Dear FPAW Members,
If you have been poring over the high-level agenda for the upcoming Fall 2025 FPAW Meeting, you will undoubtedly have seen that conducting this meeting will be my friend Matthias Steiner’s final duties as FPAW Co-Chair. I will not steal my own thunder in this letter; instead, I will only say that I will miss his guidance, his wisdom, and his Swiss humor (yes, the Swiss can be humorous) very, very much.
Alexander Graham Bell is credited with coining the following phrase:
"When one door closes, another one opens; but we so often look so long and so regretfully upon the closed door, that we do not see the ones which open for us."
For FPAW, and for me personally and professionally, I am thrilled to announce who is walking in through the open door.
Effective October 1, 2025, Nathan Polderman, Senior Manager of Meteorology, United Airlines, will join me (and Matthias for eight days) as FPAW Co-Chair (I wonder if that makes us all L-1011s, i.e., Tri-Chairs). Nathan oversees all weather decision support services and contracts for United and has been active in numerous aviation weather industry initiatives over the last 15 years, including most recently as a representative of the Users Community on the FPAW Steering Committee. He holds an M.S. degree in Atmospheric Science and is also a licensed aircraft dispatcher.
Please join me in welcoming Nathan to the helm of the finest aviation weather group in the world.
Matt Fronzak
FPAW Co-Chair