Giovanni Bisignani
Director General & CEO
International Air Transport Association
Giovanni Bisignani joined the IATA as Director General & CEO in June 2002. Mr Bisignani has driven an agenda of change focused on the industry’s top priorities.
In 2004, IATA began Simplifying the Business - bringing convenience to travellers and cost reduction to airlines through effective use of technology. The programme's headline e-ticketing initiative eliminated paper tickets globally on 1 June 2008.
Most recently Mr Bisignani placed IATA in a leadership position in the debate on climate change and aviation. He has united the industry in a drive to achieve carbon neutral growth and eventually zero-carbon emission technology.
Concurrent with his responsibilities at IATA, Mr Bisignani is a Board member of NATS Holdings Limited.
Prior to IATA, Mr Bisignani launched the European travel portal Opodo and spent five years as CEO and Managing Director of Alitalia, during which he served on the IATA Board of Governors. He has been a member of Pratt & Whitney Advisory Board and Chairman of Galileo International. Mr Bisignani began his career with Citibank and then held several high-level positions at the energy company ENI and with the IRI Group. He served as President of Tirrenia di Navigazione, the largest Italian ferry company and as CEO & Managing Director of SM Logistics, a group of logistics and freight forwarding companies partially owned by GE.
Mr Bisignani studied both in Italy and the United States (Harvard Business School). In 2008, he received the honorary degree ‘Doctor of Science honoris causa’ by the School of Engineering at Cranfield University in the United Kingdom. Born in Rome in 1946, he speaks Italian, English and Spanish. He is married with one daughter and enjoys golf, tennis and riding.
