Speakers

Moderator

Lynn McGuigan

Lynn McGuigan

Acting Chief, Cargo Safety Section, ICAO

Lynn’s career in international civil aviation spans over thirty-five years. She is currently the acting chief of ICAO’s Cargo Safety Section responsible for setting the international Standards for the safe transport of dangerous goods by air. She is also the Secretary of the ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel (DGP), an international panel of dangerous goods experts that develops and maintains a global strategy to address risks associated with the transport of dangerous goods by air. She is responsible for the biennial publication of the Technical Instructions for the Safe Transport of Dangerous Goods by Air (Doc 9284) and supporting documents. She also develops and provides dangerous goods training to State technical personnel. She is a graduate of Concordia University in Montreal where she specialized in decision sciences and management information systems.

Speakers

Ulric Schwela

Ulric Schwela is a graduate in Chemistry and began his professional career with an international commodity inspection and analysis organization. Over seven years, he gained extensive operational experience, including serving as Radiation Protection Supervisor and functioning as the organization’s global focal point for all matters related to radioactivity.

For more than 25 years, Mr Schwela has been at the forefront of addressing the complex and persistent issue of denial of shipment of radioactive materials, which continues to present practical challenges for consignors, carriers, and regulators alike. He has worked on behalf of trade associations, international organizations and individual companies, supporting the movement of materials essential to medical, industrial, research and energy applications.

Mr Schwela was a founding member and Chair of the International Steering Committee on Denial of Shipment (ISC‑DOS),and served as Secretary to the Transport Facilitation Working Group, roles in which he has contributed to international dialogue, guidance development and coordinated action to reduce refusals and delays in transport.

Since December 2023, he is a Consultant to the International Atomic Energy Agency (IAEA), supporting Transport Facilitation activities and the work of the Denial of Shipment Working Group. In this capacity, he contributes technical expertise on regulatory frameworks and stakeholder engagement, with the objective of ensuring that radioactive materials can be transported safely, securely and without unnecessary impediments, in full alignment with international standards.

Eric Gillet

Eric’s career as a Dangerous Goods Inspector span over 24 years during which he has maintained national operating regulations to meet ICAO Standards and conducted dangerous goods safety certification and oversight of shippers, freight forwarders, designated postal operators, airlines and ground handling service providers. He has also investigated dangerous goods occurrences ensuring that lessons are learned and supported successful enforcement of the regulations in cases of gross negligence. 

His contributions extend to the global stage as a member of the ICAO Dangerous Goods Panel, where he has influenced international Standards and guidance on the transport of dangerous goods by air, training programmes, and aircraft cargo compartment safety.

Jeffrey Elder

Jeffrey Elder is the Head of Cargo Products for Delta Air Lines sitting in their Atlanta headquarters. In his 24 years of experience with Delta, he has used his Industrial Engineering degree from the Georgia Institute of Technology to focused on advancements in Revenue Management, Cargo Analytics and Product Development.

In his current role, Jeffrey is responsible for all of the Delta Cargo product lines and introduction of new products across the globe.  Jeffrey sits on the USPS Postal Supplier Council, SEG Engage initiative and is a member of the IATA Air Mail Board.

Gerald Gales

Gerald has over 29 years of leadership experience working with the United States Postal Service (USPS) and the United States Postal Inspection Service (USPIS).  He has served multiple roles including mail operations supervisor, distribution operations manager over a large processing plant, district security control officer, emergency management coordinator, and district aviation mail security coordinator. In 2016, he joined the USPIS as Homeland Security Coordinator (HSC) covering the states of Michigan and Indiana. In this role, he focused and supported several mail security initiatives including HAZMAT / Dangerous Goods employee training, compliance, and civil penalty enforcement. 

In 2022, he served as the acting HAZMAT program manager with USPIS National Headquarters (NHQ). In 2023 he officially joined NHQ under the Contraband Interdiction and Investigation “CI2” Group in his current position as the HAZMAT Aviation Mail Security Specialist. 

As an avid traveler, he is deeply passionate about safeguarding the global supply chain, dedicating his expertise to ensuring the proper acceptance, processing, and transportation of hazardous materials across the US mail networks, including commercial aviation partners.

Gerald is fluent in 3 languages, English, Tagalog and Visayan.
 

Pascal Lai

Pascal Lai is the Cargo Customer Solutions Manager at Cathay Pacific. Pascal leads Cathay Cargo’s time-sensitive solutions portfolio since 2020. He spearheaded the digitization and automation of Cathay’s mail solutions, modernizing cargo workflows to maximize track-and-trace visibility, data accuracy, and regulatory compliance.