People Category: AIAA AVIATION Forum 2022

Dr. Jay Fitzgerald is a technology manager for the Conversion Program in the Bioenergy Technologies Office at the U.S. Department of Energy (DOE). In that role, he manages a portfolio of research and development projects focused on overcoming the challenges in converting biomass into fuels, chemicals, and materials. Specifically, he focuses on biological conversion using engineered enzymes and organisms to convert biomass in a cost-effective and environmentally friendly manner.

Jay was previously an American Association for the Advancement of Science (AAAS) Science and Technology Policy Fellow at the DOE Office of Science’s Office of Biological and Environmental Research. He completed his doctorate in organic chemistry at Stanford University in Dr. Chaitan Khosla’s laboratory, focusing on the biosynthesis of medicinally useful polyketides. He also holds a bachelor’s degree in biochemistry and a minor in economics from Middlebury College.

Ms. Jacqueline S. Janning-Lask, a member of the Senior Executive Service, is the Director of Engineering and Technical Management and Chief Engineer, Air Force Life Cycle Management Center, headquartered at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base, Ohio. She provides wide ranging leadership for ensuring technical supremacy and integrity of all Air Force aircraft, engines, munitions, electronic, and business systems. She leads the transformation to digital engineering to unleash the value of technology disruption and provide rapid capability maturation, delivery, and readiness. She leads a 6,000 person national engineering organization and is responsible for talent acquisition, development, and management of the center’s engineering and technical workforce. She is the executive responsible for installation management of the Air Force-owned industrial plants throughout the nation. She also provides direct warfighter support through combat effectiveness, vulnerability, and operational weaponeering analyses; product support engineering; and sustainment technology innovation.

Ms. Janning-Lask began her federal service in the Aeronautical Systems Division’s Engineering Directorate in 1988 as a systems engineer. She has held numerous management and technical positions within the Air Force Research Laboratory, and acquisition communities. She most recently served as Director, Sensors Directorate, Air Force Research Laboratory, Wright Patterson AFB.

A Collier Trophy and X-Prize winning engineer, Jim oversees product design, product technical requirements, and the roadmap for all current and future efforts. Before joining the company, he worked at Kitty Hawk as CTO and served as chief aerodynamicist for Scaled Composites, working on the SpaceShipOne project, as well as Firebird, an optionally piloted UAV and TX, a T-38 demonstrator. He was project engineer and flight director for most of the SpaceShipTwo program and had critical roles in Global Flyer, and other proprietary projects. He also worked in Boeing’s Commercial Airplane Group, working with the stability and control group for the 777-200/300ER programs, supporting wind tunnel tests, simulator development and analytics. While at Scaled Composites, Jim received the Design News Engineer of the Year Award and was named Distinguished Alumni at his alma mater, the University of Colorado.

Roderick McLean is Vice President and General Manager of the Air Mobility & Maritime Missions Line of Business at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Marietta, Georgia. He is also the Site General Manager of the 5,000-employee Marietta facility.

In this role, he is responsible for the C-130 Hercules transport, the C-5 strategic airlifter, the LM-100J commercial air freight variant, and the P-3 Orion. As Site General Manager for the Marietta manufacturing facility, he is responsible for the day-to-day operations of the facility. In addition to the AMMM Line of Business (LOB), the Marietta site manufactures Center Wing Assemblies for the F-35 Lightning II multirole, fighter aircraft, and provides sustainment support for the F-22 Raptor.

Prior to this position he was Vice President and General Manager, F-16/F-22 Integrated Fighter Group (IFG) Programs at Lockheed Martin Aeronautics Company in Fort Worth, Texas. There he was responsible for an organization of more than 3,000 employees performing new aircraft production, avionics subsystem development, aircraft integration and product support, and sustainment for the F-16 Fighting Falcon multirole fighter and the F-22 Raptor air dominance fighter. His program portfolio also included international partnerships in support of the Japanese F-2 fighter and multiple Korean programs to include the T-50 trainer, F/A-50 light attack, and KF-X aircraft programs. He was responsible for program performance and identifying synergies across programs, aligning them for continued success. Earlier in his career, he served as the F-16 Deputy Vice President and F-16 Program Director for several countries in the Middle East, North Africa, and Southeast Asia.

