We are thrilled to introduce our distinguished panel, and excited to have a live discussion around the timely topic of recovery. Our panel will discuss the challenges faced by airlines due to the pandemic, and the initiatives taken and new approaches employed and further needed, along with their thoughts on how our community can help the airline industry navigate to recovery. See below for biographies.

Laurie Garrow - Moderator

Professor of Civil and Environmental Engineering

Co-Director of the Center for Urban and Regional Air Mobility

Georgia Institute of Technology

Head of Data & Analytics

Lufthansa Group

Mirco Bharpalania is responsible for Data Management, Analytics, Business Intelligence, Artificial Intelligence, Big Data and Data Integration for the core business of Lufthansa - Lufthansa Airlines, Swiss and Austrian and additionally has the role of Lufthansa Group Process Owner for Data & Analytics.

In this role he is responsible for the management of all relevant data (customer, sales, operations) up to generating insights out of this data through advanced analytics, BI or AI with teams in Frankfurt,  Vienna and Zurich.

During his 16 years at Lufthansa Group he has been in charge of several management positions including IT governance and Strategy of Lufthansa Airlines.

Mirco Bharpalania holds a German University Degree in Business Computer Science from Technical University Darmstadt.

Director of Models and Systems, Network Planning

American Airlines

Terrence Bradshaw brings nearly 20 years of airline expertise and experience, largely all in various Revenue Management and Network Planning roles.

The Morehouse College graduate began his airline career with American Airlines as an analyst in the day of departure group and, after several months working the night shift, he took various roles across Domestic and Latin America Yield Management. During his first tour at AA, Terrence was also part of the team to help design and roll-out the initial Odyssey yield management GUI and forecast system.

Terrence left AA for an opportunity with Continental Airlines to lead their international pricing team.  He was instrumental in forging the codeshare and partner relationship with Copa Airlines forming the largest carrier network in Latin America at the time.  After several roles within pricing and Revenue Management, he was promoted to Director and led both the Latin and Domestic RM organizations of the newly merged United Airlines in Chicago.  

Three years later, Terence left United to run his own commercial consulting company, providing services to several small airlines in Canada, U.S., and the Caribbean. He then moved on to Sabre technologies,  and spent some time providing RM consulting services to over 50 different airlines across the globe and helped redesign their Revenue Integrity product. But ultimately, Terrence missed the smell of jet fuel and rejoined AA back in summer of 2017 where he led part of the Domestic team, handling ski and Canada markets and then took over as Sr. Manager for our Transatlantic region,  with both AA and British Airways.  In fall of 2018, Terrence was promoted to Director of Models and Systems in the AA Network Planning Division, where he currently serves and leads a team on several various initiatives including our Next Generation scheduling and forecasting optimizer.

When not thinking about airlines revenue, Terrence spends his time with his beautiful wife and two kids, and enjoys a wide range of activities from travel to playing live music and is a HUGE Philadelphia Eagles’ fan. 

He also participates in many volunteer organizations such as Meals on Wheels, Big Brothers/ Big Sisters, the local chapter of UNCF, The Salvation Army, and is a member of the NBMBAA and active member of his church.

Senior Director of Itinerary Planning

LATAM Airlines

A former strategy consultant at Bain and Company, Rodrigo joined LATAM 12 years ago. Throughout this time, he has have the opportunity to work on diverse roles both in the business and in the IT world. In the business side, his experience includes Strategy, Corporate Development, Merger Integration and Fleet Planning. In the IT world, he worked on the LAN-TAM PSS Integration and later moved to corporate IT Project enterprise PMO.

At its current role, Rodrigo has the responsibility to coordinate the Itinerary Planning across 5 different home-markets, bringing together the commercial and the operational planning aspects. He is currently leading the implementation of a software suite to optimize itinerary planning across LATAM.

Rodrigo holds a M. Sc in Transport from Catholic University in Chile and an MBA from INSEAD. He is the father of 3 children and a huge football fan for Universidad Catolica – current 3 time champion of the Chilean tournament.

Senior Director of Network Initiatives, Network Planning

Southwest Airlines

Matt Muehleisen is the Sr. Director of Network Initiatives for Network Planning at Southwest Airlines, the nation’s largest airline in terms of domestic Customers. Matt’s primary responsibilities include analytics, data science, R&D, and Network Planning software development. Matt led the development and implementation of the industry leading schedule optimization and simulation tools in partnership with Amadeus (previously Optym.)   Matt has taken the lead on several of the Company’s change initiatives designed to generate revenue, reduce costs, and maximize aircraft productivity.

Matt began his career at United Airlines, then Flexjet before joining Southwest Airlines in 2001. Matt has spent 20 years in the Schedule and Network Planning organization.

Matt is an Oklahoma native, and graduated from the Oklahoma State University with a degree in Aviation Management. Matt is married to his wife, Windy, and they have four amazing girls who’s activities keep them busy.

Senior VP of Sales & Network Planning

Pegasus Airlines

Emre Pekesen is currently working as SVP Sales and Network Planning Director at Pegasus Airlines, the leading Low-Cost Airline in its geography with 93 aircraft in its fleet. Operating in 44 countries, Pegasus has a total of 116 scheduled destinations, 80 of which are international. Prior to joining Pegasus, Emre worked for 14 years at THY in various departments including Sales and Network, and between 2008-2010 he worked as the Airline Division Director at a Russian Tour Operator for 2 years. He has been working in Pegasus since 2010.