Board & Executive members

Paul joined the NATS Board as Chairman on 6 October 2014.

He served as Chief Executive Officer of E.ON UK plc from 2002 to 2011, is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering and was appointed Pro-Chancellor and Chair of Council for Aston University in 2009.

He is also a Non-Executive Director of National Grid.

Harry is Vice Chairman of UCLH NHS Foundation Trust.

Harry is Vice Chairman of UCLH NHS Foundation Trust. He spent most of his career in HM Treasury where he focussed latterly on policies towards growth, science funding and privatisation and private finance. He was UK Director at the European Investment Bank 2001-2.

Harry left the Treasury in 2002 to join the CAA Board as Group Director Economic Regulation responsible for the economic regulation of the designated airports and NATS as well as the CAA’s economic analysis generally. He was a member of Eurocontrol’s Performance Review Commission from 2005 to 2009 and of the UK’s Commission for Integrated Transport from 2006 to 2010.

Since leaving the CAA in 2011 Harry has been a consultant on economic regulation, undertaking assignments across a range of industries in the UK and overseas. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society and a Member of the Council of Management of the Regulatory Policy Institute, Oxford.

Iain served 35 years in the Royal Air Force, retiring in 2010 as an Air Marshal. His military flight hours total over 4300, the majority in fast‐jet aircraft, but he also flew large multi‐engine aircraft, light aircraft and helicopters.

He commanded a Tornado squadron from 1992‐1995, a Tornado station from 1998‐2000, and was Air Officer Commanding No 2 Group from 2005‐2007. In his last appointment, Deputy Commander ‐ Operations, he was responsible for generating and delivering all of the RAF’s front line operational capability. He had RAF responsibility for all safety and environmental matters, and was the RAF’s first Chief Information Officer.

Since 2010, Iain has been an aerospace, defence and security consultant. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Iain chairs the NATS Safety Review Committee and is a member of the Technical Review Committee.

Gavin joined USS in 2011 as Senior Investment Manager with responsibility for sourcing, evaluating and monitoring co-investments within the infrastructure portfolio and is a voting member of the Alternatives Investment Committee.

Gavin serves on a number of portfolio company boards for USS as well as a number of advisory boards for infrastructure funds.

Gavin has worked in the infrastructure sector in the UK and Australia for fifteen years. Prior to joining USS, Gavin was a Director at Equitix Limited.

Earlier in his career, Gavin was an Investment Director of ING’s European infrastructure fund having previously been a founder member of Merrill Lynch’s global infrastructure investments business.

Gavin also spent five years as a member of the Commonwealth Bank of Australia’s infrastructure and privatisation team.

Gavin graduated with an honours degree in Law from the University of Edinburgh. He is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland.

Gavin is a director of The Airline Group Limited and a member of the Remuneration Committee.

Martin was appointed as CEO in May 2015 and is responsible for the 24/7 air traffic operation.

He joined NATS as Managing Director Operations in March 2012, overseeing the delivery of NATS’ en route business.

Previously Martin worked for Lockheed Martin where he was Managing Director of the UK Civil business.

Martin has worked in the air traffic management domain for 18 years leading large multinational teams across Europe, the US, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Far East, with customers including air navigation service providers, central government departments and military organisations.

Maria Antoniou is currently Senior Vice President HR/Executive HR based in E.ON’s headquarters in Germany a position she has held since 2013.

Maria joined E.ON in 2008 as the UK HR Director during her time in the UK the business was significantly restructured and emphasis given to becoming a customer focused organisation.

Prior to joining E.ON, Maria spent two years in the public sector as Group HR Director for Transport for London and 20 years with Ford Motor Company. Maria’s last role at Ford was as global HR Director for Jaguar Land Rover and Aston Martin.

