Matthew Gorman

Matthew is Carbon Strategy Director for Heathrow in the newly formed Carbon, Communications and Communities department. He has been Sustainability Director at the airport for the last decade, leading the team that developed “Heathrow 2.0”, the airport’s leadership plan for sustainable growth launched in 2017. He played a key role in developing the new approach which put local communities and the environment at the heart of the airport’s plans for a new runway and was backed by a strong majority in Parliament in 2018. Heathrow won the Edie “Sustainable Business of the Year” award in 2019, and the airport’s new net zero plan, launched at the start of 2022, has been shortlisted as “plan of the year” in the Business Green Leaders Awards.

Matthew chairs “Sustainable Aviation”, the coalition of UK airlines, airports and manufacturers that sets industry-wide sustainability goals and drives progress towards them. In early 2020, Sustainable Aviation became the first national aviation group in the world to commit to net zero 2050.

He has represented the global airports sector in the International Civil Aviation Organisation’s working group on climate change, and Heathrow on the Corporate Leaders Group on Climate Change. He has been a trustee of the Hilllingdon Community Trust and the Heathrow Community Fund, Vice-Chair of SERA (the Labour Environment Campaign) and a trustee of Tourism Concern, which campaigns for ethical tourism. 

He was awarded an MBE in the Queen’s Birthday Honours in 2021 for services to the decarbonisation of aviation.

Matthew is a fluent French and Spanish speaker and has co-authored a book on corporate responsibility: “Big Business, Big Responsibilities. From villains to visionaries - how companies are tackling the world’s greatest challenges”. He is currently writing a book on how we can take the carbon out of flying and protect the benefits of air travel for the future. He is married with two children.

Key dates
2020 Carbon Strategy Director
2008-2020 Sustainability & Environment Director BAA plc then

Heathrow

2004-2007 Head of Sustainability/Climate Change BAA plc
2000-2004 Principal Policy Advisor, Forum for the Future
1999-2000 Consultant, Environmental Resources Management