An Interview with Dr. Waleed Youssef, Director-General, ASA World | Introduced by Odgers

Susan Thompson, Partner and Head of Aviation, joined Dr. Youssef to discuss his role, leadership influences, and advice for success in leadership.

How will your leadership influence ASA and its wider stakeholders?

I spent my entire career in the private sector, mainly leading teams that buy and sell airports and transforming inefficient public airports into safe, modern, and profitable privately-managed ones.

In this context, it is important to recognise the nature of industry associations as well as our association in general. Although we play a critical and indispensable role, our visibility and voice, strength, and resources are significantly less than our peers – IATA, ACI, and CANSO. I am in the process of introducing clear, tangible, and measurable outcomes at ASA World, although this has been a challenge for some team members. We will complete our restructuring program during Q2 and will start seeing tangible results by Q3 and definitely by year-end.

Watch Dr. Waleed explore the top three approaches for leadership success:

What are your top three tips for success in leadership?

1. The ground and cargo handling world are brand new to me. I am still understanding the nature and drivers of the business, so it is important to engage with our members who are subject matter experts, as well as to listen, challenge, and investigate before being influenced by legacy biases. I have also conducted thorough due diligence of the association during the first three weeks before identifying gaps and proposing a new strategic and restructuring program.
2. Give existing staff the opportunity to explain themselves and their work, while recognising that people work differently under various environments. When leading the transformation of privatised airports during my career, I saw staff shine under a new regime and incentive structure while others stumbled. While providing proper training and direction can significantly encourage better performance, one must also recognise that some staff cannot adapt to a dynamic, output-driven work model especially when working remotely.
3. Reach out early to key stakeholders, including the board and committee members, other organisations, and regulators. It's crucial to build bridges and understand their motivations. It is always easy to find common ground and focus on it. This approach early on also enables a new chief executive to reset adversarial relationships and build bridges with peer organisations, even if those bridges start small.

Introduced by Odgers | Success Story

Odgers partnered with ASA World to identify an exceptional Director-General, with Dr. Waleed assuming the role in January 2025.

To discover more about Waleed’s journey with Odgers and his motivations in choosing this role, read his individual success story here.

Introduced by Odgers | Dr. Waleed Youssef Success Story

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