Desmond Ross

Desmond Ross has been at the forefront of the aviation industry for over 35 years starting in N. Ireland and then Australia with ten years in air traffic services followed by several years as a fixed and rotary wing pilot gaining more than 7,500 flight hours before moving to management roles. As CEO of Airports Vanuatu Limited, from 1999 till 2005, he led and delivered the corporatization of the airport company and a European funded major capital project upgrading two international airports in Vanuatu. From 2005 till 2008 he was the first permanent Head of the Pacific Aviation Safety Office (PASO), working with ten Pacific Island countries which acceded to the Pacific Islands Civil Aviation Safety and Security Treaty. More recently he completed contracts with the UK FCO, in South Sudan as Chief of Staff and Dep. Head of Mission for an EU crisis mission to the newly independent State of South Sudan. He worked on HR and infrastructure capacity development projects in Croatia, Afghanistan, Brazil and India. He is a very experienced project manager able to enhance delivery through wider industry knowledge. He has received several awards for distinguished service and helicopter rescue missions in difficult situations. He was one of the pilot group to graduate from the ICAO AVSEC Professional Management programme done in Casablanca 2004. Since then he has been at the forefront of aviation security development as an ICAO expert and practitioner. He was Project Director for the Afghan National Airports Project 2015 / 2017 and his group won “AVSEC Team of the Year” awarded at AVSEC Global 2017 in Dubai. This experience and knowledge enables him to practically integrate air operations, air safety and AVSEC measures as essential elements of any new airport or operational facility during the design and development phase. He has just completed an ICAO project to assist the transition of the Namibian CAA from Government to a new Civil Aviation Authority.