Julie Black of Hunt & Palmer Becomes Deputy Chair of BACA

At the 466^th meeting of the Council on 11th April, Julie Black was elected as Deputy Chair of BACA – The Air Charter Association. Julie takes on the role with immediate effect working alongside Nick Weston, Chairman of the Association.

Julie is well known and respected in the industry and felt the time was right for her to stand for the position of Deputy Chair.  Julie says “I have a forthright and hands-on approach, which are good attributes for helping to drive and move projects forward on the Council, with examples such as our training events and growth with ACE (Air Charter Expo).

With roles in a number of different sectors in the air charter industry, Julie has a wide experience of the market. In the earlier days of her aviation career she worked at London Biggin Hill Airport looking after marketing and overseeing the FBO operations. Julie subsequently moved on to multinational charter broker Chapman Freeborn where she spent 14 years providing aircraft charter solutions to a wide variety of clients from the corporate sphere, particularly in the entertainment sector. In 2017 Julie joined Hunt & Palmer with a view to working in a different kind of charter operation, moving away from the entertainment client base to work on a more ad-hoc basis, with corporate and high net worth clientele.

Speaking about Julie’s appointment Chairman Nick Weston said "it is great to welcome Julie to the role of Deputy Chair and I look forward to working with her. The combination of us as a team means that we have two people at the helm who really understand the challenges facing brokers and operators. I should like to take this opportunity to thank Volker Meissner who hands over to Julie as Deputy Chair, although he will remain on the Council. Volker has served the Association loyally for five years as Deputy and been instrumental in many changes we have seen during this time.”

Adding to the Chairman's comments Julie said "at my first BACA networking event maybe ten years ago, the Association was far more male-dominated than it is today. I joined the Council in 2015 as I am passionate about our industry and being on the Council affords me the opportunity to give something back. I am proud to be a woman in aviation and keen to be a role model and ambassador to encourage young women – and men – into our industry. There are skills shortages in many areas of the market that we need to fill and bring further diversity to our industry. It is an honour to be elected as Deputy Chair at such an exciting time for the Association, while we are gaining real momentum in key areas such as the fight against illegal charter and moving towards a formal training and certification framework for brokers.”