Kenneth Gibson

Kenneth Gibson is the Head of Business Development at the International Air Cargo Association.

He’s been with the organization since 2015; supporting members in growing their brands and strengthening their industry relationships.
Kenneth holds Master of Science degree in Global Strategic Communications, with a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution and Consensus Building from Florida International University, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Kenneth is originally from Caracas, Venezuela and resides in Miami, FL
He is fluent in English and Spanish… with a drop of Portuguese.

Steven Polmans

Steven Polmans started his career after graduating in 1995 in aviation joining a European handling company and his since spent most of his career in the industry. After having held several operational and management position at different airports in handling, he joined Brussels Airport in 2010 as Cargo Marketing Manager and was appointed Head of Cargo and Logistics in 2012. In this position, he was responsible for developing and implementing the overall cargo strategy of the airport.

Steven was also the founding father and first chairman of Air Cargo Belgium, a newly established air cargo organisation at BRUcargo, grouping all stakeholders. On April 1st 2019, Steven was promoted to Director Cargo & Logistics, adding all responsibilities for cargo real estate development and portfolio management to its existing role.

Steven joined the board of TIACA, The International Air Cargo Association, in August 2016, and became Vice Chairman in October 2017. As of July 2019, Steven took over the role of Chairman at TIACA, a position he still holds today.
In January 2021, Steven moved on and joined Nallian as their Chief Customer Officer, a data sharing company building amongst others the innovative BRUcloud platform. In February 2022, Steven became VP at Abu Dhabi Airport Company to realise the cargo ambitions and growth set by the airport.

Anne Marie van Hemert

Glyn Hughes

Glyn has been involved in Air Cargo for over 37 years having started his career with British Caledonian in the UK.
He joined IATA in 1991 and become IATA's Global Head of Cargo in June 2014, where he had overall responsibility to deliver the agenda agreed by the Cargo Committee to support the Air Cargo industry. In February 2021, Glyn joined TIACA as its first Director general where he will work with the Board to deliver the organization's vision for a safe, profitable and united air cargo industry that embraces modern technologies and practices to sustainably and fairly serve trade and social development worldwide. Priority areas include safety, security, digitalization and innovation. He is dedicated to developing collaborative relationships and is a firm believer in supporting the next generation of industry leaders and innovators.
Glyn spends a large amount of time on outreach programs with training and other educational establishments.

Niall Van de Wouw

Niall brings close to 30 years of experience in the air cargo industry, which started off with building pallets during his university days. Previously he worked at Seabury Cargo Advisory, Jeppesen (a Boeing subsidiary) and KLM Cargo.
He holds a degree in Penal Law and lives with his wife and daughter in Amsterdam.

Geert Aerts

Joeri Aulman

Mr. Aulman has over 20 years’ experience, of which 15 in the air transport industry. In addition to overall airport consultancy, planning and design, he has specific expertise on air cargo facilities. He was involved in the design of cargo hub terminals in both Delhi, Abu Dhabi and Madrid and developed cargo area master plans with teams in Malaysia, India and Japan. In these projects, Mr. Aulman worked closely with both the NACO and Districon teams of Royal HaskoningDHV, offering a one-stop-shop for air cargo and supply chain solutions. He holds a Masters of Science from Delft University of Technology.

Phil Forster

Phil began his career in television where he spent five years as a reporter with Sky based across the North of England and Scotland before moving into the world of aviation to take on the role of Media & Public Affairs Manager at Newcastle Airport. After spending three years at the north-east airport, Phil then moved to Leeds Bradford Airport firstly in the role of Aviation Development & Corporate Affairs Manager, before progressing to become the airport’s Head of External Affairs.

Phil led the airport’s public affairs strategy, including lobbying on aviation strategy and capacity and was heavily involved in the airport’s aeronautical and commercial operation, aimed to put customer experience at the heart of the business strategy while boosting the airport’s international connectivity.

He joined Teesside International Airport as Commercial Director in 2019 before taking on the role of Managing Director in 2020. He is responsible for overseeing Teesside International and its current transformation to ensure the airport is ready for the increase in passenger numbers resulting from securing new domestic and holiday services. He is also driving forward the redevelopment of its land and assets, including its new cargo handling facility and the creation of a £200million business park.

