Keynote Speaker & Plenary Chairs Announced

Tuesday, Day 1 Conference Keynote Speaker

Philippe Merlo
Director, Air Traffic Management, EUROCONTROL

Mr. Philippe Merlo joined EUROCONTROL in February 2014. He is responsible for the areas of air traffic management, research and development, including the respective relations to international bodies such as ICAO. Mr. Merlo has spent all his career in air traffic management, having worked for the Directorate General for Civil Aviation (DGAC) of France since graduating from the Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile. He has held a number of senior posts, most recently deputy CEO of the Direction des Services de la Navigation Aérienne (DSNA) of France. In this role, he was responsible for crisis management, international relations and major projects. Previous posts have included director of the Direction of Technology and Innovation, head of the Bordeaux en-route air traffic control center, and head of the Air Navigation Financial Department. Mr. Merlo has a degree in engineering from the Ecole Polytechnique and a degree in civil aviation engineering from the Ecole Nationale de l’Aviation Civile in France.

Plenary Chairs

Tuesday, Day 1

Steve Bradford

Steve Bradford is chief scientist for architecture and next generation (NextGen) development in the FAA’s NextGen Office. In this role he has participated in the development of the Joint Planning and Development Office’s (JPDO) NextGen concept, the RTCA National Airspace System (NAS) Operational Concept and the ICAO Air Traffic Management Operational Concepts Panel (ATMCP) Global Concept. He is the chairman of the Technical Review Board which monitors technical decisions related investments and the enterprise architecture. He also works with elements of the FAA and the JPDO to develop midterm plans and five year budget requests to implement NextGen. He has a leading role in several new activities with SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) and has led several cooperative international efforts via action plans with EUROCONTROL. Previous activities include leading efforts to validate future concepts and developing the FAA’s NAS enterprise architecture.

Michael Standar

Michael Standar is the chief strategies and external relations at the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) based in Brussels, Belgium. He became chief of air traffic management in July 2011 and was promoted to his current position in January 2012. He was an active Swedish member of ICAO Air Traffic Management Operational Concepts Panel (ATMCP) developing the ICAO Global Air Traffic Management (ATM) Operational Concept Document, which continued into the Air Traffic Management Requirements and Performance Panel (ATMRPP). In the early 1990s, he was offered a post at the Swedish Civil Aviation Administration (CAA) headquarters, later the LFV (Swedish Civil Aviation Administration) ANS (Air Navigation Services) service provider. There, he was promoted first to head units for ATM operational developments and operational support and later head of the business area of LFV's ATM support and development before taking up duties as LFV director for ANS business development.

Wednesday, Day 2

Stephen Van Trees

Stephen P. Van Trees is lead, Communications Team, AIR-132, Aircraft Certification Service, FAA, Washington, D.C. His team works in data communications, weather systems, and unmanned aircraft systems (UAS). He is currently co-chair of the Command and Control (C2) Working Group for SC-228, the RTCA committee for UAS. Prior to this, he was active as aircraft roadmap lead in the national airspace system (NAS) enterprise architecture effort, integrating aircraft equipage and approval with overall NAS planning. Over the last 17 years with the FAA he has held a variety of technical and management positions, including six years as manager, Avionics Systems Branch (AIR-130). The branch was the first in the FAA to manage UAS integration. He joined the FAA as an engineer in the data communication area, after working in a lead role in the U.S. team for development of the ICAO SARPs for the Aeronautical Telecommunication Network (ATN). He holds a set of master’s degrees from the UC Berkeley and George Mason University (computer science).

Thursday, Day 3

Diana Liang

Diana Liang has background in computer science and is currently the enterprise portfolio manager for the FAA’s NextGen (Next Generation) office; where she leads the annual planning of projects to support the implementation of NextGen. She is also a key technical advisor to multiple U.S. delegations in support to ICAO, including those working to define, and elaborate on air traffic management information models and transition strategies for global system wide information management (SWIM).

David Bowen

David Bowen is the acting chief of air traffice management (ATM) at the SESAR Joint Undertaking (SJU) where he leads the team responsible for the operational and technical systems content of the SESAR program. David is an air traffic management systems engineer with over 20 years of experience in the domain of communication, navigation and surveillance (CNS), avionics and ATM ground systems. Beginning his career in the U.K., he worked on the development of surveillance systems before spending four years at EUROCONTROL focusing on automatic dependent surveillance-broadcast (ADS-B) and multilateration. He has experience in the development and standardization of numerous CNS and avionics systems including participation to ICAO panels and chairmanship of technical standardization working groups. Prior to taking up his current role in the SJU, David spent 4 years as the technical secretary of European Organisation for Civil Aviation Equipment (EUROCAE) with responsibility for the overall management of EUROCAE technical standards activities as well as working closely with RTCA and other organizations on the coordinated development of avionics and ATM standards. David has a degree in theoretical physics from the University of St. Andrews.