Richard was appointed Chief Executive Officer of NATS on April 1, 2010. Previously, he was Senior Vice President of the Air Systems Division for Thales and a member of the company's Executive Committee. Based in Paris, his division recorded a turnover of Euro 1.8bn and employed 7,000 staff across the world. Richard's career started more than 25 years ago as an engineering apprentice at BAE Systems, where he spent 17 years in a number of roles, latterly as Vice-President Commercial Aerospace, based at Farnborough.
Moving to TRW Aeronautical Systems as European Operations Director, Richard ran nine factories in the UK, France and Germany producing high precision aerospace systems. Before joining Thales, Richard spent several years as Group Director Programmes with GKN Aerospace Services. A Chartered Engineer, Richard holds a first - class honours degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Kingston University and an MBA from Cranfield School of Management. He is also a Fellow of the Royal Aeronautical Society, and was awarded an Honorary Doctorate in Engineering from Kingston University in January 2006.

What are the main challenges the ANSPs, and more specifically NATS, will face with the full implementation of SES2 package? 

Single European Sky is fast becoming a reality. The establishment of Functional Airspace Blocks, creation of European - wide common performance targets, designation of Eurocontrol as the Network Manager and increased momentum on SESAR deployment, are all testament to the fact that SES is no longer just a political desire.
But as the European context evolves, so too have the needs of our customers. The airline industry is under considerable pressure. We are still in the throes of economic recession and political unrest in the Middle East has caused oil prices to rise sharply. In order to survive this recession, our airline customers are continuously looking for ways to improve the efficiency of their operations and to reduce their costs. As an ANSP we have an important role to play in helping our customers face this very real threat.
We need to look for ways to reduce their costs, whilst at the same time maintaining or improving present levels of safety or performance. The challenge for ANSPs will be how we balance the need to continue to deliver a first-rate service to our customers, whilst at the same time driving greater efficiencies in our own businesses.
NATS has just launched a new strategy for the future - Performance through Innovation. Our aim with this programme is to ensure that NATS has a sustainable future in this challenging and exciting environment.

The first reference period of the Performance Scheme will be starting in few months, what impact will it have on NATS?

The performance scheme's first reference period will be extremely challenging for NATS.  The UK National Performance Plan features cost reduction targets and financially incentivised delay targets. These will require a concerted effort from all our people to find new and innovative ways to improve our performance. 
In order to help our customers improve the efficiency of their operations, NATS' is also introducing a new flight efficiency target that will measure our performance both in terms of the horizontal track and vertical trajectory of aircraft.  This should be of enormous benefit to our customers, as more direct flight paths for aircraft will help them reduce their fuel costs and CO2 emissions. 
Clearly, meeting the cost and capacity targets, as well as this new flight efficiency target will require careful operational planning and management.

How do you see the evolution of the role of the European ANSPs in Europe with specific reference to the A6 alliance?   
European airspace is amongst the busiest in the world, with over 33,000 flights a day and high airport density. Delivering real operational efficiency in this complex environment will increasingly require a collaborative approach.
One way of doing this is by creating Functional Airspace Blocks. In 2008, NATS established one of the first ever FABs with the Irish ANSP - IAA. Over the past five years we have delivered over 20 projects to improve airspace efficiency and around 50000 tonnes of CO2 savings.
But FABs are not the only way ANSPs can work together to help improve the efficiency of European airspace. Implementing new SESAR compliant systems to support the future growth in air traffic will also require a pan-European approach. The A6 alliance provides an excellent platform for us to do that by harnessing the strengths of all the members to achieve a focused outcome, in this case to accelerate the deployment of next generation ATM concepts and technologies.

What is NATS' strategy in this context?

The aviation sector, and the air traffic management (ATM) industry within it, is experiencing significant change and as the world continues to evolve around us, NATS needs to stay ahead of the game if we are to carry on being successful.
This new environment presents us with both challenges and opportunities. We need to ensure that our existing business is sustainable, whilst growing other areas of our business. Our aim is to transform from being an ANSP with a predominantly UK focus to an international company proving a broader range of products and services to both existing and new customers. We start this from our strong UK foundations and will ensure our products and services are designed to meet our customer needs and a competitive market. Our efforts are starting to be recognised and we have recently had a number of successes, both in the UK and beyond.

An efficient, synchronized and timely deployment of SESAR is a key factor in the value chain of the European ATM System modernization. The ANSPs strategy has been successful until now. What are the next steps ANSPs should undertake to safeguard their leading role in this context? 

Under the governance of the EU, the next steps for the ANSPs are to work with our industry partners to set meaningful deployment priorities that will deliver real tangible benefits to the network. From that point we will need to decide what to invest, how and by when.

The ANSP community has certainly been successful in its influence of the SESAR deployment debate so far. However, this is just the start of the journey. Our success will ultimately be measured by our ability to deliver benefits to the ATM network and our customers.