Paul Drever is qualified in commercial vehicle engineering, with a 6 year City & Guilds and Institute of the Motor Industry qualifications. Paul has previously taken the roles of GSE Technician for Avia Trading Holland for 5 years, 5 years as GSE Technician for Ogden Aviation,  5 years as GSE Manager at Menzies Aviation Netherlands, 2 years as GSE manager Netherlands and Spain for Menzies Aviation. He then spent 2 years as GSE Manager, Europe for Menzies Aviation and 10 years as Network Manager Technical Standards and Compliance Manager for Menzies Aviation. Since July 2017, Paul has assumed the role of Menzies Aviation’s General Manager for  GSE standards and engineering. He works on setting GSE standards for Menzies wide network and provides technical advice for stations, maintenance program setups, GSE safety investigations, service bulletin distribution, GSE supplier contact, and GSE emission standards. He is a member of the IATA GSEE group.

Kehinde Abioye is an experienced GSE maintenance and business manager. In his current role as the Technical Director of Engequip Concepts LLC, he co-directs a highly experienced equipment management team in partnership with a foreign GSE service provider, supporting client corporate goals of optimizing the value of their GSE equipment and other ancillaries in West Africa. Prior to this role, Mr Abioye worked with two major ground handling companies in Nigeria, SAHCOL and NAHCO. At NAHCO Aviance, he was GSE manager for more than five-years, where he led a highly efficient maintenance team by initiating department policies and change practices to support overall corporate goal. Kehinde holds a degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Ilorin, Nigeria and certification from IATA for station and ground handling management. He has attended seminars and conferences, as well as training on GSE and other aviation equipment.

Danny Vranckx is one of the partners and current Chief Executive Officer of AVIACO GSE, one of the largest companies supplying used and refurbished ground support equipment (GSE) for the aviation sector in more than 90 countries across the world. Danny has got extensive experience in the field of aviation due to his more than 25 years working in this sector, initially as a technical engineer and afterwards as a Sales Manager. During all these years Danny has travelled over the five continents meeting different kind of customers and understanding different requirements in the area of ground support equipment, which has provided him with great expertise, perspective and technical knowledge to offer the customers exactly what they need.

Dimitrios manages training programmes for IATA, reporting to the Director of Products APCS. He joined IATA in 2010 and is based at IATA’s headquarters in Geneva. He manages training programmes globally, including Airports Management, Planning, Operations and Ground Operations. His primary role is to manage training activities in his area of expertise, develop new training courses and enhance existing content, maintain and develop faculty membership worldwide, as well as manage global market research analysis to cover the training needs of airlines, airports and ground service providers.

Amr Samir is chief executive officer of Link Aero Trading Agency, a leading company in ground handling activities, and chairman of the Link Group holding company. He started his aviation career representing Hapag Lloyd Flug, in Egypt, which gave him the vision to create LATA in Egypt in 1992. He later expanded into Jordan, UAE, Morocco and several other countries worldwide. By 2010 LATA expanded into creating Link Cargo Freight Forwarding, Link Dynamics for security equipment and services, as well as Link Marine for maritime services. His vision is based on diversification to sustain competition and to keep promoting new and innovative systems to the services rendered.

With more than 28 years in the airline industry, Hervé has held several managerial positions within airlines notably with Air France-KLM and is currently providing tailor-made solutions and ISAGO implementation to Ground Handling companies. He is an ISAGO auditor, a lecturer for Aviation Management Masters at ENAC, the French Civil Aviation University, and an instructor in SMS, Station Management, Emergency Response.

David has been VP Global GSE Fleet Management at Swissport since April 2016, responsible for developing and deploying corporate GSE fleet management strategies for the company’s global operations. He also provides governance across the globe through standardised fleet policies and a bespoke assessment process that assures compliance. Before this role, David worked for Qatar Airways as Head of QAS Engineering Services Division, where he lead a team of 300+ to deliver MRO solutions to maximise fleet availability for QAS and Qatar Airways Group subsidiaries. He is a qualified Chartered Engineer and holds a Masters in Engineering and Technology.

Having worked for Air Zimbabwe since 1998 Tafadzwa has held different positions including sales and marketing officer for cargo, supervisor for contracts and service standards, duty manager for customer services and manager for ground handling and airports services. He also sits on the Board of Murewa Hospital. Tafadzwa is a member of the African Airlines Association (AFRAA) Ground Handling Committee. He holds a Master of Business Intelligence Degree (MBI), a Bachelor of Business Administration Degree (BBA), a Diploma in Marketing, a professional Diploma in NGO management and administration, a certificate in Business Studies, leadership development, Contracts and Service Level Agreement Negotiation Skills (IATA), Advanced Safety Management Systems (IATA) and IATA Operational Safety Audit (IOSA).

