Dr. Hassan Shahidi is the President and CEO of Flight Safety Foundation, an international and independent nonprofit organization with a singular mission to enhance global aviation safety through research, standards, education, and advocacy. He leads a global campaign across offices in North America, Europe, Asia, and Australia, promote best practices and innovative solutions to aviation safety. With more than 1000 members around the world, the Foundation address the most critical safety issues in aviation. Prior to joining the Foundation, he served as an executive at MITRE, where he led research and engineering initiatives relating to safety and advanced aviation system development. He directed the Aviation Safety Information Analysis and Sharing (ASIAS) program, a government-industry safety data sharing partnership he helped launch in 2007. Since then, he has extended and promoted the concept of safety data sharing in other regions around the world.
Dr. Shahidi has over 40 years of experience in applying systems engineering and data analytics to advance air traffic control in the United States and around the world. He led several air traffic modernization initiatives, including performance-based navigation (PBN), airspace design, traffic flow management and terminal automation concepts. Dr. Shahidi led a number of initiatives in the 1980s as part of the early air traffic modernization program.
Dr. Shahidi holds a private pilot license. He is a recipient of various industry awards, including the RTCA Outstanding Achievement Award and Aviation Week Laureates Award. He holds a bachelor’s degree and a master’s in international economic studies, a master’s in systems engineering and operations research, and a doctorate in engineering management.