11:15–11:20
Impulse

Christian Scherer was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Commercial Aircraft business of Airbus in January 2024 and is a Member of the Company's Executive Committee. In the period before, he was Airbus Chief Commercial Officer and Head of Airbus International and a Member of the Executive Committee from 2018.

Previously he was Chief Executive Officer of ATR for a period of two years, after having been Head of Airbus Group International, responsible for driving the overall Airbus Group Internationalisation strategy from 2015 to 2016.

Christian started his professional career in 1984 when he joined Airbus Industrie as a Commercial Contracts Manager. He was seconded to the US between 1987 and 1994 as Vice President Contracts of Airbus North America. He returned to headquarters as Vice President Leasing Markets. In 1999, he was appointed Vice President Contracts and Pricing worldwide while retaining leadership of the Leasing Markets Division and in 2003 he also became the Deputy Head of Commercial.

Following his important role in the Commercial activity, he took on the role of Head of Strategy and Future Programmes at Airbus in 2005, responsible for defining Airbus’ long term strategic objectives and for driving the genesis of future aircraft product offerings and programmes, such as the A320neo, as well as Airbus’ international development like the US final assembly lines.

In 2012, he moved to another part of the company when he was appointed Head of Sales & International Operations at Cassidian in Munich, Germany. Upon integration of Airbus’ Defence, Space and Military aircraft businesses, he became the Head of Marketing & Sales of this new division until 2015. He also chaired BDLI’s defence and security forum whilst being a member of the BDLI presidium.

Born in 1962 in Duisburg, Germany, and raised in Toulouse, France, Christian Scherer holds an MBA from the University of Ottawa and graduated from the Paris Business School (ESCP) in 1984.

11:20–11:25
Keynote

Entirely dedicated to the European Union, Joanna Drake’s career has been propelled by her relentless energy and passion for the project and the values the EU stands for. As such for the last 40 years, she has contributed to the EU in several roles at the national and European level.

Since 2021, Joanna DRAKE has been the Deputy Director-General of the European Commission's Directorate-General (DG) for Research and Innovation (DG RTD). In this role, she provides overall assistance to the Director-General in the management of the DG, contributing to the definition, coordination and implementation of strategy and policy orientation. She currently focuses mainly on the green transition policies, health (she is mission manager for Cancer) and culture, synergies and co-chairs the Group on Earth Observation for the Commission.

Between 2016 and 2021, she Deputy Director-General in DG Environment where she chaired a cross-cutting Task Force spear-heading strategic positions for the DG on (inter-alia) the post-2020 Commission financial framework negotiations, Brexit co-ordination, the urban agenda and the future-proofing of the EU's environmental acquis. Between 2010 and 2015 she was director for SME's and Entrepreneurship in the DG for Internal Market, Industry, Entrepreneurship and SMEs (DG GROW). During her tenure in DG GROW she also led the Commission's Task Force on The Collaborative Economy, New Business Models And SME's.

By training, Joanna holds a doctorate in laws from the University of Malta, where she also taught EU law full time in the Department of European and Comparative Law in the run up to Malta’s EU accession. She acquired a post-graduate degree in Advanced European Legal Studies from the College of Europe in Bruges, Belgium. She held various legal and management posts in the private (including Head of Legal/Regulatory Department in Vodafone Malta) and public sector before joining the European Commission as head of the European Commission Representation in Malta in 2005. She also had a key role in the Malta-EU accession negotiations as member of the Malta-EU Steering

and Action Committee and chaired the national ‘YES movement’ in the run up to the referendum on Malta’s EU accession in 2003.

Joanna is a trained actress (and still treads the boards in Brussels, agenda permitting) and is very keen on sticking to her daily dose of physical training…apart from taking care of her cat, Winston.

11:25–11:55
Discussion

11:25–11:55
Discussion

Axel Krein is the Executive Director of the Clean Aviation Joint Undertaking, a Public-Private Partnership and the European Union’s leading Research and Innovation programme for steering aviation towards a sustainable and climate-neutral future. The aim is to develop and demonstrate disruptive new technologies and aircraft concepts aimed at reducing both CO2 and non-CO2 aircraft emissions.