Celine Hourcade

Céline is a driver of positive change with 20 years of experience in international environment, mainly in the aviation industry. It led her to creating Change Horizon in 2019, a management consulting firm committed to help organizations accelerate their sustainable development and transformation.

Celine is a strategic advisor to several executives of companies and non-profit organizations and Change Horizon growing team of consultants support them in developing, updating, and implementing sustainable corporate strategies. Change Horizon helps its customers to understand what is on their horizon and how to transform their corporate strategy and culture. We chose to focus on emerging trends we believe in, and which are not yet fully considered: sustainability, drones, diversity & inclusion, and cybersecurity.

Prior to Change Horizon, Celine was the Head of Cargo Transformation at IATA until 2019 and the mastermind and driver of several strategic IATA’s initiatives, including the Air Cargo Makes It Happen campaign to raise the profile of the air cargo industry; the carbon footprint of air cargo (ACCF); the StB Cargo program to make air cargo less fragmented, faster, and smarter with projects like e-freight, ONE Record, Interactive Cargo, etc.

Passionate about learning & development, Celine has co-founded the Future Air Cargo Executives (FACE) program to attract, develop and retain the young talents in the air cargo industry in 2013 and the Women in Aviation & Logistics initiative to improve the gender balance within the air cargo industry in 2021.

Steven Polmans

Steven Polmans started his career after graduating in 1995 in aviation joining a European handling company and his since spent most of his career in the industry. After having held several operational and management position at different airports in handling, he joined Brussels Airport in 2010 as Cargo Marketing Manager and was appointed Head of Cargo and Logistics in 2012. In this position, he was responsible for developing and implementing the overall cargo strategy of the airport.

Steven was also the founding father and first chairman of Air Cargo Belgium, a newly established air cargo organisation at BRUcargo, grouping all stakeholders. On April 1st 2019, Steven was promoted to Director Cargo & Logistics, adding all responsibilities for cargo real estate development and portfolio management to its existing role.

Steven joined the board of TIACA, The International Air Cargo Association, in August 2016, and became Vice Chairman in October 2017. As of July 2019, Steven took over the role of Chairman at TIACA, a position he still holds today.
In January 2021, Steven moved on and joined Nallian as their Chief Customer Officer, a data sharing company building amongst others the innovative BRUcloud platform. In February 2022, Steven became VP at Abu Dhabi Airport Company to realise the cargo ambitions and growth set by the airport.

Frederik Van De Ven

Frederik van de Ven main interest focuses on the development and implementation of the Sustainable Aviation Fuel (SAF) program for the Air France-KLM Cargo department.
He studied industrial engineering at the University of Technology in Eindhoven, with a MSc in operations management and logistics. He started his career at Air France-KLM in Paris, working for the Revenue Management department. His engineer background brought him back to the NL, to SPL (Schiphol) airport, where amongst several projects, he designed a new track and trace system for the baggage handling department. After 5 years working for Air France-KLM, he decided to focus on sustainability, working as program director for the cargo department, role that he currently combines with his task as chief of staff for the Board of Air France-KLM.

Denis Choumert

Chairman, European Shippers’ Council
Denis was appointed Chairman of the European Shippers’ Council in April 2011.

He has been Chairman of AUTF, the French Shippers’ Association since 2005, and has worked as Director of the Boards of Ports de Paris and Réseau Ferré de France and as Director of the Boards of Voies Nevigables de France.

Lars J.T. Droog

Lars J.T. Droog (1974) is a passionate and seasoned international business executive with more than 25 years of multi-cultural management experience and a proven track record in the management of local, regional and global organizations. Droog holds a bachelor’s degree in business administration from Amsterdam University of Applied Sciences (Economics & Management) and had the privilege to work for internationally reputable organizations like Tosoh Corporation, Thermo Fisher Scientific and currently as director at Cytek Biosciences. This provides him with a unique expertise of both commercial and operational best practices, an invaluable asset as a good understanding of global (commercial) operations becomes increasingly strategically important. He is also chairman of TIACA’s Shippers’ Advisory Committee, chairman of evofenedex’s Airfreight and Express Council, a committee of the Dutch Shippers’ Council and board member of evofenedex.

