Judges

The final decision on award recipients rest with a panel of respected and independent judges. The Judging is pencilled to take place at the SpencerStuart offices in London, chaired by the Airline Business Editor and facilitated by SpencerStuart.

Sir Rod Eddington
Sir Rod has returned to Australia after five years as chief executive of British Airways. In 1979 he joined the Swire Group, becoming Cathay Pacific Airways managing director and chief executive in 1992. In 1997, News Corporation appointed him executive chairman of Ansett Airlines, until 2000 when News Corporation sold its 50% interest. As well as his role with JPMorgan, Sir Rod maintains non-executive roles with News Corporation, Rio Tinto, John Swire & Sons Pty, and CLP Holdings. He recently led a review of transport policy for the UK government.

Jeffrey Katz
Jeffrey Katz began his aviation career in 1980 at American Airlines, where he served for 17 years in a variety of finance, marketing, sales and customer service roles. He was elected a vice-president of the company and president of AMR’s SABRE computer reservations system division in 1993. In 1997 Katz left American to join Swissair as president and chief executive. He returned to the US in 2000 to become founding chairman and chief executive of Orbitz. Katz has also served on the board of directors at Northwest Airlines since early 2005.

Professor Rigas Doganis
Professor Doganis advises governments and airlines on air transport policy. Until 1997 he was head of the air transport department at Cranfield University. He became chairman of Olympic Airways in the mid-1990s, implementing a major restructuring programme. He was until 2006 non-executive director of South African Airways and sits on the boards of Hyderabad International Airport and easyJet. Doganis is author of several books on air transport, the latest being The Airline Business, a new edition of which appeared early in 2006.

Peter Harbison
With 25 years of consulting experience, Harbison is managing director of the Centre for Asia Pacific Aviation, which he founded in Sydney in 1990. The Centre provides a range of consultancy and information on the region, as well as conferences. His background includes government policy advice; airport and airline privatisation studies and project management; airline business planning and start-up; supply chain analysis; and policy and strategy studies. He previously worked in the Australian Department of Aviation, ICAO and IATA.

Dr Julius Maldutis
Dr Julius Maldutis is one of the industry’s most highly regarded transportation economists and independent airline consultants. In 1998 he joined CIBC World Markets as managing director and senior global transportation analyst in the Equity Research Department, retiring in October 2001. He has published on US and global aviation issues, and is a member of the New York Society of Security Analysts. Dr Maldutis was on the advisory boards of GATX Capital, BAE Systems and Swissair, and has acted as an advisor to IBM for several years.

Chris Tarry
Chris Tarry, one of the most highly rated aviation analysts in the London market, established independent consultancy CTAIRA just over four years ago. Prior to that, he headed airline analysis at Commerz-bank. Previously he headed European transport research at Dresdner Kleinworth Benson, leading a number of major international share issues. He writes a monthly column in Airline Business and also lectures at the UK’s London School of Economics and Cranfield University, as well as holding a Senior Visiting Fellowship at the University of Surrey.

Chairman - Mark Pilling
Mark Pilling is the Editor of Airline Business magazine, the monthly strategic boardroom title reporting on the air transport industry. He has been a business journalist, specialising in aviation, for his entire career, beginning by reporting on the regional airline business in the late 1980s. He held the posts of deputy editor of Commuter World magazine and Interavia Aerospace Review prior to being appointed editor of Airports International in 1992. In 2000, he joined the editorial team at Airline Business, becoming its managing editor in January 2001. For two years from 2002 he also edited Airport World, the official magazine of the Airports Council International. In August 2005 he was appointed editor of Airline Business. He makes regular appearances on television and radio, such as CNN and the BBC World Service and has written for a host of titles on aviation matters, including Flight International, Flight Daily News, The Financial Times and The International Herald Tribune.

Facilitation - Michael Bell
Michael Bell co-leads the global aviation practice of Spencer Stuart, one of the world¹s top executive search firms. He previously spent six years with McKinsey, where he managed consulting relations with clients. The aviation practice is now a key area for Spencer Stuart, which specialises in senior-level executive search and board director appointments. Overall, the company has over 50 offices in 24 countries, conducting several thousand senior-level searches each year for clients from blue-chip corporations to small start-ups.

Facilitation - Thierry Lindenau
Based in Brussels, Thierry Lindenau is regional co-ordinator Europe, Middle East and Africa for Spencer Stuart¹s global aviation practice. Prior to joining Spencer Stuart, Lindenau was a senior consultant and later a partner at Kienbaum Executive Search in Munich.