Our team

Nicolas Duchêne, President

Nicolas Duchêne possesses an MSc in Industrial Sciences and Sustainable Development from Université de Technologies de Troyes, France, complemented by an MSc in Water Pollution Control Technology from the prestigious Cranfield University, United Kingdom.

Nicolas embarked on his journey with Verifavia in January 2016, assuming the role of Technical Director. His exceptional leadership led to his promotion to Director General in January 2021. Displaying an unwavering commitment to the organisation, he was further appointed as President of Verifavia SAS, including its subsidiaries in India and Singapore, in June 2023.

Fluent in both English and French, Nicolas is based in Paris, where he plays a vital role in guiding Verifavia's growth and success.

Julien Dufour, Founder & Member of the Board

Julien Dufour is the Founder and former President of Verifavia SAS, including its subsidiaries in India and Singapore, and is now Member of the Board. His strategic guidance has been instrumental in driving the company's global success and expansion.

Julien is also Director at Aviation Carbon Events where he co-organises the esteemed Aviation Carbon conferences, contributing to industry dialogues and knowledge sharing.

Fluent in English, French, and Spanish, Julien is headquartered in Paris, a city from which he continues to foster relationships and influence aviation and sustainability sectors globally.

Conferences:

Co-organiser, moderator & speaker, Aviation Carbon 2022, London Heathrow, Oct 2022
Speaker, AACO Webinar on EU Fit for 55 Package of Proposal, Sep 2021
Organiser & speaker, CORSIA Webinars, April & May 2020; Oct 2021
Speaker on CORSIA, Iran Civil Aviation Organization, May 2020
Co-organiser, moderator & speaker, Aviation Carbon 2019, London Heathrow, Nov 2019
Trainer on CORSIA for ASEAN countries, EASA Bangkok, Oct 2019
Trainer on CORSIA at the AACO/Verifavia CORSIA MRV Workshop, Beirut, Sep 2019
Speaker on CORSIA at the Civil Aviation Authority of Malaysia (CAAM), Kuala Lumpur, Feb 2019
Speaker on IMO DCS at the Navis Customer Conference, Hamburg, Nov 2018
Co-organiser, moderator & speaker, Aviation Carbon 2018, London Heathrow, Nov 2018
Speaker on CORSIA at the ATAG 2018 Global Sustainable Aviation Summit, Geneva, Oct 2018
Speaker on IMO DCS at the Panama Chamber of Shipping, Panama City, Sep 2018
Speaker on EU MRV and IMO DCS at the GST Conference & Shipping 2030, Copenhagen, Mar 2018
Speaker on EU MRV, IMO DCS, CSI and CCWG at the Verifavia Shipping Seminar, Singapore, Feb 2018
Co-organiser, moderator & speaker, Aviation Carbon 2017, London Heathrow, Dec 2017
Speaker on EU MRV and IMO DCS at the Intl Green Shipping & Technology Summit, Athens, Nov 2017
Speaker on EU MRV at the Turkish Chamber of Shipping, Istanbul, Oct 2017
Speaker on EU MRV at the Swedish Shipowner Association, Göteborg, May 2017
Moderator on Preparing for EU MRV at the Green Ship Technology Conference (GST), Copenhagen, Mar 2017
Speaker on EU MRV at the Global Maritime Summit, Istanbul, Mar 2017
Speaker on EU MRV at the Danish Shipowner Association, Copenhagen, Mar 2017
Speaker on EU MRV at the Royal Dutch Shipowners Association (KNRV), Rotterdam, Mar 2017
Speaker on EU MRV Monitoring Plans, ECSA Semniar on EU MRV Monitoring Plan, European Community Shipowners’ Associations (ECSA), Brussels, 15 February 2017
Speaker on EU MRV at the Marine Fuels & Lubricants conference, Rotterdam, Dec 2016
Moderator on EU ETS and the Carbon Market at Navigating CORSIA and EU ETS Conference, Madrid, Nov 2016
Speaker at Carbon Market Seminar by ICIS, London, Sep 2016
Speaker on EU MRV Regulation - Overview, Challenges and How to Get Ready?, Viswalab Annual Technical Seminar, Singapore, Oct 2016
Speaker on Monitoring Plan: Content & Challenges for Ship Operators, at the EU MRV Seminar, UK Chamber of Shipping, London, Sep 2016
Organiser of EU MRV Seminar, SMM 2016, Hamburg, Sep 2016
Organiser of EU MRV Masterclasses, Posidonia 2016, Athens, Jun 2016