Rod began working with Lockheed Martin in 1994 as a Radar Systems Engineer in Moorestown, New Jersey, and held a number of roles throughout his career including Aegis SPY-1D radar system development/integration, Advanced Systems Engineering Functional Manager, Littoral Combat Ship (LCS) Technical Volume Proposal Lead, LCS Integrated Product Team Lead, Chief Systems Engineer, and Executive Assistant to a Business Unit President. Prior to joining Aeronautics, Mr. McLean worked within Lockheed Martin Government Affairs supporting the Corporate Headquarters Executive Staff.

Mr. McLean graduated from North Carolina A&T State University with a degree in Electrical Engineering. He holds a master’s degree in Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology and a Master of Business Administration from the University of Maryland’s Robert H. Smith School of Business. He serves on North Carolina A&T State University’s Engineering Advisory Board, Metro Atlanta Chamber Board of Directors, and is a member of the Executive Leadership Council. Rod also serves as a member of Drakken International Board of Directors and is a National Association of Corporate Directors certified Director. He and his wife Kathy have three children.

Diana Birkett Rakow leads Alaska’s government affairs, ESG and sustainability, communications and community engagement with teams in Seattle, San Francisco, Alaska, Hawaii, and Washington D.C. Together, they work to grow Air Group’s business, employee engagement, and legacy of responsibility and corporate citizenship. She also leads Alaska’s venture arm, Alaska Star Ventures, and chairs the Board for the Alaska Airlines Foundation.

Diana joined Alaska Airlines after two decades in health care and public health at health insurance and care delivery organizations and the U.S. Senate Finance Committee. Diana served as vice president of public affairs, communications and brand management at Kaiser Permanente through its acquisition of Group Health. Prior to that, she was Group Health’s executive vice president of public affairs and marketing and president of the Group Health Foundation.

Diana holds a bachelor’s degree from Harvard University and master’s degrees in public administration and public health from the University of Washington. She is on the Boards of the Seattle Metro Chamber, Pacific Science Center, Bay Area Council, and Philanthropy Northwest.

Ludovic Aron is the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) representative in the United States of America, based in Washington D.C., with the title of a Diplomatic Counsellor. His mission is to enhance the cooperation between the European Union (EU) and the United States of America, and more particularly between EASA and the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), on all matters related to aviation safety and sustainability.

Ludovic has over 20 years of experience in aircraft design engineering and certification. After his military service in the French Navy, Ludovic Aron joined Dassault-Aviation, working as an aircraft systems engineer, first in the Military Customer Support division (on the Rafale Fighter program and on the military drones program) and then in the Business Jets division. He held several positions before being appointed Technical Program Manager for the legacy Dassault Falcon 10, 20 and 50 series and for the new Falcon 900LX program development.

After 10 years in Dassault-Aviation, eager to take up a new challenge, Ludovic then joined a brand-new French airplane maker, Sky Aircraft (GECI Aviation Group), as Head of Aircraft Systems and member of the Program Steering Committee for the design, development, and production of a new commuter category turbo-propeller aircraft.

In 2013, Ludovic came to the European Union Aviation Safety Agency (EASA) and soon after he was appointed Head of the Business Aeroplanes Certification. Thereafter he became Head of the Large Aeroplanes Certification, managing a department of 80 technical experts and project managers in charge of the European certification of the most modern airliners (A320neo series, A330neo, A350-1000, B737 Max, B787-10, Embraer E2 Jets). He held this position for about 5 years and was namely responsible for the return to service of the B737 Max in Europe after its worldwide grounding in March 2019.

Ludovic Aron holds a master’s degree in aeronautical and aerospace engineering, with a focus on Space-based Telecommunications, that he obtained after studying both at the Institut Supérieur de l’Aéronautique et de l’Espace – ISAE-SUPAERO (Toulouse, France) and at the Technische Universität München – TUM (Munich, Germany).

Capt. Bob Fox (United) serves as ALPA’s first vice president and national safety coordinator. He was elected by the union’s Board of Directors on Oct. 17, 2018, and began his four-year term on Jan. 1, 2019. As national safety coordinator, Capt. Fox oversees the Association’s Air Safety Organization, which manages the union’s safety, security, pilot assistance, and jumpseat programs, and is the world’s largest nongovernmental safety organization.

