Our People
Michael Smith, Managing Partner
Michael was formerly a board Director of British Airways Global Financial Services Limited. This included responsibility for developing mileage sales with partners such as American Express, GE Insurance, Avis Car Rental and bringing onboard all the brands within InterContinental Hotels and Resorts portfolio.
Early on in this role, Michael recognized that real value could be delivered by BA (and other airlines) by understanding what customers were actually buying. It was more than just an airline seat, many of them wanted a “one stop” shop for the products ancillary to the flight. As a result, BA developed in-depth relationships with many of its Executive Club partners that delivered more benefits to passengers than just miles. It also delivered an additional multi-million pound revenue stream to BA on the back of these ancillary sales.
Prior to joining BA, Michael was the Marketing and Administration Director for the Financial Services Division of Great Universal Stores plc (at the time, the UK’s largest mail order company with 6 million customers.)
He is based in Glasgow, Scotland where he graduated with an MBA from the University of Strathclyde Business School as well as having professional qualifications in Marketing and Banking from the UK’s Chartered Institute of Marketing and Chartered Institute of Banking respectively.
Christopher Staab, Managing Partner
Over the years Chris has gained a masterful reputation for developing and organizing aviation-related conferences. He heads Airline Information's acclaimed Conference divison where he oversees the engineering of new events and on-going operations of the company's yearly event portfolio, business development and sponsor relations.
Chris began his career in the airline industry as a Tariff Analyst at ATPCO in Washington D.C. and later worked as an Aviation Analyst at the U.S. Department of Transportation and as Manager of Revenue Management at Amtrak.
Prior to co-founding Airline Information, Chris worked as a Business Development Manager at IATA in both Miami and Geneva, Switzerland. At IATA, he organized dozens of airline conferences around the globe and assisted airlines worldwide to rationalize their fare structures. Chris holds B.A.'s in Business Administration, History and Latin American Studies from the University of Pittsburgh. He speaks fluent Spanish and is a certified Meeting Planner.
Ruben Wertheimer, Regional Director, Latin America
Ruben represents Ai’s diverse interests in the Latin America region including serving as chairman of the groundbreaking CILA “Airline Profitability Conference”.
Ruben also serves as CEO of MS&W Latin America, a PR agency focused on the travel and tourism industry with many active airline, hotel, travel agency, and GDS clients. Ruben has chaired and presented at several marketing, sales and distribution conferences for the tourism industry in Mexico, Brazil, Peru, Paraguay, Chile, Venezuela, Uruguay and Germany. Ruben is an expert in developing airline crisis communication planning and management. He was formerly a member of the staff of Lufthansa in the Buenos Aires office, responsible for the marketing and sales area.
Prior to joining LH , Ruben lived in Germany where he was based in Essen where he worked for Ferrostaal AG as an international sales rep. He began his carrier in Buenos Aires at Siemens Argentina as trainee and sales rep.
Ruben is based in Buenos Aires, Argentina. He studied Business Administration and holes a Master in Strategic Marketing. He speaks fluent Spanish, German and English, married and father of two sons.
Patrick Murphy, Snr. Corporate Advisor
Patrick "Paddy" has advised Ai since the company's inception in 2004. His mentoring relationship with co-founder Chris Staab goes back even further. In addition to his advisory role with Ai Paddy is also Chairman of Aviation Performance Consultants - the aviation division of Performance Consultants International, Performance Consultants Ireland, Performance Consultants Switzerland, and Director of Cargo Mentoring Services Ltd.
Paddy has over 30 years’ experience in the airline industry, including Chairman of the Board of Ryanair - the low cost airline; and more recently as Director of Corporate Development with IATA. And at one time in his career he was Managing Director of Irish Continental Group - a major Irish Shipping company providing ferry and container shipping services to and from Ireland. Paddy advises & consults to a wide range of organizations in the aviation industry, and acts as Chairman & Moderator at air transport conferences across the world.