The Club’s second forum event was held on Wednesday 1 March in central London and hosted over 60 attendees drawn from Club members, industry guests and the Young Aviation Professionals group. Additionally a number of students and their lecturers were welcomed from the University of Surrey and University of West London. The session was held in association with Club supporter BDO at their state of the art auditorium facility in Baker Street, and included pre-lecture drinks and canapes, a 60 minute interactive panel discussion followed by a one hour break-out Reception for further networking. The Panel comprised Jonathon Counsell, Group Head of Sustainability for IAG, Tim House, COO of BDO’s Sustainability/ESG Advisory Practice, and Barry Moss of Advocet. The event was hosted by Charles Morelli of BDO.
This second edition, titled ‘Practical ESG Solutions for the Aviation Sector’, was a much requested follow-on session from the launch event on 19 October 2022 – ‘Net Zero Pioneers and Financing’. Panellists Jaspal Jandu, CEO of LCI, Gabriel Lepine, VP of Strategic Finance at Zero Avia and Dr Amy Ruddock, VP Europe and Middle East at Carbon Engineering started discussion through their debate, held at the RAF Club, London. A recording of this session can be found HERE, or under the SPEAKERS tab on www.aviationclub.org.uk.
Both sessions were mediated by Forum Working Group Chairman Michael Halaby, content producer and champion of the Club’s Forum programme. ‘We recognised that we needed to create a formal platform for members to explore , learn and discuss more about some of the important, topical industry matters, outside of the existing events programme. The Forum was created to offer an interactive, deeper-delve into subject matter identified by members. At each Forum event we are able to share knowledge and discuss the subject matter in an open arena, with the opportunity of continuing in more depth and in smaller groups at the break-out Receptions.’. Halaby continues, ‘Feedback from attendees has been extremely positive and its great to see a broad mix of people attending these events, including the next generation of industry decision makers. We plan to continue with a programme of three sessions per year and are always open to content suggestion ‘.