Interview

Could you please introduce yourself briefly in 2-3 sentences, your function and how you came to it (short biography).

Having worked more than 30 years in the aviation industry, I joined Skyguide in early 2021 as Head of International Affairs. Previously I have worked with all industry partners along the value chain, for the major airlines in Europe as well as with the public sector, e.g the European Commission, in SESAR and with international agencies. Initially I started my career at Lufthansa airlines, after pursued my Masters in Economics. As part of my pro bono activities, I currently serve as a member of the board of the International Aviation Women’s Association (IAWA) as VP Europe & Africa and was honoured by the EC Commissioner for Transport as “EU Diversity Ambassador” in 2019. I am mother of two adult children, a girl and a boy.

Before Skyguide, you have occupied different work position in the aviation sector at European level. Aviation is known to be pretty male-dominated. Have you encountered any resistance linked to the fact that you are a woman?

Actually, I have never encountered any particular resistance based on gender. Fortunately, I have a set of male and female sponsors supporting my career path and my personal development.  However, I realized soon that there are less and less women at the table the higher you climb up the ladder. And I observed that this was hardly challenged but taken as `normal` by the male part of the leadership teams. I would call it an unconscious bias of many men, being happily used to the status quo and male dominated structures. Luckily this is slowly changing and it is widely acknowledged that diverse teams are more successful.

In your opinion, what are the barriers and obstacles to achieving gender equity?

There is a wide spread of reasons for it. Given that aviation and air traffic management are rather technical domains, in the past less women entered the sector. To fill the pipeline, our industry needs all talents and as part of this activity we need girls getting enthusiastic about aviation & aerospace. We need to push interest in STEM – science, technology, engineering, mathematics. Role models play an instrumental part here! And, later, companies need to proactively retain the women and develop their careers when they are on board. Women are more likely to consider leaving the sector than men and to be pushed out by negative experiences, rather than pulled away by new opportunities.

How can women navigate power structures?

It is not about “fixing the women” so they better deal with traditionally male power structures. We have to change the way of working together and this includes all leaders in a company. Attracting the best talents, provide support in mid-career and promote advancements to the senior executive roles must go hand in hand to build a culture that deliberately includes women. Providing flexible working structures for men and women at the stage of careers when women tend to leave (when they have children), to encourage them to stay engaged. To navigate for women, I would recommend: Connect, Inspire and Lead – according to the theme of IAWA.

If you could have dinner with an inspirational woman, dead or alive, who would she be and why?

There is another sector with very few women traditionally, this is the finance sector. I would like to have dinner with Ms Christine Lagarde, President of the European Central Bank. She managed her way through male dominated politics in France, worked in the executive level at the IMF in the US and is now at the ECB helm in Frankfurt. She is very dedicated on gender balance and regularly meets with local female delegations during her global business trips. I would be curious to listen to her learnings on how best to push gender balance and diversity now that we are finally seeing this becoming a reality.