Speaker on EU MRV at the 2016 Propulsion & Emissions Conference, Hambourg, May 2016
Speaker on EU MRV at the 2016 GREEN4SEA Forum, Athens, Apr 2016
Speaker on EU MRV at the Green Ship Technology Conference (GST 2016), Copenhagen, Mar 2016
Speaker at EU ETS workshop by Vertis on Feb 2016 in London
Speaker on EU MRV at the environmental committee of the Armateurs de France, Paris, Jan 2016
Speaker on Shipping MRV verification at the Perspectives On: The Implications of the EU’s MRV Regulation, London, October 2015
Speaker on Aviation in EU ETS and Shipping Emissions at the Argus European Emissions Market 2015, Amsterdam, March 2015 (see picture)
Speaker on Perceptions of emissions trading as a solution to limiting CO2 emissions at the III Emissions Trading Summit, Warsaw, Nov 2014
Speaker on ‘Stop the clock’ proposals, consequences and impacts and on The shipping perspective at the 6th Annual European Emissions Markets, Brussels, Sep 2014
Speaker on Revision of the EU ETS and consequences for airlines at the European Regions Airline Association (ERA) Industry Affairs Working Group, Frankfurt, Apr 2014
Speaker on Aviation EU ETS and Global ICAO MBM at the Argus European Emissions Markets 2014, Amsterdam, Mar 2014
Speaker on Aviation MRV in the context of the Global ICAO MBM at the Expert Forum Delivering a global MBM for aviation - the way forward, Brussels, Feb 2014
Speaker, Westminster Energy, Environment & Transport Forum, Latest on the EU ETS: structural reform and prospects for international integration, London, Dec 2013
Chair & Speaker, Low Carbon Earth Summit, Carbon Credits and Carbon Exchanges, Xi'An, China, Sep 2013
Co-organiser & moderator, Aviation Carbon 2013, EU ETS Compliance and Prospects for a Global Scheme, London Heathrow, Feb 2013
Speaker on Impact of the EU ETS at the MRO Europe 2012, Amsterdam, October 2012
Co-organiser & moderator, Aviation Carbon 2012, Carbon Planning & Trading Strategies for Airlines, London Heathrow, Feb 2012
Trainer on Inclusion of Aviation in EU ETS Training Course, Turkish Civil Aviation Authority, Istanbul, Aug 2011
Moderator on Environmental Trading Schemes: Are you Compliant? at the European Business Aviation Convention and Exhibition (EBACE2011), Geneva, May 2011
Speaker on ETS ROADMAP: STATUS UPDATE at the 25th Annual Geneva Aircraft Finance & Commercial Aviation Forum, Geneva, Feb 2011
Speaker on The Road to EU ETS Verification: How to get ready, best practices & common mistakes at the 4th Flight Operations Conference, Amsterdam, Dec 2010
Speaker on The EU ETS Verification Process, FNAM/DGAC Verification Workshop, Paris, 28 Jun 2010
Speaker on EU ETS Verification: a legal perspective, 3rd Annual Eco-Aviation Conference, Washington D.C., Jun 2010
Speaker on Conclusion of EU ETS start-up year: implementation issues, IT, impact & way forward at the 3rd Flight Operations Conference, Amsterdam, Dec 2009
Speaker on EU ETS Principles, Compliance and Impact at the NBAA 62nd Annual Meeting & Convention, Orlando, Oct 2009
Conclusions of Air France KLM OMNES seminar Impacts & Outlook of the Crisis on Air Transport, AF HQ Paris-CDG, May 2009 [in presence of JC Spinetta, Chairman of the Board]

Trainings:

Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM), May 2019
Fundamentals of Maritime Trade & Transport (see training certificate), May 2015
MRV Auditor Training Course, Jan 2017
Airport Carbon Accreditation Verifier, Sep 2012
EEX: Spot Market training natural gas and EUA, Jul 2011
External Lead Verifier (EU ETS), Mar 2010

Yuvraj Thakur, VP Commercial - Shipping, and General Manager Verifavia Technical Services & Verifavia Shipping-IHM (Singapore)

Yuvraj Thakur is a Marine Engineer who has sailed as an Engineer Officer on Tanker and container ships. He holds a B Tech Marine Engineering degree from MANET, Pune and an MBA degree in Global Logistics and Supply Chain Management from SP Jain School Of Global Management (Singapore, Sydney and Dubai).

