IWD 2026: APEX/FTE Celebrate Female Leaders Advancing Passenger Experience Innovation
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To celebrate International Women’s Day, APEX is publishing interviews with female leaders at its member companies who are pushing the envelope when it comes to passenger experience. The conversations will form a week-long series, with one being shared each day. The first is with RAVE Aerospace Senior Director Passenger Services Clare Josey. These interviews were initially featured on the Future Travel Experience website.
APEX: Can you share a brief overview of your career journey? What drew you towards innovation leadership within aviation?
“I’ve consistently seen that diversity of perspective results in stronger, more innovative outcomes.”
Josey: I started my career in media and content distribution, which gave me a deep appreciation for how audiences engage with content and how to leverage technology to maximize the experience.
IFEC brings content, technology and service together in a highly complex, customer-driven environment. Across roles at BBC Worldwide, Rockwell Collins, Thales, Spafax, and now RAVE Aerospace, I’ve focused on turning airline needs and emerging capabilities into meaningful passenger solutions.
What draws me to innovation leadership is the challenge of balancing creativity with practicality; delivering experiences that genuinely improve the journey for passengers while working within the realities of airline operations.
APEX: As we approach International Women’s Day, how would you assess the progress the aviation industry has made towards gender equality, particularly in leadership and innovation roles? Where is meaningful progress being made, and where does the industry still need to accelerate change?
Josey: From my perspective, aviation has made progress, particularly in giving women greater visibility in customer experience, commercial, and innovation roles. I’ve also found it really encouraging to see more women coming through in engineering and software development, helping shape the technology that underpins the passenger experience.
That said, representation still drops off at the most senior and technical leadership levels. To truly accelerate progress, the industry needs stronger sponsorship and a more deliberate commitment to inclusive leadership at the top.
“When people understand the constraints and feel empowered within them, innovation becomes both achievable and sustainable.”
APEX: From your experience, what unique challenges and opportunities have you encountered as a woman leading innovation in aviation? How has diversity of perspective influenced innovation outcomes?
Josey: At times, being one of the few women in technical or innovation-focused discussions has meant navigating different communication styles. I’ve often found myself providing more context before getting to the punchline, taking time to question assumptions and fully explore what we’re trying to achieve and why. While that approach can take longer, it frequently leads to more comprehensive and durable solutions.
I’ve consistently seen that diversity of perspective results in stronger, more innovative outcomes. When teams are willing to slow down, listen, and challenge long-held assumptions, the solutions ultimately become more effective for the passengers we’re designing for.
APEX: How do you foster a culture of innovation within your organization, particularly in a highly regulated and operationally complex industry like aviation?
Josey: Fostering a culture of innovation in aviation starts with creating space for curiosity, even within a highly regulated and operationally complex environment. I encourage teams to focus first on the why, what problem we’re really trying to solve for the airline or the passenger, before jumping to solutions. That helps innovation feel purposeful rather than risky.
“A key theme across everything I’m working on is integration: connecting technology, data, and partnerships.”
Equally important is psychological safety; it’s important to create an environment where people feel comfortable challenging assumptions, sharing early ideas, and learning from what doesn’t work. In aviation, innovation rarely means breaking the rules. Instead, it means working collaboratively across engineering, operations, and commercial teams to find smarter, more passenger-centric ways forward. When people understand the constraints and feel empowered within them, innovation becomes both achievable and sustainable.
APEX: What innovation initiatives are you currently leading that are reshaping the passenger journey, whether through digital transformation, operational efficiency, or new technologies and experience concepts?
Josey: In my current role, I’m focused on initiatives that bring together digital capability, content, and service design to create a more seamless and engaging passenger journey. This includes evolving in-flight digital platforms to better personalize the experience, making content and services more intuitive to discover and easier for airlines to manage operationally.
A key theme across everything I’m working on is integration: connecting technology, data, and partnerships in a way that simplifies complexity for airlines while giving passengers more choice and relevance. Rather than innovation for its own sake, the goal is to deliver solutions that are scalable, operationally practical, and genuinely improve how passengers experience their time onboard.
APEX: How are technologies such as AI, robotics, automation, and the Internet of Things influencing your innovation roadmap – and how do you prioritize investment in emerging technologies?
Technologies like AI, automation, and IoT are increasingly shaping our innovation roadmap, particularly in how we personalize the passenger experience and simplify operational complexity for airlines. AI has strong potential in areas such as content discovery, personalization, and decision support, while automation and connected systems help improve reliability, scalability, and efficiency across the onboard ecosystem.
“I believe the focus should be less on the technology itself and more on the problem it’s solving.”
When it comes to prioritizing, I believe the focus should be less on the technology itself and more on the problem it’s solving, considering whether a new capability meaningfully improves the passenger journey, integrates realistically into airline operations, and can scale across fleets and markets. In a highly regulated industry like aviation, successful innovation is about applying emerging technologies thoughtfully, where they deliver clear value today, while building a foundation for what’s possible tomorrow.
APEX: What advice would you give to the next generation of women aspiring to leadership roles in aviation and technology?
My advice would be to stay curious, build confidence in your perspective, and don’t wait until you feel “ready” to put yourself forward. Aviation and technology need leaders who can connect people, systems, and experiences, so lean into skills like collaboration, communication, and strategic thinking alongside technical knowledge. Seek out sponsors as well as mentors, people who will advocate for you when you’re not in the room. And finally, don’t underestimate the value of your different viewpoint; it’s often that perspective that drives the most meaningful innovation.