Vanessa Hubert

Vanessa Hubert is an internationally experienced and transformational leader in the logistics & air cargo industry, with a specific expertise on Revenue Management & Pricing. She has a fervent passion for people, commercial strategies and global markets.

Prior her role at DHL Aviation, Vanessa has served other leading of air cargo carriers & logistic companies such as Qatar Airways Cargo, Maersk and Air France KLM. She also provided consultancy services to airlines & logistics companies as an independent consultant.

Vanessa holds an Master Business Administration (MBA) from Tecnologico de Monterrey (Mexico) and a Master in Business degree from Burgundy School of Business (France) and is fluent in French, English and Spanish.

Pieter Vlam

After studying International Management, Pieter worked for some Logistic service providers followed by a career at Bausch+Lomb where he's been working for 17 years.
He started in a position at Order Management and gradually grew in to his current role, which is responsibility for all Export orders in EMEA to DC’s and Distributors as well as full responsibility of all Inbound and Outbound shipments from and to our facility at Schiphol-Rijk.

Kenneth Gibson

Kenneth Gibson is the Head of Business Development at the International Air Cargo Association.

He’s been with the organization since 2015; supporting members in growing their brands and strengthening their industry relationships.
Kenneth holds Master of Science degree in Global Strategic Communications, with a Graduate Certificate in Conflict Resolution and Consensus Building from Florida International University, School of Journalism and Mass Communication.

Kenneth is originally from Caracas, Venezuela and resides in Miami, FL
He is fluent in English and Spanish… with a drop of Portuguese.

Ed Gillett

Gillett began his career in aviation managing cargo flights at an air charter company, before working as an A321 pilot for a British airline for more than seven years. Using his experience in the charter side of air cargo and knowledge of its administrative hangups and logistical challenges, Gillett founded CharterSync with fellow airline pilot Simon Watson in 2017, to bring the booking process of air cargo charter beyond emails and phone calls and into a digital future. In a sector of the cargo market that has seen almost no substantial innovation in the last 40 years, CharterSync’s digital brokerage platform is disrupting and reshaping air cargo charter to allow freight forwarders to optimise their administrative visibility and efficiency while leveraging the flexibility of charter as opposed to air freight.

Bart Jan Haasbeek

As Global Events & Engagement Manager at CHAMP Cargosystems, Bart Jan focuses planning an executing CHAMP’s engagement with the wider air cargo community. He hosts and moderates CHAMP virtual events including webinars and customer Summit. Bart Jan also engages internally and externally for innovations within IT and air cargo.
Prior to his current role, Bart Jan has over 30 years of experience in the Air Cargo industry, of which 17+ years are within Information Technology, and with 13+ year hands on experience working for Korean Air Cargo and Panalpina.
Bart Jan has held various sales roles within CHAMP as well as management roles within OAG Cargo Solutions and UBM aviation such as Vice President Cargo Sales and is the co-founder of Inforwarding.com.
Prior to joining CHAMP in 2014, Bart Jan worked for Saudia Cargo; accountable for P/L for Palm Cargo; the exclusive General Sales Agent for Saudia Cargo in The Netherlands.
In his spare time, Bart Jan volunteers at WWF, enjoys biking, sailing, concerts, and spending time with his family.

David Linford

As Director, Global Sales & Account Management, David focuses on delivering CHAMP’s wide product portfolio, developing and managing the on-going relationships with existing and new customers around the world.
David joined CHAMP in Jan 2019 as Head of Commercial & Operations-EMEA. Prior to CHAMP, he was previously the General Manager-UK for Network Airlines Services-GSA for 2.5 years serving a number of premium airlines such as Etihad, Avianca & Air Malta. Previously he worked at Delta Air Lines as Regional Director Cargo-EMEIA for 9 years and 11 at Continental Airlines as European Service Manager.
With strong commercial, Strategic and Operational leadership skills, honed through an international career spanning 20+ years within the cargo industry his perspective from the customers viewpoint will benefit our customers by delivering the best possible service and kept informed of our new products launches.

