Sebastian Mikosz - IATA
Biography
Sebastian Mikosz is the Senior Vice President for Member and External Relations at the International Air Transport Association (IATA). IATA's mission is to represent, lead and serve the airline industry. It represents some 290 airlines, which account for 82% of global air traffic. He is responsible for guiding and implementing IATA's strategic advocacy and stakeholder relationship activities worldwide. He engages extensively with government and UN bodies, particularly the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), and often coordinates and leads negotiations on behalf of the airline industry.
Sebastian Mikosz is the former group managing director and CEO of Kenya Airways. He held this position for almost three years between June 2017 until the end of 2019. During the same period, he was a non-executive board member of two Kenya Airways subsidiaries, the regional operator Jambojet and theTanzanian operator Precision Air; and the chairman of the board of the cargo company KAHL. Sebastian was also a member of the IATA board of governors.
Prior to that, he was the CEO of eSKY Group - the largest Polish online travel agent, operating in ten countries both in Europe and South America. Sebastian is also the former chief executive officer of LOT Polish Airlines. He held this position twice in the years 2009-2015. From 2011 to 2013 Sebastian held the position of senior advisor to Société Générale Corporate Investment Bank, between his two terms as CEO of LOT.
He started his career with the Arthur Andersen office in Paris, where he specialised in investments in the emerging markets. After returning to Poland in 2000, he worked on establishing an online brokerage house (Fast Trade). A year later, he became managing director of the French Chamber of Commerce and Industry in Poland (CCIFP). Between July 2003 and September 2006, Sebastian was vice-president of the Polish Information and Foreign Investment Agency (PAIiIZ), which is responsible for attracting foreign investment to Poland.
Before joining LOT Polish Airlines in years 2007-2009, he held the position of director in the Deloitte Business Consulting Warsaw Office.
Sebastian is bilingual in French and Polish and fluent in English and Russian. He is a graduate of the Institute of Political Studies (IEP Paris) in France with a master's degree in Economics and Finance. He is married and has three sons.
In 2011 he published a book in Polish on the functioning of contemporary airlines, "There is a pilot with us", which sold at 13 000 copies.
