joe Chiu - Vice President, Digital & Data Management Systems, Changi Airport Group

Joe Chiu currently holds the position of Vice President, Digital & Commercial Systems at Changi Airport Group (CAG) Singapore. Changi Airport is the world's sixth busiest airport in terms of international traffic and it has been voted by air travellers as the World’s Best Airport for the fifth consecutive year. At CAG, Joe works closely with key stakeholders to strategise, drive and implement IT initiatives that are aligned with the company’s Digital Master Plan for the next three years. He oversees two of the main corporate IT deliverables, namely the “Connecting to Customers” and “Innovation with Information” thrusts, which help to deliver personalised and user-centric services for customers through smart use of digital services and data analytics.

Robert Carey

Robert Carey - President, Wizz Air

Robert is an American and French citizen who has a Bachelor of Science degree in Industrial Engineering from Arizona State University as well as a Master in Business Administration degree from Harvard Business School. Robert started his career in aviation twenty years ago with America West Airlines, followed by Delta Air Lines. After Delta, Robert spent over a decade at McKinsey and Company, where he was a Partner in the airline practice. He then joined easyJet 2017, where he was most recently the Chief Commercial and Customer Officer.

Samuel Ingalls

Samuel Ingalls - Principal, Barich, Inc

Samuel G. Ingalls is a Principal for Barich, Inc. with over 30 years of experience in the aviation industry. Samuel recently retired as the Assistant Director of Aviation, Information Systems for Las Vegas McCarran International Airport (LAS), serving the Clark County Department of Aviation (Department) for more than 30 years. He started his career as the Department’s Business Office Manager after earning a Bachelor’s Degree in Aviation Business Administration from Embry Riddle Aeronautical University, where he continues to serve on the University Business Industry Advisory Board. He is certified as an International Airport Professional (I.A.P.) by the International Civil Aviation Organization and Airports Council International (ACI), along with his certification by the American Association of Airport Executives as an Accredited Airport Executive (A.A.E.). Samuel is a frequent user of the aviation system with a commercial multi-engine pilot’s rating.

Satyaki Raghunath

Satyaki Raghunath - Chief Strategy and Development Officer, Bengaluru International Airport

Satyaki is the Chief Strategy & Development Officer at BIAL. He comes to BIAL with almost two decades of experience in working with public and private sector investors and operators of transport infrastructure advising on business, finance, strategy, regulatory and project delivery related initiatives. He has extensive experience in transportation and airport system planning across major cities viz. London, Chicago, Dubai, Houston, New Delhi etc. In his role at BIAL, Satyaki is responsible for the Strategy and Development BU focusing on front-end corporate strategy, traffic forecasting and market analyses, master planning and the BIAL Centre of Excellence (CoE) comprising our Innovation Lab, Business Intelligence and Capacity and Operational Planning. Prior to joining BIAL, Satyaki was with GMR Airports Ltd as Chief Innovation Officer for the airport sector across the group. Before this he held leadership roles at London Stansted Airport, Dubai Airports, where he was Head of Master Planning and at LeighFisher, a specialist global airport advisory firm.

Vivian Lo

Vivian Lo - GM Customer Experience and Design, Cathay Pacific Airways

Vivian Lo has a diverse aviation management background with key managerial positions in Cathay Pacific’s headquarters in Customer, Airports, Cargo, Revenue Management, Marketing, International Affairs and Airline Planning, and Regional and Country management roles in Taiwan, Korea, China, Philippines, Malaysia and Vietnam. Vivian is currently in charge of Customer Experience & Design, a new department recently set up in Cathay Pacific to oversee the end-to-end customer journey on ground, in the air, and through digital channels. Vivian lives and breathes the raison d’etre for the airline – to enable a Life Well Travelled for its customers – by leading an insights-driven and customer centric design process to optimise the Cathay Pacific and Cathay Dragon travel experience. Vivian is an avid advocator of Design Thinking and undertakes to apply a human-centred approach to innovation in service and products, and dedicates her time to teaching and promoting this discipline.

