Brian Pearce is an economist specialising in the economics of air transport, environmental policy, financial markets and macroeconomic forecasting. He is Executive Director at UCL's Air Transportation Research Laboratory and Honorary Professor of UCL's Bartlett School of Environment, Energy and Resources. He is also Visiting Professor at Cranfield University Centre for Air Transport Management and a Fellow of the royal Aeronautical Society. He was Chief Economist at IATA, until taking early retirement in July 2021, where he sat on the senior leadership team and was President of its pension foundation. He was acting SVP of IATA's Member & External Relations division from 2019-early 2020. Previously he has been a member of the expert panel of the UK Airports Commission, an expert adviser to ICAO on market based instruments, a member of AirNZ's sustainability panel, head of Global Economics at SBC Warburg Dillon Read and Chief Economist at Ernst & Young's ITEM Club, among other appointments.