was born on 12 July 1950, in Budapest Hungary. He spent his formative years in Cairo, Egypt, obtaining his secondary education and GCE at St. George's College in Heliopolis.

He obtained his air traffic controller's license in 1972, with ratings and qualifications eventually to include aerodrome and approach control, approach radar, area radar, instructor and examiner. He is also a qualified computer programmer. Alongside working as an air traffic controller, he was a founding member of the Air Traffic and Airport Administration's ATC Evaluation Unit in Budapest, being appointed Superintendent of that Unit in 1982.

In 1983 Steve joined the staff of the European Office of ICAO as technical officer rules of the air/search and rescue. On his return to Budapest in 1986, he worked as special assistant to the Director of the Air Traffic and Airport Administration.

In 1987 the Zerkowitz family moved its home to The Netherlands, where Steve worked for 9 years on the design team of the Amsterdam Advanced ATC system, as process specialist, flight data processing, earning Dutch citizenship in the process.

Six years ago, it was time to move to Brussels, where Steve joined the International Air Transport Association's European Office of Operations and Infrastructure, as Assistant Director. His current responsibilities include advanced ATM concepts, air/ground data link, new ATM tools and information management.

Captain Joseph D. Burns is the Director of Flight Operations Technology for United Airlines. At United, he previously held positions as Manager - Automation Systems/IS, Pilot Instructor on both the A320/319 and B-727 fleets, had chaired several A319 integration committees, served as the ALPA LEC Safety Chairman, and has flown A-320/319, B-737, and B-727 in line operations for UA. He is currently flying Captain on the A319/320. He is type-rated in A320/319, B-727, DHC-8, BE-1900 and BE300 aircraft.

Previous to United, Joe was the Director of Operations and Chief Pilot for USAir Express/Stateswest Airlines, a BAE-146 Pilot for USAir, B-727 Instructor and Pilot for Braniff Airlines, and Metroliner Pilot for Air Midwest. His engineering experience includes President of Inertia Technology, developing AWOS and Flight Systems, which he sold to Optical Detection Systems in 1999, Chief Pilot and systems engineer for Coffeen, Fricke, and Associates (Lenexa, KS), Chief Systems Engineer for Ericsson, Inc.'s Fiber Optic Network Communications Division (Overland Park, KS), and Engineering Manager for Sprint's Telenet/Uninet Division.

He is on the Board of Directors for ATNSI, Inc., RTCA, Inc., and Optical Detection Systems, Inc

Jeffrey Hmara is Director of the Federal Aviation Administration's Free Flight Phase 2 Program.

He began his FAA career in July of 1994 as the Integrated Product Team [IPT] Leader for En Route Systems. In his service to the FAA, Mr. Hmara has held significant leadership and managementn positions in development of the National Airspace System architecture and the FAA's Integrated Product Teams for Communications, Navigation and Surveillance.

In 1999, Mr. Hmara took on the task of leading a dynamic and challenging variation on the IPT philosophy, the Integrated Service Team [IST] for Business Operations, for the Office of Communications, Navigations, and Surveillance. Concurrent with his duties as the IST Leader for Business Operations, Mr. Hmara also served as the interim Deputy Director for this organization.

In May, 2000, he was appointed Deputy Director of the Free Flight Phase 2 Program, and Director in April, 2001.

following a fourteen year career as an operational Air Traffic Controller in civil air traffic services, he spent several years' work training and examining air traffic controllers and developing courses in ATC automation.

During this time, heworked in New Zealand, the Middle East, and the United Kingdom, and then joined EUROCONTROL at Brétigny, near Paris, with a position within Real-time Operations. Responsibilities included the management, preparation, and conduct of large-scale ATC simulations developing advanced ATM systems.

He currently lead two research projects in the datalink domain for the EUROCONTROL EATMP Programme. This includes the recent LINK2000+ programme research and a project of ongoing datalink research for the EATMP AGC programme DOVE (Datalink Operational Validation Experiments).

has been working as a Systems Engineer for the past 12 years, first as civilian employee of the US Navy, then for the FAA.

For the past 7 years he has been working on improvements to and replacement of exisintg FAA oceanic ATC automation, and was the lead engineer on the Oceanic Data Link project that successfully introduced CPDLC capabilities to the Oakland and New York oceanic ATC centers. Subsequently, he served as the technical evalaution lead for the Advanced Technologies and Oceanic Procedures (ATOP) project which will replace all existing oceanic ATC automation systems.

Currently Kevin isthe Chief Engineer for the Oceanic and Offshore IPT as well as the engineering lead for ATOP.

holds the position of Manager International Operations for Cathay Pacific Airways, based in Hong Kong. He position focuses on the cost benefit of air navigation systems, including ATM/cns, and air navigation user charges, including liaison with both IATA and ICAO, at a Regional and Headquarters level.

Prior to joining Cathay, Owen spent five years with ICAO in the Asia/Pacific Regional Office, Bangkok. Initially trained as an air traffic controller he spent 21 years working in New Zealand in civil and military air traffic control, including appointment to a number of senior management positions.

Since joining SITA last year in the Aircraft Services solution line, Akhil has been responsible for the development of SITA AIRCOM Services to support emerging Air Traffic Service datalink applications.