Sara Van Gelder

Sara Van Gelder joined the Nallian team in 2020 as Cargo Community Solution Manager. Since then, she is in charge of the product management of the different applications typically used by the Air Cargo stakeholders. Before joining Nallian, she was Digital Development Manager in the Cargo & Logistics team of Brussels Airport. She graduated in 2013 from the KULeuven as a Commercial Engineer with a Master‘s in Logistics and International Business. She started her professional career in the Contract Logistic department of Kuehne+Nagel as Project Coordinator, where she coordinated multiple continuous improvement projects. Later, via her role as Project Manager of Sky Fresh, she was introduced to the air cargo industry, working on traceability and digitization of quality control for time and temperature sensitive goods. In 2017 she obtained a Postgraduate in Big Data & Analytics.

Edip Pektas

I consider myself a serial entrepreneur and a trainee of life. I have helped build multiple companies in different sectors ranging from banking and finance to agriculture technology. I am curious learning about anything and everything that would make my life and others' more enjoyable and meaningful.

I started Inoa Ventures managing investments in the medical device, logistics, real estate and online platforms.

I aspire to live a century long and hope to partner up, help build and grow companies that matter.

Lesley Cripps

Lesley Cripps – is an Airline/Aviation industry professional with over 30 year’s commercial & operational experience working within the cargo aviation industry for 5 major players, having held a number of key positions contributing to a broad knowledge of the industry. She has a proven track record of sales growth in all positions combined with excellent networking skills.
She started her career with Singapore Airlines where she developed her understanding for operations she excelled and passed all courses, with a passion growing for the cargo industry progressed into sales with Martinair, at that time a global cargo operator.
She has made it clear that the cargo industry is far behind so many industries when it comes to information technology. Cargo Flash has the innovation and team to take this forward, and with Lesley’s understanding of the industry, she will look to take the technology forward in the industry.

Overall, she has Sales and Operational experience with a balanced view of the aviation business gained over 30 years in the industry. During her years within the cargo sector has gained the respect of the industry and is known to be straight forward and not afraid of a challenge.

Glyn Hughes

Glyn has been involved in Air Cargo for over 37 years having started his career with British Caledonian in the UK.
He joined IATA in 1991 and become IATA's Global Head of Cargo in June 2014, where he had overall responsibility to deliver the agenda agreed by the Cargo Committee to support the Air Cargo industry. In February 2021, Glyn joined TIACA as its first Director general where he will work with the Board to deliver the organization's vision for a safe, profitable and united air cargo industry that embraces modern technologies and practices to sustainably and fairly serve trade and social development worldwide. Priority areas include safety, security, digitalization and innovation. He is dedicated to developing collaborative relationships and is a firm believer in supporting the next generation of industry leaders and innovators.
Glyn spends a large amount of time on outreach programs with training and other educational establishments.

Hans Nilsson

Hans is an experienced international executive who brings
more than 25 years of aviation and air cargo, logistics
leadership, and management consulting experience to the
firm.
He focuses on C
suite searches, board and recruitment of
critical resources within the global aviation, transportation,
and logistic sectors for listed and private equity held
companies.
Before joining Alumni, Hans worked at another global
executive search firm, where he was a key member of the
industrial, board, and transportation practice acting as the
global aviation sector leader. He has assisted a broad
range of airlines, airports, MROs, and OEMs in recruiting top
level executives and specialists across the globe.
Prior to his career in executive search, Hans served as a
Director at the International Air Transport Association, IATA
in Geneva.
Earlier, Hans held executive positions at Swiss, KLM Cargo,
West Atlantic, and Jeppesen. He started his career as an
accomplished Pilot for the Swedish Coast Guard. Hans has
been an active contributor to advisory boards defining new
applications, services concepts, and business strategies. He
lived and worked in Switzerland and the United States for
over ten years and has worked across the globe.
Hans earned a Master of Science degree in Human
Resource Management at the University of Leicester, and he
holds a degree in Aeronautical Science as a graduate
Coast Guard Pilot.

Kal Petrov

Kal brings more than 15 years international freight forwarding experience and a diverse background including LCL management and business implementation. Kal has been working at two of the major global players in the freight forwarding industry (K+N and Panalpina) and has been able to develop strong and valuable professional relationships.