Marja Aalto is responsible for the regional air transportation development in the Tampere Region. She has been working in her current position since 2015. Prior to Aalto’s appointment to the Tampere Region, she worked for Finnish airlines, at Finnair since 1995 and Air Finland from 2010 to 2012. She also deputized emergency response manager at Finnair and ground handling director at Air Finland. Aalto, the first female accountable manager in Finland, worked as founding member for Snowbird Airlines in 2012. She is an experienced airline professional throughout the airline field from planning and sales - all the way to flight operations.

Christoph has been Sales Director for GSE and Catering Highloaders at German-headquartered ATLASAVIA since 2012. As part of his role, he is also responsible for the company's Mock UP Trainer and he is involved in development of an Inflight Catering Automatisation System which allows operators to reduce operational time of the aircraft. Atlas Avia provides airports and ground handlers with a full range of used and overhauled GSE and also offers rental, refurbishing and transport services.

As Technical Director for RTITB Airside, Nick oversees the development of all training and safety standards, the majority of his time is spent working with airports and ground handling service providers developing technical training manuals. Nick is a qualified ISO9001 lead auditor as well as being a qualified automotive engineer and transport manager. Nick has worked with the aviation sector since 2011 and in that time has provided technical expertise and consultancy for over 40 training publications for RTITB Airside customers in Europe and Asia.

Hatim has been with the Sudan Civil Aviation Authority for more than 30 years and has held several managerial positions and is now Head of Ground Handling and Dangerous Goods. Among his responsibilities are inspecting and monitoring aviation activities related to flights operations, ground handling, and ramp safety along with running different workshops. Hatim is audit team leader of all ground handling companies in Sudan for certification surveillance and renewal and team leader of certification, inspections and surveillance for national airlines. He holds a flights operations officer license and a load master license and is also a government safety inspector (ICAO GSI).  

Basil Agboarumi has more than 18 years’ of experience in aviation ground handling and public relations/management. He joined Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited, then a subsidiary of the Nigeria Airways Limited, as head of the public affairs unit. After the privatisation and subsequent takeover of Skypower Aviation Handling Company Limited by the SIFAX Group in 2009, he was appointed Head of Corporate Communications, spearheading the re-branding of the new company Skyway Aviation Handling Company Limited (SAHCO). He was THEN appointed as General Manager in 2013, before being made Head of Corporate Communications & Information Technology (IT) and then to his current role as Managing Director and CEO.

Paul has a vest experience in managing large and complex vehicle fleets and in the past he has managed the fleet units operated by the Automobile Association (AA) and British Gas in the UK. In 2014 Paul entered the world of telematics and within 12 months he was heading up the fastest growing aviation based Telematics Company in the UK. In 2016 Paul was appointed by Smart Asset Manager Ltd as the Commercial Director and during the period he secured the contract with Menzies Aviation to roll out GSE telematics motorised and non-motorised on a global basis. In 2018, after a business reorganisation Paul was appointed Managing Director of Smarter Asset Management Ltd and he is now progressing the SAM objective to be the premier provider of aviation asset tracking /management services in the world.

Erik Strandgren, Managing Director & Partner with Ground.net Services, has 20-years of aviation business experience in various operational and executive management positions. Before joining Ground.net Services, Erik held the position as Chief Commercial Officer for the ground service provider Aviator Group, at the time covering 24 airports across the Nordic countries and the UK with 4,000 staff members. Prior to Aviator Erik has worked for Swedavia Swedish Airports and for Brussels Airlines where he was stationed in different countries such as Belgium, Poland and Russia.

Alex has over 12 years’ experience as specialist technical author including the last 8 in the equipment and vehicle field. Alex has extensive knowledge of airside regulation, professional photography skills and expertise in utilizing visuals to impart essential information. Alex has conceptualized and written over 50 training courses for RTITB Airside customers.

Simon has over 15 years’ experience of delivering and managing workplace transport training on a national basis. Since joining RTITB in 2014 Simon has worked closely with both UK and International Airports writing instructor guides, auditing GSE training and examining airside equipment instructors. Simon is a qualified ISO9001 Lead Auditor.