Chicke Fitzgerald

Chicke Fitzgerald is the founder and CEO of Solutionz Group International Inc. She is a respected author, speaker and consultant on the topic of airline distribution.

Prior to her consulting career, Chicke held senior management positions with SITA and two major GDS firms: Worldspan and Sabre. Ms. Fitzgerald serves on the advisory boards of TravelCom and Farelogix.

She recently headlined as a speaker/organizer of the Travel Distribution Summit.

Bill McKnight

Bill McKnight is one of the country's leading transportation management consultants and currently serves as a Vice President with SH&E. Based in Washington, D.C., he heads up SH&E’s government practice. Previously he worked for ATA as Executive Vice President of Marketing and Sales, and for Alaska Airlines as Vice President – Marketing.

Prior to his airline career, Mr. McKnight also had experience as a successful management consultant at Booz-Allen-Hamilton, where he was a Principal in the firm’s Transportation Practice, and at A.T. Kearney, where he was a Vice President and Head of the Transportation Practice.

John Ash

John Ash is President, of InterVISTAS-ga2, a firm that advises airlines, airports, governments, and other clients. He also serves as an expert for clients in legal and judicial proceedings. Before he began consulting, he was with TWA for 18 years serving in various positions including Staff V.P. for Financial Planning and Analysis, and Corporate V.P., Government and International Affairs. Mr. Ash is a graduate of Michigan State University with both BA and MBA degrees.

He recently raised some eyebrows when he questioned the retention of the US Airways name after the merger with America West.

Bruce E. Hicks

Bruce Hicks is an expert in airline public relations, working as a consultant with American Airlines in the aftermath of the September 11th tragedy and the A300 crash in New York in November 2001 .
Prior to joining The Alliant Group, Hicks headed Darcy Communications of Houston. He has also assisted in the public relations efforts of Continental Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines. Hicks recently served as a consultant to Delta Airlines assisting them during their negotiations with the pilot’s union.

Ron F. Kuhlmann

Ron Kuhlmann is an airline industry consultant with Unisys R2A Transportation Management Consultants in Oakland, California where he serves as vice president. Ron was previously a consultant with Roberts, Roach and Associates of San Francisco. He is often on the podium at international aviation conferences.
Kuhlmann spent much of his early life in Boston and has two sons, now in their twenties.
He was recently quoted in the LA Times on the subject of low-cost regional carriers.

Mo Garfinkle

Mo Garfinkle is a Washington, D.C.-based airline consultant with the firm GCW Consulting where he is Chairman and CEO. He has over 30 years of experience in the airline industry, first as a lawyer, then an airline owner and for most of the time – a well known consultant. GCW has special expertise in China and the Asian markets.

Mo graduated from University of Pennsylvania's Wharton School of Finance and Commerce and earned a law degree at Georgetown University Law Center. He has recently been advising airlines in the Hawaii market.

Doug Abbey

Doug Abbey is a partner with the Velocity Group in Washington, D.C. where he specializes in regional airlines. He has more than 30 years of experience in this sector of the airline industry. AvStat was Mr. Abbey's prior company and it was merged with two other consultancies to form The Velocity Group in 2004. Previously he had been a consultant with SH&E and also worked for aircraft manufacturer, Fokker.
Abbey has also worked for the US Department of Transportation and his statistics are recognized by the FAA. He is widely quoted in the press worldwide on a variety of aviation-related topics.