In addition to these responsibilities, Capt. Fox serves as the industry co-chair of the FAA’s Flight Standards Transparency, Performance, Accountability, Efficiency Aviation Rulemaking Committee. He is a member of the NextGen Advisory Committee Subcommittee and is the pilot representative for the U.S. Department of Transportation’s Safety Oversight and Certification Advisory Committee, which advises the Transportation secretary on policy matters related to aviation safety. In addition to these responsibilities, Capt. Fox serves at the IFALPA director for U.S. ALPA and is a member of the ICAO Cooperative Oversight for Cross-border Operations Sub Group.

Based in Washington, D.C., Capt. Fox flies the Airbus A320 and previously served his pilot group as Master Executive Council vice chairman and Alliance and Scope Oversight Committee member, as well as a Local Executive Council chair and secretary-treasurer.

Retired from the U.S. Navy, Capt. Fox conducted four operational deployments on the USS Kitty Hawk (2), USS Saratoga, and the USS Eisenhower aircraft carriers, flying the LTV A-7 Corsair and the McDonnell Douglas F/A-18 Hornet. Between these deployments, he conducted flight test work on the F/A-18 weapon systems.

Capt. Fox is a graduate of the U.S. Naval Academy and the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School. He resides in Tequesta, Fla., with his wife, Susan.

Through his research, Dr. Maciek Nowak has worked with Federal Express, United Parcel Service, and the Georgia Ports Authority. He has also received grants for research from the Federal Highway Administration, the U. S. Department of Transportation and the U.S. State Department. Dr. Nowak’s current research focuses on the use of various heuristic optimization techniques for vehicle routing problems. He was selected as a Fulbright Scholar to conduct research as a visiting scholar at the Warsaw School of Economics. He was also a visiting scholar at Northwestern University and the University of Tunis-El Manar. His research has been published in Transportation Science, European Journal of Operational Research, Computers & OR, and the Journal of Transportation Management. He has also written book chapters on the package express industry and the use of technology in the trucking industry.

Timothy (Tim) Booher is Vice President Combat Systems, Aeronautics for Lockheed Martin Corporation. In this capacity, he is responsible for leading Aeronautics Engineering and Technology Combat Systems team, which develops and sustains all electronic, computational systems enabling combat and mission effectiveness for all platforms across Aeronautics.

Responsibilities includes leadership through all phases of design, development, delivery, and sustainment of integrated solutions ensuring Aeronautics decisions support the corporate  strategy from both a business and technology migration perspective.

Before joining Lockheed Martin, Mr. Booher was HSBC Bank’s Global Chief Technology Officer  for Cybersecurity where he was responsible for 986M in annual security spend  and for the  strategy, design, engineering and implementation of security technology across 22 countries, 4 regions, and 3 business units for 40-million customers, 250,000 employees, and 2.7B AUM.

Prior to his tenure at HSBC, Mr. Booher was Colgate -Palmolive’s Chief Data and Chief Information Security Officer responsible for the analytics, data strategy, technology architecture and computer security. Before his time at Colgate, Mr. Booher was a program manager for the Defense Advanced Projects Research Agency, where he directed a research portfolio of  offensive cyber technologies, data analytics, programming languages, cryptography, formal methods, advanced sensing, and artificial intelligence.

He also previously served in the Air Force Red Team at the Air Force Rapid Capabilities Office and the deputy director for technical policy integration for special programs at the Office of the Undersecretary of Defense for Policy.He has led assessments of advanced technology including sensors for intelligence surveillance and reconnaissance, aircraft survivability, directed energy and cyberspace operations. He has also held positions at Headquarters U.S. Air Force (AF/A9, AF/A8, SAF/AQ), the Air Force Research Laboratory (RYS, RWC), the F-15 SPO, Joint Special Operations Command and the Active Materials and Structures Laboratory at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

In a part-time capacityMr. Booher co-founded three start-up companies and served as a board director and advisor for Google, Team8, Glilot Capital Partners and Forgepoint Capital. He is a judge for the Ansari Xprize. Mr. Booher has degrees in Aeronautics/Astronautics from the  Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT) and Operations Research from the Air Force  Institute of Technology. He holds certificates in Financial Planning from Georgetown University and Computer Security from Carnegie Mellon University.