Sam Whitehead

Sam has significant experience in the aviation industry and an encyclopedic knowledge of airports and how they operate, specializing in how the interplay between technology, people, and processes can drive performance and resilience in airport operations. Sam has led multiple long-term strategic technology-enabled transformations at Heathrow Airport, where he is currently program lead for AtkinsRéalis on the security program, delivering over £1bn worth of investment in new security, technology and transformational change.

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Product design and management on the Heathrow security program

Developing the next-gen security product, aiming to enhance threat detection and operational efficiency through over £1bn investment in technology and transformational change. This will be Europe’s largest security program, delivering over 100 lanes used by 82 million passengers and colleagues annually. The program must meet tight regulatory deadlines while maintaining full capacity and high customer satisfaction. We implemented a comprehensive trial and pilot approach, controlling product development and change, and generating rich data to optimize designs and enable detailed simulations for accurate demand and capacity forecasting, minimizing operational disruption.

The audience will learn:

• The approach to trialling new technology and processes, and the benefits of doing this prior to procurement
• How product requirements and the product development and regulatory roadmaps are essential to running an effective procurement process
• How a 'pilot' installation can significantly progress learning prior to full product deployment, generating rich data and honing requirements
• How change driven by learning from the 'pilot' installation and early deployments is controlled and managed while meeting deployment timescales
• How data from the 'pilot' is used to build simulations that enable planning that balances demand and capacity through transition