In his younger days :) Kal was also awarded with the second place of the Young International Freight Forwarder of the Year 2013 competition organized by FIATA.

Outside of Dronamics, Kal enjoys spending time with his family and is looking forward to teaching his 4-year old girl and 2-year old boy everything about drones. Kal has been a gaming enthusiast since he was a teenager, while also enjoying swimming and hiking with his family in his free time.”

Mart Vergouwen

Since 2002 back at the airport as MD of ICTS-NAS and I-SEC Nederland; the largest security providers to Schiphol airport till today.
As from 2018 till 2021 CEO of I-SEC International group leading 15 companies in 10 different countries mainly in Europe but also two in Asia (Japan and South Korea).
Holding an MBA of the The Hague university.
Did two programs at the business university Nyenrode - strategical leadership and recently behavioral and cultural governance.
In my free time I am chairman of football club VV Katwijk in The Netherlands, acting on the highest amateur level - last season became again champions and thus we are allowed to call ourselves for the 6th time; the best amateur team of The Netherlands.

Slogan; Together and only together we can achieve everything

Constantino Canu

Constantino Canu is Policy Manager at CLECAT, the European Association for Freight Forwarding, Transport, Logistics and Customs Services, where he is responsible for air & rail freight, supply chain security and digitalisation.

Constantino is a member of various expert groups at the European Commission, as well as private sector fora, where he represents the interests of European freight forwarders and provides technical expertise on matters relating to freight transport and digitalisation. Constantino has been leading CLECAT’s initiatives on, inter alia, the EU air cargo security legislative framework, the EU Import Control System 2.0 (ICS2) and international PLACI initiatives, the fight against counterfeiting, as well as the EU Regulation on electronic freight transport information (eFTI).

Constantino holds a Bachelor of Laws in European Law and a Master of Laws in Corporate and Commercial Law, both from Maastricht University, as well as an Advanced Master of Laws in Intellectual Property and ICT Law from KU Leuven

Nathan De Valck

Nathan heads the Cargo Product & Route development team at Brussels Airport. He is responsible for the business development and key account activities for airlines, forwarders and shippers at Brussels Airport, as well as the further development of the BRUcargo digitization and various specializations such as pharma, perishables, animal transport or e-commerce.

In his previous role Nathan took the lead in further strengthening BRUcargo’ s position as the preferred European pharmaceutical gateway. He managed the CEIV pharma community certification program at BRUcargo making Brussels Airport the first cargo community in the world to be CEIV pharma certified.

Nathan De Valck has been working in the aviation industry since 2002. His cargo experience ranges from operational management, legal compliance, business development to commercial account management at several airports in Europe for cargo handling agents and airport operators.

Nathan is co-founder and current chairman of Pharma.Aero and a full member of the IATA Time and Temperature Working Group

Vivian Labrecque

Gordon Wright

Gordon Wright is currently the Vice President, Customs Regulatory Affairs EU, having joined DHL as of 1 February 2021. Prior to this appointment Gordon was Head, Cargo Border Management at the International Air Transport Association (IATA) for 9 years. In this global role Gordon was responsible for Customs, trade facilitation and cargo security topics.
Preceding his time at IATA Gordon had a 25 year career as a regulator (Customs) working in all aspects of Customs compliance and enforcement in the UK, South Africa and the EU Commission (DG TAXUD). For the last 11 years Gordon has specialized in supply chain security solutions and trade facilitation at an international level.
Gordon has a Masters degree in Customs Law and Administration.

