Recognizing Excellence in Leadership and Innovation

Flight Safety Foundation will recognize two longtime industry executives for their leadership and contributions to aviation safety during the 78th annual International Aviation Safety Summit (IASS) in Lisbon, Portugal, in November. IASS 2025, scheduled for Nov. 4–6, is expected to draw hundreds of safety leaders and industry executives from around the world for three days of panel discussions, presentations, and dialogue on the theme “Culture. Collaboration. Capability: Building the Foundations for the Next Generation of Aviation Safety.”   

Yannick Malinge, senior vice president and chief product safety officer at Airbus, will receive the Foundation’s Jerome Lederer Safety Leadership Medal in recognition of his visionary leadership in advancing aviation safety.Throughout his career, Malinge has been a driving force behind strengthening Airbus’s safety culture, setting new benchmarks for industrywide safety practices, and championing support for Airbus customers around the globe. Beyond his corporate role, he is widely respected for his mentorship of the next generation of safety leaders and his influence as a thought leader across the aviation industry.  

Ratan Khatwa, executive technical fellow at The Boeing Co. and formerly a senior chief engineer at Honeywell, will receive the Foundation’s David Morrison Innovation Award for his pioneering work in advancing flight deck technologies and aviation safety. During his career, Khatwa has helped drive the development of groundbreaking systems such as the enhanced ground-proximity warning system, advanced weather radar, synthetic vision, and runway safety alerting tools that are now standard in modern aviation. He has continued to shape the design and certification of integrated flight deck systems across a wide range of aircraft. In addition, Khatwa has provided industrywide leadership across a number of standards and human factors committees.  

“Recognizing Yannick and Ratan is especially fitting because their careers embody the very pillars on which the future of aviation safety depends — culture, collaboration, and capability,” said Dr. Hassan Shahidi, president and CEO of the Foundation. “Their leadership and contributions have not only advanced safety within their own organizations but have also elevated safety across the entire global aviation community.” 

The Jerome Lederer Safety Leadership Medal was established to recognize an individual or team for making a significant contribution to the advancement of civil aviation safety through demonstrated organizational or industry leadership and by developing or advancing programs that will have a lasting impact on civil aviation. The award is named for Jerry Lederer, one of the founders of Flight Safety Foundation. 

The David Morrison Innovation Award, named for another FSF founder, recognizes an individual, a team, or an organization for notable innovation in civil aviation. The award is for both technological innovation and process transformation. 

Both awards will be presented on Wednesday, Nov. 5, during a special awards dinner held in conjunction with IASS in Lisbon. The dinner and IASS will both be held at the Epic Sana Lisboa Hotel. For more information and to register for IASS and the dinner, please visit the IASS 2025 landing page on the Foundation’s website.