Judging Panel

An independent panel of recognised and expert judges, drawn from academia, business and broader related sectors will determine the winners of the Aviation Industry Awards.

Our focus is to deliver a balanced judging assessment from industry leaders who will bring their extensive knowledge, enthusiasm and expertise to the judging process ensuring that the winning entries are truly outstanding and worthy of receiving a trophy.

The panel is carefully selected to ensure the Awards judging process is fair and objective. The judges are bound by a strict confidentiality agreement and are required to declare any conflict of interest in entries over which they deliberate, in which case that entry will be reallocated. The integrity of this process lies at the very heart of all that we do.

A comprehensive judging process has been developed to decide the winners of the Aviation Industry Awards:

If you are interested in joining the judging panel, please email your details to our team: judges@businessriver.com

2026 Judging Panel

Adam Bouchard

Senior Vice President, Deputy Chief Operating Officer, Metropolitan Nashville Airport Authority

Adam serves as the Senior Vice President and Deputy Chief Operating Officer at Nashville International Airport. Prior to this role, he served as Vice President of Operations at Tampa International Airport. Before his airport career, he held progressive leadership roles at American Airlines. VIEW MORE

SAMANTHA HARDING

Owner, SILC

Samantha Harding is the founder and organiser of the annual SILC conference for aviation services, MRO and lessor technical professionals and she is extremely familiar with, and respected by, the aviation industry in Ireland. She also works as a consultant to the University of Limerick Foundation. VIEW MORE

Kyriakos Kourousis

Associate Professor, University of Limerick

Dr Kyriakos I. Kourousis is an Associate Professor in the School of Engineering at the University of Limerick. He has expertise in airworthiness, aircraft systems, metal plasticity and additive manufacturing. He is a Chartered Engineer (UK). VIEW MORE