Association of European Airlines

Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus, born in 1953 in Australia, was educated in England and France before graduating in law in Germany.

In 1981, he joined Lufthansa as the manager responsible for collective labour negotiations. He was appointed the following year as Liaison Officer to the EEC, reporting directly to the airline’s CEO on European political affairs. Six years later, he was appointed Head of Industry Relations in Lufthansa’s newly created Marketing Division. As Head of Passenger and Cargo Tariffs, Ulrich was Lufthansa’s representative at IATA Tariff Consultations. He focused his attention on readjusting Lufthansa’s tariff policy to meet the new EU legal requirements in an otherwise largely regulated international environment. In 1992, he was appointed Vice President Corporate International Relations and Government Affairs. Ulrich successfully enlisted political support for Lufthansa’s privatization. He also developed, and subsequently implemented a policy, which, endorsed by the company’s Board, helped pave the way for the German Government to negotiate an Open Skies agreement with the United States of America. Furthermore, he was pivotal in securing regulatory approval from the EU Competition Authorities for the company’s alliance arrangements with United Airlines, of the US, and other European carriers.

Ulrich carried out numerous functions within the industry’s associations before being appointed Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines by the CEOs of the Association in September 2002.Given his personal international background, network of contacts with policy makers, professional experience and knowledge of the aviation sector, Ulrich strengthened the role, and increased the political clout, of the association. He was deeply involved in developing a visionary concept of an “Open Aviation Area” for the transatlantic market, which became the template for the Council of Transport Ministers’ mandate to, and the EU Commission’s ultimately successful negotiations of, a comprehensive aviation agreement between the EU and the USA. Together with the association’s member airlines, Ulrich developed a political “AEA Action Plan” which focused the aeropolitical debate of the aviation sector with the EU institutions on key political objectives.

Ulrich, an alumni of the Harvard Business School, is non-executive member of several boards of directors of renowned institutions, and member of the British Aviation Club.

Ulrich Schulte-Strathaus is married and has two children.

Fabio Gamba was born in Geneva and holds both Swiss and Italian citizenship. His early education was in Lausanne and later on he graduated from the ZIIS in Vienna with a Masters Degree in International Relations. He is fluent in French, Italian, English and German.

In 1990, Fabio joined SWISSCONTROL SA, where he trained as a GDA operator and this skill eventually propelled him to take up various functions within the Civil Air Navigation Services Organisation (CANSO), one of which comprised raising the international profile of CANSO at different international bodies such as ECAC, Eurocontrol and the FAA.

Fabio then joined the Boeing Company in 2002, as Manager Business Development Air Traffic Management Europe and subsequently moved on to become their Deputy Director, Business Development & Strategy Europe. With this function, Fabio was responsible for promoting the integration of the Business Unit in various European institutions and events such as ATC Maastricht, NATO FINAS. He has also served as a Boeing ATM representative on, amongst others, EUROCAE and EUROCONTROL committees.

Fabio assumed the function of Deputy Secretary General of the Association of European Airlines in November 2006 with responsibility for coordinating the Association’s political activities.

Married to Aylin, a native of Turkey, and the proud father of a son, Luca, he enjoys nothing more than discovering new continents and new cultures during his free time.

Vincent De Vroey was born in 1971. He holds a Master’s Degree in Electronics Engineering (1988-1993) and a Master’s Degree in Business & Transport Economics (1993-1994) from the Vrije Universiteit Brussel (VUB).

Vincent has been working as a trainee at Sabena Technics and the European Commission before joining the AEA as Assistant Technical Affairs in September 1995. In 1999 he became manager operations and Air Traffic Management (ATM) with responsibilities to develop AEA policies for flight operations, ATM and engineering and to represent the AEA in various international fora such as the Joint Aviation Authorities (JAA), European Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and Eurocontrol.

