Dr. Catherine Baird

Dr. Catherine Baird, Former SVP, Cabin Crew Training, Emirates

An accomplished people and culture leader with over 30 years experience, predominantly in the education and aviation sectors. Catherine has worked in complex and dynamic operational roles within large, multicultural, global organisations. Her career has taken her across the globe including Australia, the UK, Germany and most recently, the Gulf region.

A transformational leader pushing the boundaries of learning and development to support the workplace of the future. With strong commercial and business acumen, Catherine is adept at translating vision and strategy into actionable learning outcomes that win the hearts and minds of frontline teams to create exceptional customer experiences.

Catherine is a passionate advocate for inclusion, diversity and cultivating workplaces where people can thrive through continuous learning and development.

Learning to Pivot, Pivot to Learning

The current Covid-19 pandemic gripping our world has demonstrated that ‘business as usual’ has to be reinvented. This is no more evident than in the aviation industry. The industry stalled in 2020. To date (IATA, May 2021) overall, industry-wide revenue passenger kilometers were 62.7% lower than pre-pandemic May 2019. Many thousands of flight crew were stood down, furloughed or made redundant.

With the success of vaccination roll-outs, in some countries, positive signs are emerging month on month. The challenge ahead is how to respond with agility to the dynamic operational demand, as we navigate through to a new post pandemic aviation landscape. Flight and cabin crews on the ground for over 12 months need to be mobilised as soon as business returns. Traditional training approaches are no longer fit for purpose.

Catherine Baird, former SVP Cabin Crew Training Emirates Airline and Glenn Bull, CEO, Skilitics will be sharing a new approach to training leveraging learning from the health industry.