Our leadership

Paul served as Chief Executive Officer of E.ON UK plc from 2002 to 2011 and is a Fellow of the Royal Academy of Engineering.

He is Chair of Costain Group plc and a non-executive director of ERA Foundation.

Paul chairs the Nomination Committee. Paul also attends the Audit Committee, Remuneration Committee, Safety Review Committee and Transformation Review Committee by invitation.

Maria is Group HR Director for Morgan Advanced Materials, she was appointed to this role in November 2020. Until April 2020 Maria was Senior Vice President HR/Executive HR based in E.ON’s headquarters in Germany.

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. Whilst at Ford, Maria was global HR Director for Jaguar, Land Rover and Aston Martin.

Maria is Chair of Trustees of Transport for London’s Pension Fund. Maria chairs the Remuneration Committee and is a member of the Nomination Committee. She is also a director and chairs the NATS Employee Sharetrust. Maria is also the designated non-executive director for workforce engagement with the Board.

Mike joined the Board in 2017 having spent the previous11 years at easyJet initially as Group People Director and subsequently as 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 Bachelor’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 programmes across all of these. Mike is Chair of AG, Chair of the Transformation Review Committee and a member of the Nomination and Remuneration Committees.

David has nearly 40 years’ blue chip experience in the in the highly competitive global automotive, aerospace and defence industries, including Ford, Jaguar Land Rover and Rolls-Royce. He retired in late 2021 after four years as Group CFO and Board member at QinetiQ.

David worked for Ford for more than 25 years, in a variety of finance and treasury roles including CFO of Ford Otosan (Turkey), CFO of Land Rover and CFO and Strategy Director of JLR.  In 2008 he became CEO of JLR during the transition to Tata ownership. Following two years as CEO of JLR he took up two more CFO roles, first at Edwards Group and then at Rolls-Royce before joining QinetiQ.

David was also a Board member of Motability plc for ten years. He is a member of the Advisory Panel at CIMA and a Fellow of the RSA.  David chairs the Audit Committee and is a member of the Transformation Review Committee.

Martin took up the post of Chief Executive in May 2015 having been Managing Director, Operations since 2012, with responsibility for NATS’ economically regulated UK and North Atlantic services.

An engineer by training, Martin holds a Master’s degree in Aerospace Systems Engineering from the University of Southampton. He has 20 years of experience in the defence and aerospace industry, and prior to joining NATS was the Managing Director of Lockheed Martin’s Civil Division with responsibility for worldwide ATM programmes as well as UK Government business.

Martin has also worked for the European Space Agency and Logica plc.

Greg served for 36 years in the Royal Air Force, retiring in 2016 as Deputy Commander with overall responsibility for all aspects of safety for all personnel and equipment and, as an independent member of four MoD Boards, helped shape policy on Safety, Information, Logistics and Infrastructure.

He began his military career as a pilot for more than 20 years, with more than 4000 flying hours on Tornado and CF-18 Hornet aircraft, and as a Commander. He became Chief of Military Plans at UK Joint HQ, Air Officer Commanding No 1 Group RAF and Director Joint Warfare, Joint Forces Command.

For the past five years, Greg has worked in the private sector with Cobham plc, AirTanker Ltd and is currently an Executive Director with Cobham Ltd. Greg is President of the UK’s Air & Space Power association, a Fellow of the RAeS and a Distinguished Fellow of RUSI.  He is also a chair for senior programmes at the Windsor Leadership Trust, and a trustee of “Flying for Freedom”, which enables wounded, injured and sick service personnel to go solo in microlights. Greg chairs the Safety Review Committee and is a member of the Transformation Review Committee.

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 Risk and Assurance Committee and chairs the Airspace Governance Board for Heathrow and is a Trustee for the Heathrow Multi-Faith Chaplaincy Charity. 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 management roles in Customer Service and Operations.

In March 2021, Louise was appointed into her current role as Head of Business Readiness which is responsible for overseeing the airline’s preparation to safely return to a full flying programme as demand returns following the Covid pandemic. Louise is a director of AG and a member of the Audit Committee.

Alistair joined NATS as CFO in August 2019 where, alongside finance, he is responsible for economic regulation, data analytics, supply chain and facilities management. He led its regulated business through refinancing in 2021, successfully raising £1.6bn.

Previously he held a number of senior roles at SSE plc, one of the largest energy companies in the UK, latterly being Group Finance Director for their Networks and Enterprise businesses, also having responsibility for the group’s central reporting, tax and treasury functions.

Alistair qualified as a Chartered Accountant with Deloitte and is a graduate of INSEAD’s Advanced Management Programme.

Harry spent most of his career in HM Treasury where he focused latterly on policies towards growth, science funding and privatisation and private finance.

He was UK Director at the European Investment Bank from 2001 to 2002. Harry left HM 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 was vice chair of UCL Hospitals Foundation Trust for six years until August 2019. He is a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society. Harry is a director of The Airline Group Limited (AG) and NATS Employee Sharetrust, and a member of the Audit Committee.

Gavin joined Universities Superannuation Scheme (USS) in 2011 and is Co-Head Direct Equity with responsibility for sourcing, evaluating and monitoring investments within the infrastructure and related portfolio. 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 20 years. Prior to joining USS, Gavin was a Director at Equitix Limited.

Gavin graduated with an honours degree in Law from the University of Edinburgh and is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants of Scotland. Gavin is a director of AG and a member of the Remuneration Committee.