Dr Rannia Leontaridi was appointed Director General, Aviation, Maritime and Security Group in the Department for Transport (DfT) in June 2022. Previously, Rannia was Director for Aviation in DfT. She was responsible for the COVID-19 International Travel response, an ambitious aviation decarbonisation agenda, aviation safety and security, and global leadership in international aviation organisations. Before entering the Civil Service, Rannia worked as a lecturer in Economics. She has a wealth of experience in policy, strategy and commercial roles and has led teams across the UK government. Her previous roles include director for business growth, leading the governments policy on entrepreneurs, small businesses and new emerging high growth and technology businesses. She was the first director of the UKs Office for Artificial Intelligence (OAI). Rannia also led the development of more than 100 employee-owned private sector businesses and was the co-founder and UK Government Director at Crown Hosting Data Centres, a joint venture between the UK government and Ark Data Centres. Rannia is the gender champion for DfT and the senior sponsor for Diversity and Inclusion for the Analysis Profession in the Civil Service. She received an OBE for public service in 2016 and is a Carnegie Scholar in Economics and a Fellow of the Royal Society for the Arts.