He has extensive experience in ATN technology having been actively involved in the ICAO SICASP and ATN Panels since 1989 whilst employed by UK National Air Traffic Services Ltd. He was UK Panel Member for the ATNP and rapporteur of ATNP/WG2.

After leaving UK NATS in 1997 Akhil was a co-founder FANS IS and worked as a consultant for Eurocontrol.

has been involved in the development of ground/ground and air/ground data communications for ATS since 1990, following ten years as aircrew on USAF RC-135s. Currently a senior systems engineer in the Applications and Aircraft section of Boeing ATM, Rob's primary duties are standardized implementation and operation of air/ground datalink, and achieving maximum ATS benefit from current and near-term aircraft capabilities.

Prior to joining Boeing in 2001, Rob spent 5 years as Project Manager for Eurocontrol's PETAL-II multi-stack air/ground datalink trials. He was the design authority for the operational and technical systems and procedures, the manager for day-to-day operational activities, and managed project execution to schedule and within budget. Rob has served as Chairman on a number of industry panels, including the PETAL-II Integration Team (PIT) and RTCA/EUROCAE groups.

Past ATM activities include operational analysis, systems specification, and project management in areas such as automated ground/ground ATC coordination, flight plan processing and distribution, air traffic flow management, and air traffic control team workload analysis.

is Director of Aircraft Operations and Navigation Services in the SITA Aircraft Communication unit, with responsibility in particular for the SITA AIRCOM data link service provided to Aircraft Operators and Air Traffic Service providers.

Philip Clinch began working with SITA in 1988 on VHF data link systems. He contributed to the airline industry standards for the ACARS data link system and its use for FANS-1/A communications as well as to the ICAO standard for the VHF Digital Link (VDL).

In March of 2000, Mr. Williams was selected to lead the FAA Communications Integrated Product Team (IPT). This team has the responsibility to develop, procure, and install all air/ground communications services for the FAA. Specific programs currently in process are: Voice Switching Modernization and Expansion, Voice Recorder Modernization, Air/Ground Voice System Sustainment and Expansion, and Next Generation Air/Ground Communications Services.

From October of 1998 to March of 2000, Mr. Williams held the position of Aeronautical Data Link Product Team Leader. This product team was a part of the FAA Communications IPT at that time. This Product Team is responsible for the design, procurement, and fielding of the FAA's Air/Ground Data Link Communications Systems. These systems will allow Air Traffic Controllers to communicate directly with pilots using text messages to replace many routine voice communications.

Prior to March of 1998, Mr. Williams held many positions in the FAA related to the regulation and certification of avionics systems. Mr. Williams was Manager of the Avionics Systems Branch in the Aircraft Engineering Division that is responsible for writing standards for all avionics installed in US civil aircraft. Prior to leading the branch, Mr. Williams was responsible for the development of the certification standards and guidance for all navigation systems used on US civil aircraft.

has worked in and for airlines throughout his career. With training and education spanning an apprenticeship in aircraft engineering to a MSc form Cranfield, his working life has led him to a holistic view of the airline operations.

He has had roles in engine and airframe maintenance, logistics and systems supporting these functions. He led development of a an application for aircraft maintenance alongside various consulting with a range of airlines from regional to national carrier.

He is currently the Operations Information Manager at easyJet, a role that is leading the way to total electronic information linking all aspects of the operation. Concurrent with this he has been working on the strategy of achieving paperless cockpits and the utilisation of digital datalinks to enable and support the improved operational control and air traffic systems that are being introduced.

has a bachelor degree in electronics and computer, a bachelor science degree in Aerospace and a MBA. As program manager, he has participated in a number of avionics developments and implementations with French major airlines. He was notably involved in the first Datalink and Voice trials in Europe and in the Pacific (Pacific Engineering Trial, Passenger Telephony, ADS Europe). More recently he was the program manager of the initial 8.33 kHz Channel Spacing implementation in Europe with EUROCONTROL.

Now, as Program Manager with the CNS/ATM Solutions team at Honeywell (Phoenix, AZ, USA), he is in charge of the COM. strategy and integration across all Honeywell avionics products."

holds a BSc in Electronic Engineering and a MA in Business Management. He has held a variety of senior posts in engineering, project and general management and business development. He is currently Head of Business Development within the Navigation & Constellations Business of Astrium Limited, developing satellite based CNS solutions.

Richard has worked within the field of Air Traffic Management since the early 1980's, working with various systems and technologies, including Microwave Landing System (MLS), primary and secondary radars (including Mode S), weather radars, Airport Surface Movement Guidance and Control Systems (SMGCS) and Global Navigation Satellite Systems (GNSS).

Richard has been an advisor to the UK panel member on both the ICAO All Weather Operations and the ICAO GNSS Panel, as well as an active member on various Eurocae and RTCA working groups.

is a Director of Helios Information Services Ltd and has over 20 years experience in data communications of which the last ten have been spent in supporting NATS and Eurocontrol in the development of the ATN and Air/Ground communications.

He has made significant contributions to the ATN SARPs and has worked on both VDL2 adn VDL4. He regularly lectures on data communications for both Helios IS and the Eurocontrol Institute of Air Navigation Services.