FTE Ancillary & Retailing Board:

Juha Jarvinen

CCO,

Virgin Atlantic

Apple Ignacio

Director, Ancillaries,

Cebu Pacific Air

Nigel Fanning

Group Head of Networks, Schedules, Airline Partnerships and Alliances,

Jetstar Group

Robert Carey

President,

Wizz Air

ALDRIC CHAU

Head of Retail, e-Commerce & Travel Partnerships,

Cathay Pacific

Fraser Brown

Retail & Property Director,

Heathrow Airport

Jayne Wear

Head of Commercial Products & Transport,

Auckland Airport

Ersin Inankul

Head of Aviation Digital,

Jacobs

Sammy Patel

Vice President Commercial,

Vantage Airport Group

Martin Jones

CEO,

CAVU

Philipp Ahrens

Senior Vice President Center Management,

Vienna Airport

Ben-Jie Lim

Head of e-Commerce,

AirAsia

Bert van der Stege

CEO,

Harbour Air Seaplanes

Martijn Steur

Managing Director,

Kinetic Consultancy

FTE Asia EXPO Advisory Board:

Joe Chiu

Vice President, Digital & Commercial Systems,

Changi Airport Group

Salvador Britanico

Vice President of Sales,

Philippine Airlines

Vivian Lo

GM Customer Experience and Design,

Cathay Pacific Airways

Javed Malik

Chair of the Advisory Board,

Ink Innovation

Dr. Joe Leader

CEO,

APEX/IFSA

Babar Rahman

VP Marketing

Qatar Airways

Satyaki Raghunath

Chief Operating Officer,

Bengaluru International Airport

Future Travel Experience Team


Daniel Coleman, Founder & CEO, Future Travel Experience
Daniel is the key driver behind the Future Travel Experience business unit. Having worked at PPS Publications for over 15 years, he played an integral role in the introduction of the disCUSS event back in 2006 and since then has successfully overseen its evolution into Future Travel Experience, which through its range of events and online media creates dialogue and knowledge sharing between stakeholders worldwide to help improve the end-to-end passenger experience. daniel.coleman@futuretravelexperience.com


Ryan Ghee

Ryan Ghee, Chief Operating Officer, Future Travel Experience
As COO of Future Travel Experience, Ryan works across FTE’s growing portfolio of international events and communities, ranging from the FTE Aviation & Robotics Summit and FTE APEX Asia Expo to the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub, which he played a central role in launching in 2018. A holder of a BA (Hons) in Multi-Media Journalism, Ryan was previously a journalist and editor of various industry titles. In his spare time, Ryan enjoys playing sport, exploring new places, and watching Aston Villa attempt to play football. ryan@futuretravelexperience.com


Darin Juby, Head of Baggage Transformation, Future Travel Experience
Over the past 34 years Darin has worked in airport operations, with the last 8 years as Director of Baggage Services at Greater Toronto Airports Authority (GTAA). Darin succeeded Andrew Price as Head of Baggage Transformation at FTE in June 2022, after working with us as an FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group (BIWG) Captain since the group’s inception. Darin is focusing with us on driving the BIWG forward to deliver on the missions of the BIWG, and to nurture and develop the membership base. darin.juby@futuretravelexperience.com


Kevin Kleist, Head of Innovation, Digitalisation & Startup Engagement, Future Travel Experience
Kevin joined the FTE team in October 2023 as Head of Innovation, Digitalisation & Startup Engagement. He carries on his very important work as Senior Emerging Trends Advisor for Southwest Airlines, while also helping to drive FTE forward with particular emphasis on nurturing and developing the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub. Kevin has also been a Captain of the FTE Baggage Innovation Working Group (BIWG) since the group’s inception and ever-present as Southwest’s lead for its membership of the FTE Digital, Innovation & Startup Hub.


Eric Leopold, Content Director, FTE Ancillary & Retailing
Eric is Founder & Managing Director of Threedot and works closely with Future Travel Experience as Content Director for the FTE Ancillary & Retailing event, bringing his unique perspective on the evolution of airline retailing. Prior to launching Threedot – an advisory services company for the travel industry – in 2021, Eric spent 15 years at IATA where he focused on strategy and transformation, leading efforts on important initiatives such as NDC & Simplifying the Business, and key events such as the World Passenger Symposium & World Financial Symposium.


Corrie Thompson

Corrie Thompson, Commercial Director, Future Travel Experience
Corrie heads up the commercial activities across FTE’s international events and media portfolio. Passionate about travel, design and technology, Corrie previously helped to build Mobile World Congress into one of the world’s most successful industry trade shows, and also has extensive experience delivering consumer electronics shows. corrie@futuretravelexperience.com


Michael Butcher

Michael Butcher - Customer Relationship Manager, Future Travel Experience
Michael works on the commercial activities across FTE’s international events, The Baggage Innovation Working Group - BIWG & The Digital, Innovation Start Up Hub. Michael has previously worked for Lexus Nexus, UBM & Informa, with a comprehensive knowledge of print, digital, events and conferences. Passionate about football, cricket and golf. In his spare time – he tries to spend as much time as possible on the Golf Course. michael.butcher@futuretravelexperience.com