Yuvraj speaks English and Hindi, and is based in Chandigarh, India.

Yuvraj is our VP Commercial for Maritime Transport, our Global Head of Inventory of Hazardous Materials (IHM), and the General Manager of Verifavia Technical Services (VTS). Yuvraj is also an EU MRV and IMO DCS auditor, and Hazmat expert.

Souha Belhaj Messaoud, Quality Safety Environment manager and Fluorinated gases auditor

Souha is a chemical system engineer. She holds a doctor degree from the University of Tokyo, Japan, as well as a Master of Sciences from the National Institute of Applied Sciences and Technology, Tunisia.

She has almost 10 years of experience in quality management and gained quality best practices through her experience in numerous industries. She worked as a desalination plant manager in a water treatment and water supply company, a process engineer in a functional safety department of a car component manufacturer, a global alignment supervisor, and an analysis center leader in a beverage company. She had several Quality Assurance and Quality Control internships in heavy industries such as oil refinery, lubricant oils manufacturer, and cement producer.

Souha speaks Arabic, Tunisian Darija, French, English, and Japanese, and can handle beginner-level conversation in Spanish and German. She is based in Paris, France.

Souha is our Quality-Safety-Environment Manager and Fluorinated gases auditor.

Mathias Grossmann, Aviation & Airports Director

Mathias holds an MSc in Economics from the Université du Québec à Montréal (UQAM). He has worked at the International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO), where he has been involved in the development of the ICAO CORSIA CO₂ Estimation and Reporting Tool (CERT) and has also supported ICAO Member States in the development of their State Action Plan aiming to reduce CO₂ emissions by implementing mitigation measures.

Mathias speaks English and French, is currently based in Paris.

Mathias is our Aviation & Airports Director, as well as an Aviation Lead Auditor and Independent Technical Reviewer (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS), and an Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA Level 1 to 4+) Verifier.

Kaustubh Dilip Deshpande, Senior Aviation Manager

Kaustubh is an aviation professional with expertise in Greenhouse Gas Monitoring, Process Reconciliation, Data Validation and System Enhancements. He has more than 11 years of industry experience in EU-ETS along with aviation operations at Jet Airways. He holds a Master's degree in Physics from the Institute of Chemical Technology (ICT), Mumbai.

Kaustubh is a CORSIA, EU ETS and Airport Carbon auditor and our Aviation Manager. Kaustubh speaks English, Hindi, Marathi, and based in Chandigarh, India.

Kaustubh is an Aviation Manager, as well as an Aviation Lead Auditor and Independent Technical Reviewer (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS), and an Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA Level 1 to 4+) Verifier.

Azhar Ahmed Sayeed, Aviation Manager

Azhar is a mechanical engineer who holds a master's degree in International Air Transport Operations Management (IATOM) from the prestigious French Civil aviation university, Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (ENAC).

Azhar has worked for Liebherr-Aerospace in their customer services department to develop their future strategy in customer trainings. He has also worked on a research project to investigate trends in the flight profile of a particular type of aircraft.

Azhar is based in Paris, he speaks English, French, Hindi, Kannada, and Urdu.

Azhar is an Aviation Manager, as well as an Aviation Lead Auditor and Independent Technical Reviewer (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS), and an Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA Level 1 to 4+) Verifier.

Patricia Pinilla, Airports Manager

Patricia holds a bachelor’s degree in environmental engineering from the Technological University of Panama. She also holds a master’s degree in Environmental Management from the Université Paris 7 (Paris Diderot).

She has previously worked as a Quality Manager for an airline catering company and has experience as an environmental consultant in the construction and industrial sectors.

Patricia speaks Spanish, English and French and is based in Paris, France.

Patricia is an Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA Level 1 to 3+) Verifier as well as an Aviation Auditor in Training (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS).

Sasikumar K.K, Aviation Manager

Sasikumar holds a Master's degree in International Air Transport Operations Management from ENAC (National School of Civil Aviation, France) and Bachelor's degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Anna University (India). Sasi has previously worked with Aircraft Manufacturer (AIRBUS), Airport, and Aircraft parts supplier.

Sasi speaks English and Tamil, and is based in Chandigarh, India.

Sasi is an Aviation Manager, Lead Auditor, and Independent Technical Reviewer (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS), as well as an Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA Level 1 to 4+) Verifier.

