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IAWA Honors Dr. Fang Liu with 2021 IAWA Woman of Excellence Award

Dr. Liu has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to and support of the advancement of women in the aviation and aerospace industry and to IAWA.



MOUNT ROYAL, NJ – September 22, 2021 –The International Aviation Womens Association (IAWA), a global association committed to connecting, inspiring and leading women in the aerospace and aviation industries, is pleased to announce Dr. Fang Liu as the recipient of the 2021 IAWA Woman of Excellence Award. Dr. Liu has demonstrated a longstanding commitment to and support of the advancement of women in the aviation and aerospace industry and to IAWA. Her involvement in IAWA began in 2005 when IAWA went to Shanghai for its first Annual Conference in Asia, which was co-hosted by the Civil Aviation Administration of China (CAAC). She was the lead international relations role at CAAC and played a large role in the conference planning and instrumental in its success. She has served on the IAWA Advisory Board from 2008 - 2009 and has been an IAWA Honorary Board member since 2016.

This award recognizes women who are leaders in aerospace and aviation, have demonstrated a commitment to the advancement of women in the industries and are respected by men and women alike. As a woman who epitomizes these attributes, IAWA is honored to recognize Dr. Liu as the tenth recipient of the Woman of Excellence Award. Her participation has supported IAWA in building a global network of accomplished women in aviation and aerospace.

Dr. Liu served as the twelfth Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) from August 2015 through July 2021. “As the first woman Secretary General of the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), appointed in 2015 and reappointed in 2018, she has been a role-model for women around the world in the aviation industry.” Says Abby Bried, IAWA Advisory Board Member and Vice President and General Counsel at Panasonic Avionics Corporation. “Under her leadership at ICAO, IAWA has established an affiliation relationship with ICAO where we have partnered on women's development projects. Dr. Liu has been a speaker for IAWA over the years at these events and at our conferences.”

One of her pivotal achievements as Secretary General was to modernize ICAO's principal global standard-making function so as to evolve with sectoral changes and encourage new technologies. Dr. Liu has put innovation at the centre of what ICAO did while ensuring the relevance of ICAO global standards and policies, which should be flexible to the extent possible to take into consideration of diverging needs, and integration with the frameworks of other modes of transport, tourism, trade, environment etc.

Under Dr. Liu's leadership, ICAO also successfully raised the level of assistance for Member States to implement the global standards and improve their oversight capability. At the same time, she empowered and expanded ICAO's Regional Office presence on the frontline to assist the regions with their first response to critical arising issues.

Dr. Liu has been convinced that a safe, efficient, secure, economically viable and environmentally sound global aviation system, based on the effective implementation of the ICAO global standards and which leaves no country behind, improves air connectivity, thus spurs tourism and trade, increases consumer's benefits and choices, creates jobs, and generates numerous socio-economic benefits. At every opportunity, she ardently advocated aviation's benefits for sustainable development to sensitize high-level government officials and create their political willingness to allocate sufficient resources to aviation development in the context of the No Country Left Behind (NCLB) initiative and the United Nations Transforming our world: the 2030 Agenda for Sustainable Development. These activities were pivotal to prioritize aviation in global development frameworks that in turn allocated resources, enhanced awareness, promoted the image of aviation and eventually increased political commitment toward aviation as a main driver of world economy.

Given a resource-constrained environment of the ICAO Secretariat, Dr. Liu led a forward-looking, transformative organizational and cultural change and increased the efficiency and effectiveness of the Secretariat by results-based management with a well articulated ICAO triennium Business Plan, a comprehensive corporate risk management framework as well as enhanced digital tools and process. This allowed the Secretariat to do even more with continuously less resources.

Against the most severe, unprecedented crisis faced by the Organization and the aviation sector as a whole brought by the COVID-19 pandemic, ICAO had come together as never before under her strong leadership and foresight. Dr. Liu's acute understanding of aviation's importance in the restart and recovery facilitated a timely, agile and innovative responses by ICAO from the earliest stages of the COVID-19 outbreak and prior to the declaration of a global pandemic in March 2020. To tackle this global crises, she was determined to spare no effort in engaging collaboration and coordination with Member States, international and regional organizations, civil aviation industries, and other stakeholders, including public-health authorities at all levels. She promoted to work as one team, coordinating with the heads of other United Nations agencies, including the World Health Organization (WHO), and building a robust mechanism to address any emergent issues in close cooperation with international communities and industry.

There are countless examples of Dr. Liu's leadership but perhaps one of the best involves her dedicated work to promote gender equality and the empowerment of women at ICAO and in the aviation industry. Dr. Liu witnessed the ways women can break through the glass ceiling and overcome the obstacles placed before them through assertiveness, determination, and hard work. As the first woman who was appointed to the position, she had used her mandate as a platform to prompt a global conversation on gender equality in the aviation sector. She launched the first Global Aviation Gender Summit to provide a unique opportunity to advocate and advance gender equality and empowerment of women in the global aviation. Moreover, Dr. Liu strongly supported the launch of the Next Generation of Aviation Professionals (NGAP) programme to stimulate women's appetite for science.

Prior to her appointment as ICAO's Secretary General, Dr. Liu served for eight years as the Director of ICAO's Bureau of Administration and Services (ADB). Before joining ICAO, Dr. Liu served the General Administration of CAAC, where over the course of twenty years she successively held the posts of Legal Counsel, Deputy Director, Director and Deputy Director General, Department of International Affairs and Cooperation. She was responsible for China's international air transport policy and regulations, bilateral and multilateral relations with international and regional organizations including ICAO, the World Trade Organization (WTO), the Asia-Pacific Economic Cooperation (APEC), the European Union, and the Association of Southeast Asian Nations (ASEAN). Dr. Liu was also chief negotiator for the Chinese government for bilateral and multilateral air transport agreements with foreign countries.

During her career with the CAAC, Dr. Liu was elected chair of the Aviation Group of APEC and was nominated by China to sit on the Air Transport Regulation Panel in ICAO. She also served as an expert on mediation and dispute resolution.

Dr. Liu earned a PhD in international law at Wuhan University, China, and a Master's degree in air and space law at Leiden University, the Netherlands. She was the Director of the Association of Air Law of China and of the Association of Private International Law of China and has published articles and delivered lectures on a wide range of topics in international air transport regulation and air law. She speaks Chinese and English and has knowledge of French.

Dr. Fang Liu's achievements exemplify all for which the IAWA Woman of Excellence Award stands for – leadership, commitment, and respect. She is highly regarded throughout the aviation and aerospace community for her professionalism, grace, and selfless commitment to the betterment of the equality and inclusivity in the aviation and aerospace industry.

For more information about the Board, the Association, studies, and membership, visit IAWA.org.

About the International Aviation Womens Association (IAWA)
IAWA is a nonprofit association providing a worldwide network dedicated to promoting the advancement of women in the aviation and aerospace industries at all levels across the globe. IAWA sponsors informative meetings, hosts receptions, and connects, publishes newsletters, and keeps its members updated on the latest industry developments. Information related to the Association, its programs, studies and NextGen opportunities can be found at IAWA.org.


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Submitted: 09/22/21
Article By: not specified