On 1^st September 2006, Vincent was appointed General Manager Technical & Operations. As part of the AEA Political & Communications Team (PCT), he is responsible for all technical & operational matters at AEA i.a. Air Traffic Management (ATM), flight & ground operations, flight & cabin crew crew training, engineering & maintenance and aviation safety.  In this capacity he is member of Advisory Board of the European Aviation Safety Agency (EAB). EASA European Commercial Aviation Safety Team (Euro-CAST) and he has been elected to be the civil airspace users representative to the SESAR Joint Undertaking Administrative Board.

In 1988, after ending second in the Belgian competition, Vincent participated for Belgium to the International Chemistry Olympiads in Helsinki, Finland. Vincent is a Board Member of the Committee on Aeronautics & Space of the Royal Society of Flemish Engineers (KVIV). Vincent speaks fluent Dutch, French, English and Italian. He has good knowledge of German and some basic knowledge of Spanish. He has a passion for wine-tasting & enology (‘wine-science’) and backpacking travel to exotic countries.

Athar Husain Khan was born in The Hague in 1963 to a Pakistani father and a Dutch mother. Because of his father’s work, he spent the first years of his life in the Middle East where he was educated in English and Arabic.

After moving back to The Netherlands he was educated at Dutch primary and secondary schools. He graduated from the University of Leiden with a degree in International Law, and also specialised in Air and Space Law. He subsequently worked as a legal advisor for a transport company and for the Ministry of Education, Sciences and Culture. After a couple of years he joined the Aeropolitical Division of the Ministry of Transport as a negotiator of traffic rights with government authorities all over the world and senior policy advisor on various international issues.

He joined KLM Royal Dutch Airlines in 1998 where he worked in the Flight Operations department as a negotiator on aeronautical charges, project manager for the Millennium Contingency project and as senior manager responsible for the regulatory and policy issues surrounding Amsterdam’s Schiphol Airport. In July 2002 he was appointed Director of Government & Industry Affairs where he was responsible for the Public Affairs Division, dealing mainly with infrastructure and environment issues, the Air France – KLM merger and European and international aeropolitical affairs.

As of 1 February 2007 he became General Manager Infrastructure at AEA, where he is responsible for value chain issues such as the airline – airport relationship, airport charges, airport capacity, slots, ground handling, passenger rights and social affairs.

He is keen on sports (squash, cricket, he ran the New York City marathon three times), holds a private pilot’s licence and is interested in relationships between Eastern and Western culture, religion and politics. He is married with one son.

Marie-Caroline Laurent is AEA Manager for Security and Cargo. A French national, she holds a diploma in Public Administration from the Institute for Political Sciences in Paris (Sciences Po) as well as a Master’s degree in European Policies and Politics from the Katholieke Universiteit Leuven in Belgium. She has also studied in Austria and in Hungary.

Prior to joining AEA in September 2007, she worked as a Senior Policy Officer for customs and intellectual property at the American Chamber of Commerce to the European Union (AmCham EU). Marie-Caroline was also in charge of organising the advocacy activities of AmCham EU Executive Council, gathering the European CEOs of 15 American multinational companies. In 2004, she completed an internship with the European Commission in the Cabinet of the Hungarian Commissioner responsible for Taxation and Customs Union. She has also previously worked for the French governmental agency for regional development and for the French Foreign Ministry to prepare the UN special summit on children rights.

Sue is a European of British nationality. She was educated in England, France and the Netherlands before obtaining a Bachelor of Science in Economics and Geography from University College in London.

Following brief experience in publishing and banking, she joined AEA’s research and information team in 1983, which she now heads as General Manager. The 3-man team provides the statistical backbone to the work of the AEA. It holds responsibility for the production of the vast array of regular AEA data collections and performs research into industry-specific topics in support of the Association’s lobbying work. In 2005 the Market Research team launched its market research quarterly known as ‘Source’, to showcase the breadth and depth of the Association’s research and statistical expertise.

Sue speaks fluent English, Dutch and French, and has basic understanding of German and Spanish. She is a ‘down to earth’ person with an interest in geomorphology and geology. She is married with two sons.