Himanshu Rai Sharma, SAF & Business Development Manager

Himanshu is an Aeronautical Engineer with a keen interest and expertise in Sustainable Aviation Fuels, he has also hosted some webinars on the same topic. Himanshu holds a Bachelor's Degree & a Technical Diploma in Aeronautical Engineering and has been with Verifavia since 2020.

Himanshu is based in Chandigarh, India. He speaks English, Hindi and Punjabi.

Himanshu is an Aviation Lead Auditor (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS), Independent Technical Reviewer (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS) in training, as well as our Sustainable Aviation Fuels (SAF) Expert.

Lizeth Claudio, Aviation Lead Auditor

Lizeth is an Aerospace Engineer from the University of Manchester, United Kingdom. She also holds a master’s degree from l'École Nationale de l'Aviation Civile in Toulouse, France. She has previously worked as an intern in the implementation of Safety Management Systems in the airports of Latin America and the Caribbean with Airports Council International.

Lizeth speaks Spanish, English and French and is based in Paris, France.

Lizeth is an Aviation Lead Auditor (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS), as well as an Airport Carbon Accreditation (ACA Level 1 to 3+) Verifier.

Melissa D'souza, Aviation Lead Auditor

Melissa holds a Master’s degree in Aviation Management and a Bachelor’s degree in Aviation from Griffith University. She has a commercial pilot license and has also worked as an intern with an aviation consultation company, Aviation Projects, on projects such as aviation hazard assessment and airport planning and development.

Melissa speaks English, Hindi and Marathi; and she is based in Dubai, UAE.

Melissa is an Aviation Lead Auditor (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS).

Shreya Khanna, Aviation Auditor

Shreya has 4 years of experience in aviation industry as Flight Data Analyst with Vistara Airlines. Her responsibilities were to plan the cabin crew roster as per the DGCA guidelines for 24/48/47 hrs window. She have performed gap analysis on monthly basis for actual v/s plan roster for cabin crew. Also, she assisted team for sprint testing and cost paring analysis at the time of implementation for Jeppesen Optimizers.

She has expertise in ARMS software, Jeppesen Optimizer and DGCA CAR regulations.

She has completed her PGDM Diploma in Business Analytics from BITS Pilani. She has done her MBA in Business Analytics from University of Petroleum and Energy studies.

She speaks Hindi and English.

Shreya is an Aviation Auditor (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS).

Deepak Kumar, Aviation Auditor

Deepak Kumar has a bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Amity University Haryana, India. He also holds a minor degree in Artificial Intelligence. During his academics, he has worked on many engineering projects including RC plane modellings and drones.

He is working in the aviation domain since Feb 2020. During his previous role as an Aeronautical data analyst in Hitech digital solutions LLP, he was part of an early-stage project called “OBSTACLE+” for NAVBLUE. In 2 years of timeframe, he contributed to the project and established a full-scale production process for the project. He got recognition to become a trainer for the project from NAVBLUE. He is familiar with NAVBLUE products and aeronautical information publications.

Deepak is based in Chandigarh, India. He speaks English & Hindi.

Deepak is an Aviation Auditor (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS).

Satish Kumar, Aviation Auditor

Satish Kumar has a bachelor’s degree in Electronics and Communication Engineering from VELS UNIVERISTY (India).

He has 2+ years of ITES industry experience & 4+ years of aviation industry experience in flight operation with significant hand-on experience in flight dispatch. Expertise in ARMS software, analyzing NOTAMS, Meteorological data, AIP supplements, AIRAC, monitoring & maintaining records as per the DGCA-CAR regulations and standards.

Satish is based in Chandigarh, India. He speaks Tamil, English & Hindi.

Satish is an Aviation Auditor (CORSIA, EU ETS & UK ETS).

Urvashi Pundir, Aviation Auditor

Urvashi Pundir holds a master’s degree in Avionics and bachelor’s degree in Aerospace Engineering from Amity University, Noida (India). She is also enrolled in post graduate program certification in Data Science and Business Analytics online from Texas McCombs, The University of Taxes at Austin.

Urvashi hold 3 years’ experience of working as an Aeronavigation Data Analyst with significant experience in interpreting and analysing data from NOTAM’s AIP’s, AIP supplements, AIRAC documents and other recognized aeronautical national documents to drive successful solutions related to navigation charts and navigational database as per ARINC specifications.

Urvashi speaks English and Hindi, and is based in Chandigarh, India.