Irena is a Board Member of AWAR and has spent more than eleven years in the front lines of the aircraft finance and leasing industry. In 2022, she was named Chief Revenue Officer at ClimateView. Prior to that, she was a Commercial Officer and a Senior Vice President at Amedeo, an asset management platform and a principal investor focused on commercial aircraft leasing with AUM of US$ 8 billion. Irena was a founding member of Amedeo and has represented the interests of UK institutional investors and multinational private equity shareholders.
In addition to her Board Membership at AWAR, Irena serves as a Committee Member at the Aviation Club in the UK and is a member of the Dublin City University Aviation Industry D&I Advisory Committee.
Irena was a partner at Doric Partners LLP and a member of Doric Asset Finance’s structuring and advisory team from 2008 until 2013, having worked in the Corporate Finance and Investment Banking divisions of leading global financial institutions between 2004 and 2008.
Irena has spoken at numerous aviation conferences and institutional investor events over the past decade on the topics of aircraft investments, asset management, aircraft redeployment and secondary market development, aviation finance, lessor consolidation, aircraft programs evolution as well as gender equality and human talent.
Irena has originated, structured and executed cross-border commercial aircraft financing and leasing transactions involving major international airlines, introducing a suite of financing instruments including equity & debt capital markets products, mezzanine securities and commercial debt financing.
Irena has been closely involved in managing the IPOs of LSE-listed, aircraft investment companies and has led the structuring and execution of US debt capital markets transactions, raising in excess of US$1 billion. Irena has successfully negotiated multilateral lease and loan agreements with the senior management teams of international airlines across multiple jurisdictions.
Irena has extensive experience in managing relationships with key aviation industry stakeholders such as equity investors (pension funds and insurance companies), commercial lenders and investment banks, aircraft and engine manufacturers, international airlines, major leasing companies and asset platforms, and various brokers and intermediaries.
Irena was recently acknowledged by Airline Economics as one of the ‘40 under 40’ future leaders in the aviation industry and was featured in the 2018 issue of the magazine ‘Aviation Life’.
Irena has completed an Executive Leadership Programme in Strategic Negotiations at Harvard Business School and holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Business Studies from Martin Luther University Halle-Wittenberg in Germany.
Irena is a graduate of an Artificial Intelligence (AI) Programme at Saïd Business School at the University of Oxford and is interested in exploring opportunities of developing innovative investment solutions focusing on key socio-economic and environmental challenges related to the accomplishment of the 17 SDGs established by the UN in 2015 and leveraging off the latest trends in AI (deep learning and advanced machine learning), IoT, Big Data, and blockchain.
Irena is a keen mountaineer, and an amateur sea-kayaker and ice-climber and has undertaken several expedition-style adventures over the past six years including climbs in Argentina, Canada, Ecuador, France, Greenland, Iceland, Mongolia, Peru, Russia, Tanzania, Switzerland, the UK and the US.
As part of her mountaineering pursuits, Irena has completed successful fundraising initiatives for several charitable organisations, most notably in aid of the inspiring projects established by Orbis and WellChild.