József Kossuth

Mr. József Kossuth is the head of cargo for Budapest Airport. He joined Budapest Airport Zrt (BUD) in 2008. He is responsible for managing the airport cargo business development, sales and marketing, and he co-ordinates the work of the air cargo community. His mission is to support the development of the air cargo industry in the Central Eastern European region and improve the air cargo environment for all air cargo business partners. He works with passion to increase the regional cargo hub role of BUD utilizing the expanding cargo potentials in the Central Eastern European region.
Mr. Kossuth has spent his entire carrier in the Aviation Industry. From 2003 he worked as Assistant Fuel Manager for Malév Hungarian Airlines, Sales Manager of Airport Fuel Supply Ltd. subsidiary of (BUD), responsible for fuel service purchasing, sales, and marketing activities. From 2008 to 2014, he worked as Controlling Manager for BUD. His task was dealing with capital expenditure and airport development projects of the airport and other controlling activities, and he joined the air cargo business department of BUD in 2015.
Besides, he is the Board Member of Association of Logistic Service Centres in Hungary, Head of the Aviation Working Group of the Freight Forwarder Association in Hungary and represents the association in the international aviation working group of FIATA. József Kossuth has gained a Master of Economics specialized in Management from the University of Miskolc in Hungary in 2003.

Kaspar Andreas Nissen

Steven Polmans

Steven Polmans started his career after graduating in 1995 in aviation joining a European handling company and his since spent most of his career in the industry. After having held several operational and management position at different airports in handling, he joined Brussels Airport in 2010 as Cargo Marketing Manager and was appointed Head of Cargo and Logistics in 2012. In this position, he was responsible for developing and implementing the overall cargo strategy of the airport.

Steven was also the founding father and first chairman of Air Cargo Belgium, a newly established air cargo organisation at BRUcargo, grouping all stakeholders. On April 1st 2019, Steven was promoted to Director Cargo & Logistics, adding all responsibilities for cargo real estate development and portfolio management to its existing role.

Steven joined the board of TIACA, The International Air Cargo Association, in August 2016, and became Vice Chairman in October 2017. As of July 2019, Steven took over the role of Chairman at TIACA, a position he still holds today.
In January 2021, Steven moved on and joined Nallian as their Chief Customer Officer, a data sharing company building amongst others the innovative BRUcloud platform. In February 2022, Steven became VP at Abu Dhabi Airport Company to realise the cargo ambitions and growth set by the airport.

Torsten Wefers

Liege Airport is Belgium's number one cargo airport and the 5th biggest in Europe. Daily freighter connections to Asia, the Middle East, Africa and the Americas, cargorail connections to China and an European air and road network have turned LGG into a global multimodal cargo hub with a fast growing forwarder footprint.
The flexibility of the airport, the perfect geographical location and the dedicated infrastructure and specialized procedures enable the cargo to arrive at final destination faster. LGG cargo community focuses on express and e-commerce, perishables and pharmaceuticals, outsize cargo and live animals.
The LGG Humanitarian and Health hub is growing from the strong foundations and long experience of rapid response freighters from LGG to where help is needed most. The need for a coordinated approach, and the importance of #freightersfirst as part of the solution, are the driving factors of this LGG Cargo Community Cluster initiative.

Anne Marie van Hemert

Jacques H.M. Heeremans

With a career spanning more than four decades in the air cargo industry, Jacques launched IAS / Inter Aviation Services BV in Amsterdam in October 1987. As an independent cargo GSSA with offices in Europe, Middle East and Asia, IAS is proud to represent in various countries major airlines, like United Cargo, Kalitta Air, TAP Portugal, DHL Aviation, Vietnam Airlines, Finnair, Challenge Air Cargo and South African Airways.
Jacques and his experienced team of air cargo professionals offer value-added services to IAS customer airlines including cargo operations supervision, 24/7 Charter desk, Cargo Airline Management, Consultancy and Pharma Logistics amongst other

Julia Knecht-Ostwaldt

With nearly two decades of air cargo industry experience, Julia first joined the industry as a trainee for a freight forwarder in 2003. In 2005, Julia moved into the Cargo GSA area of business by joining Cargoworks, offering total cargo management in cooperation with Cargo Counts (LH) from Jan 2006 – Sept. 2007. Julia then joined STRIKE Aviation AG in Oct. 2007 as Commercial Director Europe and in 2013 became a shareholder in Strike Holding GmbH (Europe). In her current role as Chief Operating Officer for Europe, Julia uses her excellent leadership, management and commercial skills to develop the business further.

Joachim Von Winning

Joachim von Winning is the Executive Director of the Air Cargo Community Frankfurt, Frankfurt’s air cargo industry association. The community includes over 50 freight forwarders, airlines, cargo handlers, the airport operator and other service providers from the air cargo process chain at Frankfurt Airport – Europe’s no.1 in this sector. Since 2018 is a member of the IATA Time and Temperature Working Group.