Axel has been at the helm of Clean Aviation and its predecessor Clean Sky 2 since February 2019. Previously, he spent more than two decades with Airbus in various executive management positions, including Senior Vice President of Cyber Security Programme (2014-2019); Senior Vice President.

Research & Technology (2007 -2014); Senior Vice
President Strategic Development (2004-2007); and
Senior Vice President & Chief Information Officer (2000-2004). Axel holds a Masters in Aerospace Engineering from the Technical University of Aachen, Germany.

11:25–11:55
Discussion

Since 2010, Michel Peters (1959) has been the Chief Executive Officer of Royal NLR - Netherlands Aerospace Centre, the leading centre for aerospace research and innovation in the Netherlands with a global reach. Michel is responsible for NLR’s strategy and applied research agenda. In partnership with industry and government, NLR focuses on more sustainable civil aviation, safe and secure integration of drones in civil airspace, protection of aircraft and helicopters during international peacekeeping missions, and the development of small-scale, affordable satellite systems.

Michel Peters believes collaboration is extremely important, as shown by his other positions. He is a board member of the Association of European Research Establishments in Aeronautics (EREA), a board member of the Association of European Space Research Establishments (ESRE), a board member of the International Forum for Aviation Research (IFAR), Co-Chair of the Advisory Council for Aviation Research and Innovation in Europe (ACARE), Chair of the board of German-Dutch Wind Tunnels (DNW) and chair European Transonic Windtunnel (ETW), a member of the Council of ‘Lucht- en Ruimtevaart Nederland’, a board member of the Dutch National Aviation Program (LiT) and a member of the Committee of Recommendation of the Dutch Aerospace Foundation NLF.

Aerospace is the connecting theme in Michel Peters’ career. Before being appointed as CEO of NLR, he served as head of NLR’s Aerospace Systems & Applications division and Air Transport division. Prior to NLR he held various positions at Martinair (now part of KLM), where he was responsible for aircraft maintenance. The foundation for his career was established at Delft University of Technology, where he obtained an MSc in 1987 specializing in Avionics Engineering.

11:25–11:55
Discussion

David was appointed to the role of Chief Operations & Sustainability Officer, in January 2023. In this role, he oversees the company’s Strategy, Innovation, Government and Corporate Affairs, ESG, Corporate Communications, Property and Business Support functions. David has held a range of senior roles across SMBC Aviation Capital since 2002 and has been on the company’s Board of Directors since 2007.

David has over 30 years of aircraft finance and leasing experience, 5 years of which was based in Hong Kong leading the APAC region for KBC Bank N.V. David has also served on a number of industry, government and charity boards and advisory committees (including ISTAT, Aircraft Leasing Ireland, Industry Advisory Committee to the Irish Government and the SOAR Foundation) as well as the Supervisory Board of SMBC Aero Engine Lease. David studied International Business & Economics at Trinity College Dublin and has completed a number of Advanced Management Programs at Harvard and London Business Schools.

11:55–12:00
Impulse

Minister of State Sarah Ryglewski is responsible within the Federal Chancellery for cooperation between the Federal Government and the Länder. She has also been given responsibility by the Federal Cabinet for sustainable development and chairs the State Secretaries Committee on Sustainable Development. Sarah Ryglewski was previously Parliamentary State Secretary to the Federal Minister of Finance (2019-2021). She has been a Member of the German Bundestag since 2015 where, among other things, she has been a member of the Finance Committee and the Committee on Legal Affairs and Consumer Protection, as well as spokesperson on consumer policy of the SPD parliamentary group. She was a member of the Bremische Bürgerschaft (Land parliament of Bremen) from 2011 to 2015. Sarah Ryglewski has been an active member of the SPD since 2001. She was initially chair of the Young Socialists in Bremen, then deputy chair of the SPD in Bremen and has been a member of the national SPD Executive Committee since 2017. She studied politics and after gaining her degree she worked as a neighbourhood manager in Bremen.