Tânia Cardoso Simões leads the Aviation Transformation Directorate that is responsible for supporting European aviation and foster the pan-European implementation of the Single European Sky, focusing on the key areas of aviation research and innovation, aviation sustainability, data-driven aviation intelligence and impartial and independent performance assessment.
Cardoso Simões joined EUROCONTROL on 1 October 2024, as Director European Green Sky. She is a highly experienced aviation leader and strategic thinker. Her seven years (2016–2023) as first Board member and then Chair of ANAC, the Portuguese Civil Aviation Authority, saw her steer the organisation through a series of complex challenges, guaranteeing safe and secure operations and in particular ensuring business continuity across the pandemic period. More recently, she has been working as a top advisor on strategic matters (spanning HRM, procurement, data protection and competition analysis) for the Board of AdC, the Portuguese Competition Authority, where she worked for 13 years as a competition expert prior to joining ANAC.
A trained lawyer with postgraduate degrees in law and economics from Paris-Sorbonne and King’s College London, and from Lisbon University (a graduate degree in law and a master’s in European law), Cardoso Simões can draw on extensive regulatory and operational aviation experience, with many years of co-ordinating on aviation transport policy and legislation with top management at partner institutions at the national, European and international level.