Ali Loving, Head of Events, Future Travel Experience
Ali manages the logistical delivery of the FTE event portfolio, including FTE EMEA, FTE Global, FTE Asia and FTE Ancillary events, as well as newly established roster of virtual events and webinars. Responsible for procuring and developing operational platforms, and maintaining relationships with venues, industry partners, and suppliers worldwide. With a love for problem-solving, and a comprehensive excel spreadsheet, she is passionate about delivering high quality, creative and inclusive events, and is driven to providing strong strategical direction, impactful marketing, and innovative solutions to support all business activities. In her personal time, she enjoys following the sun around the world, soaking up the sights and searching for the perfect spot to enjoy a cold glass of wine. ali.loving@futuretravelexperience.com


Sophie Andrews, Head of Operations, Future Travel Experience
Sophie heads up the FTE event operations managing all exhibitor and sponsor logistics. She has worked in the events industry her whole career and has experience managing all types of events. Back in 2012, she was part of the team that managed all Team GB’s fundraising events for the London Olympics, it was after this she came to PPS and started working across the FTE portfolio of international events. The combination of two of her favourite past-times, organising and travel, has meant she has never looked back! Out of work the organising carries on, even the spreadsheets, but with a social emphasis and a big glass of wine in hand! sophie.andrews@futuretravelexperience.com


Emily-Huggett

Emily Huggett, Events Executive, Future Travel Experience
Emily works alongside Ali and Sophie supporting them with the organisation of all FTE events, including the exhibitions, sponsorship, conferences, and attendee logistics. Since starting her career in events, Emily has worked within the hospitality and corporate industry and with her attention to detail she has delivered many successful events. With Emily’s passion for both travel and event planning, FTE was the perfect career move as she took a leap into the world of aviation, joining FTE to focus on organising events internationally. emily.huggett@futuretravelexperience.com


Emily-Huggett

Katie Horan, Portfolio Executive, Future Travel Experience
Having recently graduated in International Event Management with Marketing, Katie discovered a perfect match in FTE to kickstart her career in events. Katie is responsible for providing logistical assistance in delivering the FTE events and across the company portfolio, while fostering member engagement across the Working Groups and affiliated events. Katie’s driven by her passion for the events industry, bringing a fresh perspective through academic insights to optimise FTE’s operations. katie.horan@futuretravelexperience.com


Kerry Parks, Head of Customer Accounts, Future Travel Experience
Kerry has worked with FTE’s sister company, PPS, for over 20 years. Having seen many changes in this time there has always been a new challenge or project for Kerry to use her extreme organisational and, to the point of OCD, efficiency skills in – if you want something done yesterday, see Kerry! With a love of diversity Kerry works across the board on the FTE portfolio, with her main focus on accounts and driving the delegate recruitment. In her free time, Kerry practices martial arts and holds a 3rd Dan Black Belt in Taekwondo, she also owns an adorable miniature schnauzer kerry@futuretravelexperience.com


Ross Falconer, Head of Content, Future Travel Experience
Ross manages and produces editorial content for the Future Travel Experience website and e-newsletter, as well as supporting FTE’s marketing activities, conferences and webinars. He has a comprehensive background in air transport media and events, working across the extensive PPS portfolio of in-house publications and events, as well as those of its industry association partners. ross.falconer@futuretravelexperience.com


Marta Dimitrova, Editor & Communications Manager, Future Travel Experience
Marta is the Editor & Communications Manager for Future Travel Experience and she is responsible for producing weekly editorial content for the FTE e-newsletter and website. In 2012, her passion for writing put her on a plane from her beloved home city of Plovdiv in Bulgaria, all the way to the British seaside town of Bournemouth, where she studied BA (Hons) Communication and Media. Her love of travel eventually brought her to FTE. Like any good journalist, you can always find Marta in the pub, where she will be regaling anyone who’ll listen with tales about the beautiful Bulgarian mountains and how yogurt was invented in her home country. marta@futuretravelexperience.com


Jiger Patel

Jiger Patel, Head of Digital, Future Travel Experience
Meet Jiger, our coding virtuoso with over 12 years of enchanting experience in the web industry. Dedicated, passionate, and remarkably focused, he weaves magic into every line of code, ensuring the perfect harmony on all company websites. Jiger is also a sorcerer in crafting effective email marketing campaigns, showcasing a diverse skill set and a natural aptitude for learning and growth. Outside the digital realm, he enjoys a bit of football magic both on the screen and the field, cheering for his favorite team or scoring goals of his own. jiger@futuretravelexperience.com


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