Kathryn is currently Director of Operations at Heathrow Airport, where she holds functional responsibility for airside and airfield operations, as well as umbrella responsibility for the day to day management and operations of the Airport Operations Centre, resilience and emergency planning. Kathryn sits on the Sustainability Leadership Board and leads the Airspace Governance Board for Heathrow. She joined Heathrow Airport in 2010 as Risk and Safety Director and has held a number of senior operational roles.
Kathryn started her career in financial services working for AIG, and moved to the aviation industry in 1997. She spent 13 years at Virgin Atlantic Airways running their Risk and Safety Management team, as well as establishing the Internal Audit department and Board Audit Committee. She is a member of the Safety Review Committee.

Having completed a degree in Japanese and Business Management at Durham University, Louise joined British Airways on the graduate intake scheme in 1998. Her first 8 years were in the commercial organisation specifically in Sales and Revenue Management. She then moved to the operational side of the business and has undertaken a number of senior roles in Customer Service and Operations which included implementing a significant change programme to modernise working practices amongst the front line team at Heathrow; introducing and leading a 500 strong team responsible serving British Airways Premium customers and being accountable for the running of the British Airways Heathrow operation on the day. Moving to Engineering in 2017, Louise’s current role as Head of Planning and Business Development has accountability for planning the British Airways maintenance programme along with the fleet embodiment programme to deliver the customer investment set out in the British Airways business plan as well as the future strategy for British Airways Engineering encompassing facilities, resourcing, infrastructure and maintenance. Louise has recently completed further studies in Business studies at IMD, Lausanne.

Mike has spent the last 11 years at easyJet initially as Group People Director and subsequently as the Group Director Europe. During his time at easyJet he has also been Group Director, Transformation and has led on a series of strategic projects including the integration of GB Airways and the successful development of easyJet’s presence in Europe.

Mike’s early career has covered a range of sectors, from high end luxury goods to high volume, low margin electronics and he has direct experience across a number of disciplines. Mike has a Batchelor’s degree in Mathematics and a masters in Fluid Dynamics with a background in education and HR. He has operated in organisations across the world and has led businesses and change programs across all of these. Mike is Chairman of the Airline Group and Technical Review Committee and a member of the Nomination Committee.

Richard Keys is a non-executive director of Sainsbury’s Bank plc and the Department for International Development.

He is also a Council member of the University of Birmingham.

He retired from PricewaterhouseCoopers in 2010 where he was a former senior partner and Global Chief Accountant.

Richard will become a member of the audit and nomination committees.

With over 30 years of experience in the airline industry, Hugh has held senior leadership roles across engineering and airline operations functions.

He is currently the Group head of Network operations for easyJet Airlines, responsible for the operational delivery and performance for all three easyjet AOC’s.

Hugh started his career apprentice aircraft engineer for Britannia Airways moving on to work in freight and passenger operations with airlines across Europe. In his time with easyjet, he has been responsible for line and hangar maintenance, Maintenance operations control, Deputy post holder for engineering for easyjet Switzerland, Airline Network operations and emergency response management.

During this time he has led the merger of airline operations through acquisitions, implementation of new technologies and systems as well as managing large teams of people.

Martin was appointed as CEO in May 2015 and is responsible for the 24/7 air traffic operation.

He joined NATS as Managing Director Operations in March 2012, overseeing the delivery of NATS’ en route business.

Previously Martin worked for Lockheed Martin where he was Managing Director of the UK Civil business.

Martin has worked in the air traffic management domain for 18 years leading large multinational teams across Europe, the US, the Commonwealth of Independent States, and the Far East, with customers including air navigation service providers, central government departments and military organisations.

Juliet was appointed Operations Director for NATS in December 2015, and is responsible for leading the day-to-day running of Swanwick, Prestwick and the airports.

Prior to this, Juliet was the Operations Director for Swanwick. Appointed to the role in November 2012, Juliet was accountable forrunning the largest Air Traffic Control Centre in Europe. She was responsible for the regulated en-route Air Traffic Control business and operations across England and Wales, which also includes the approach services for the five biggest London airports and management of the London Terminal Airspace, some of the busiest and most complex airspace in the world.