Prior to his current role from 2010 to 2014; Joachim was the Chief Commercial Officer of Cairo Airport as part of a management contract between Fraport and Egypt responsible for the non-aviation revenues and air cargo department of the airport as well as route development. He is also a lecturer in Strategic Airport Management at several universities in the region.

Steven Verhasselt

Steven Verhasselt is the founder of FB Cargo Strategy.
After graduated in Brussels, from Ehsal with a Master Degree in Business Administration, he started working for the Regional Development Agency, focused on assisting startup companies with business plans, seed and venture capital. One of the projects lead him into cargo aviation, and once you are in, ...

Steven entered the aviation world in 2001 running a project to start up a cargo airline based in Brussels. He found a mentor in Herman Neukermans, and a Compagnon de Route in Koen Servaes. The project led him to the Middle East and Asia. In 2003, Steven landed in Hong Kong and liked it a lot. He started his own company, offering business development Asia services to airports, airlines and aviation related companies.

Steven worked for the business development team of Brussels Airport, and successfully established the first direct connection between Brussels and Beijing. His true passion led him to Liege Airport as Cargo Development Manager Asia in 2006. He worked there for 15 years as the commercial director of Liege Airport, Belgium’s leading cargo airport. He was responsible for the global cargo development as core business, but was also in charge of passenger, real estate and Liege Airport Consulting. Steven became the face of a leading European Cargo Airport living in Hong Kong and travelling around the globe.

Since 2022, Steven works full time for FB Cargo Strategy Ltd, his company. Steven is no longer working mainly for LGG Airport, and definitely not exclusively. He works on different projects for Airports. All the projects have in common that they are innovative, and air cargo related, and always partnerships with colleagues who became friends.

David Smorenburg

David was Born and raised in the Netherlands, and studied logistics management for aviation. Through various roles in the airline industry, David has gained significant experience and knowledge. A broad base of expertise including Operational knowhow gained from being a loadmaster on the B747F, which then transitioned into customer service management. David also held Sales and key account positions at airlines and ground handlers before taking up his current position at Jan de Rijk Logistics, all the time specializing in Airfreight.

Maarten Van As

Steven Polmans

Steven Polmans started his career after graduating in 1995 in aviation joining a European handling company and his since spent most of his career in the industry. After having held several operational and management position at different airports in handling, he joined Brussels Airport in 2010 as Cargo Marketing Manager and was appointed Head of Cargo and Logistics in 2012. In this position, he was responsible for developing and implementing the overall cargo strategy of the airport.

Steven was also the founding father and first chairman of Air Cargo Belgium, a newly established air cargo organisation at BRUcargo, grouping all stakeholders. On April 1st 2019, Steven was promoted to Director Cargo & Logistics, adding all responsibilities for cargo real estate development and portfolio management to its existing role.

Steven joined the board of TIACA, The International Air Cargo Association, in August 2016, and became Vice Chairman in October 2017. As of July 2019, Steven took over the role of Chairman at TIACA, a position he still holds today.
In January 2021, Steven moved on and joined Nallian as their Chief Customer Officer, a data sharing company building amongst others the innovative BRUcloud platform. In February 2022, Steven became VP at Abu Dhabi Airport Company to realise the cargo ambitions and growth set by the airport.

Glyn Hughes

Glyn has been involved in Air Cargo for over 37 years having started his career with British Caledonian in the UK.
He joined IATA in 1991 and become IATA's Global Head of Cargo in June 2014, where he had overall responsibility to deliver the agenda agreed by the Cargo Committee to support the Air Cargo industry. In February 2021, Glyn joined TIACA as its first Director general where he will work with the Board to deliver the organization's vision for a safe, profitable and united air cargo industry that embraces modern technologies and practices to sustainably and fairly serve trade and social development worldwide. Priority areas include safety, security, digitalization and innovation. He is dedicated to developing collaborative relationships and is a firm believer in supporting the next generation of industry leaders and innovators.
Glyn spends a large amount of time on outreach programs with training and other educational establishments.