Geneva – The World Air Shipping Affiliation (IATA) introduced that Saadia Zahidi has been appointed through its Board of Administrators to the placement of Director Normal from November 1, 2026. Zahidi will likely be IATA’s 9th Director Normal and the primary lady appointed to carry the placement.
She joins IATA from the International Financial Discussion board (WEF) the place she is a Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board. Willie Walsh, IATA’s present Director Normal, will conclude his tasks on 31 July 2026.
The IATA Board of Administrators has appointed Sandrine Le Borgne, IATA’s Leader Monetary Officer and Senior Vice President for Company Services and products, as Period in-between Director Normal for the intervening length.
Saadia’s lengthy revel in on the International Financial Discussion board will beef up and make stronger IATA because the voice of the arena’s airways. International air shipping is a trillion-dollar trade that has and continues to modify the arena for the easier.
Saadia’s appointment comes at a second of important trade within the world surroundings. Era and geopolitics, amongst others, will reshape the trade at some point and Saadia brings the best abilities to successfully articulate what our trade must proceed connecting folks and economies safely, successfully and sustainably. She’ll deliver a contemporary viewpoint to IATA that may develop its strengthen for the airline trade at the foundations of IATA’s well-established technical, monetary and knowledge functions, the click commentary stated.
Zahidi spent greater than 20 years on the International Financial Discussion board, the place she served as Managing Director and Member of the Managing Board.
She based and these days heads its Centre for the New Economic system and Society. In the past, she led the WEF’s International Communications Workforce, International Programming Workforce, and WEF’s engagement with teachers, civil society, and world organizations. Zahidi based and co-authors WEF’s Long run of Jobs Experiences, the Long run of Expansion Experiences, the International Gender Hole Experiences, and Leader Economist Outlooks.
She has served at the UN Secretary-Normal’s panel for Girls’s Financial Empowerment and the Eu House Company’s Prime-Degree Advisory Workforce.
She could also be the creator of Fifty Million Emerging, monitoring the upward thrust of running girls within the Muslim international..