Juliet has over thirty years of ATC experience both with NATS and in the RAF. She has worked for NATS for over twenty-five years and her previous roles included Operations Director, Airports in which she was responsible for service delivery and management of the sixteen airport ATC contracts NATS operates across the UK including Heathrow and Gatwick.

She spent ten years as a controller at Stansted before moving into a series of operational managerial roles including General Manager at Gatwick.

Richard started his career as an aeronautical engineer before qualifying as a solicitor and as a Chartered Secretary.

His interest in all things aviation led him to various legal positions with international airlines and an expert knowledge of aviation law.

Before joining NATS, he was Group Legal Counsel for the TUI UK group of companies.

Alastair was appointed as NATS Safety Director in April 2018 and is accountable for the provision and oversight of a strategic direction for Safety and Human Performance in NATS.

Prior to this appointment Alastair led the NATS Prestwick Centre for five years and previously led NATS engagement with the European Commission, the UK/Irish Functional Airspace Block (FAB) and the company’s operational engineering function. He currently holds the Chairmanship of the ICAO North Atlantic Implementation Group (IMG) and has held similar positions with CANSO and Eurocontrol as well as working for Eurocontrol in Paris for 5 years.

Alastair is an engineer by background with over 30 years of experience in Air Traffic Management, with the vast majority of this time holding safety accountabilities across Centre Operations, Airport Operations or Engineering.

Guy has 25 years’ experience as a finance professional including 19 with NATS. He has recently been promoted to the role of NATS Commercial Director, prior to that he was the Finance Director of NATS Services and before that the Head of NERL Finance.

He has extensive experience across all financial management disciplines. Most recently in his role as Finance Director of NATS Services,he has significant experience creating and negotiating major commercial bids.

This has included the profitable re-negotiation of a number of the companies key airport contracts (Heathrow, Manchester and Stansted) with a total order value over the last 24 months >£1bn and the creation of partnering strategy for Spanish Towers bid with Ferroser S.A. leading to the successful contract award of towers contracts in Spain.

Guy is a director of the FerroNATS joint venture.

Guy also recently led the design of the financial strategy for the Services business through Project Merino, which included the identification of operating cost reductions of greater than £110m.

Prior to joining NATS, Guy was Deputy Director of Finance for a major NHS Trust Hospital. Guy holds a social sciences degree from the University of Hull and after leaving university trained and qualified as an accountant.

Julie Elder joined NATS in March 2016 as HR & Corporate Services Director, with accountability for Information Systems, Supply Chain, & Facilities Management, in addition to HR.

From October 2012, Julie was Group HR Director of Home Retail Group plc., the FTSE 200 owner of Argos, Homebase and Habitat.

Prior to that, Julie was with BAA for 12 years, joining the company as HR Director, Gatwick Airport. Her subsequent director roles in the group included HR Director of World Duty Free, taking it from a poor performing global organisation to a very profitable UK business which was successfully sold in 2008, and as Group Retail HR Director.

She was appointed HR Director, Airports Division in September 2008, and added commercial accountabilities in January 2010 as HR & Commercial Services Director.

Prior to joining BAA, Julie held roles in the Marriott Corporation, Dixons Group plc. & Storehouse plc. She is an Ambassador of the children’s charity, Kids Out.

Rob joined NATS in July 2016 and is responsible for leading the company’s deployment of SESAR and associated business transformation.  He also oversees the day to day Engineering and Programmes operations.

Previously Rob worked for SITA, the Global Air Transport Technology company, latterly running their global service organisation including engineering, service deployment and transition teams and customer service.

Rob has a Degree in Engineering from Birmingham University and has held a series of operational, sales and delivery focused roles at Digital, BT Syntegra and Logica.

Simon joined NATS in January 2012 from Masdar where he was Global Head of Communications.

Formerly, he was Director of Communications and Public Affairs at Jaguar Land Rover.

During his three years at Jaguar Land Rover he led a global team of 80 and was responsible for all company internal and external communications, as well as reputation and issue management with all stakeholders.

Simon is a former journalist and a former Vice President of the Birmingham Chamber of Commerce.