This issue is all about fresh new faces. Some have been promoted to leading roles in the past several months to take on exciting new challenges at both airlines and airports – Badr Mohammed Al-Meer of Qatar Airways and Selahattin Bilgen at Istanbul Grand Airport.
Some are entirely new to the aviation business – Jennifer Aument of the New Terminal One at New York JFK. Others are new to the industry but are a name you may not have previously come across – Gautam Thakkar of Unifi.
Exploring the vision, strategy and aspirations of these leaders in the airline, airport and ground services arena is one of the best parts of my job. Each story is different, but the drive to deliver a legacy of success and growth is etched in each one.
A common theme in their stories is people. Gautam Thakkar of Unifi began our conversation with the stories of Naweed Rahimzada and Olga Borishkevich, both part of the Atlanta-based company’s far-sighted refugee hiring programme, launched in 2021 and going from strength to strength.
Badr Mohammed Al-Meer, from the outset of his tenure with the Qatar Airways v2.0, told employees in a personal letter that he wants “a culture of trust and empowerment. My vision as a CEO is to listen to the employees.”

All leaders will tell you it’s the people that make a company, not the CEO. Creating and sustaining a people-centric culture in these businesses will be a key component of their success as they grow, and expansion is the plan for all of them.

We are pleased to welcome Arpad Szakal of Cormis Partners and Shakeel Adam of Aviado Partners to this issue. Szakal offers his thoughts on how to navigate the future of work in the new world of artificial intelligence, while Adam considers whether the industry’s growth party will hit a wall.

It is also that time of year when we are dusting off our travel bags, preparing meetings and presentations for events like Routes World in Bahrain, Aviation Connect in Istanbul, and a batch of airline and airport conferences across the globe.

ARGS will see you at many of them. EVA International’s Aviation Connect event gets a special mention. It takes place in Istanbul from 29 to 31 October and features the Airport Services Association (ASA) Leadership Forum, in addition to parallel events covering air cargo and the GSE industry.

ASA recently announced that it has been formally recognised by ICAO as an international association – a major achievement. “ASA has been an influential international trade body for over 25 years, and this recognition by ICAO reinforces its role in the global aviation landscape, in particular in the field of ground handling services,” said ASA.
The winter issue of ARGS will round up the stories from all these events and more. Until then, safe travels.