Amelia Anderson is Treasurer, Co-founder and President of AWAR. During her 30-year career in corporate finance, Amelia saw first-hand the challenges that women often face in advancing their careers. She also saw how dialogue across gender lines can help leaders recognize and overcome bias to level the playing field.
Prior to her retirement from corporate finance in 2018, Amelia was Managing Director, Assistant Treasurer of American Airlines, the largest airline in the world in terms of revenue passenger miles, scheduled passengers carried, and fleet size. At American Airlines, Amelia and her team executed over $50 billion of best-in-class transactions, including financing 500+ new aircraft. Amelia also served as co-chair of the American Airlines Women’s Leadership Program.
In 2021, Amelia joined the Advisory Council of the Texas A&M Transportation Institute (TTI), an agency of the State of Texas created in 1950 to address problems and challenges facing all modes of transportation. A member of the Texas A&M University system, TTI is a diverse, interconnected group of 700 professionals, students, and support staff representing 38 countries. TTI’s mission is to deliver practical, innovative, and sustainable solutions to improve the movement of people, data, and goods through research, education, and technology transfer.
From 2019-2020, Amelia served as Chair of the DCU and Aviation Year of Inclusion, a joint initiative between Dublin City University’s Center of Excellence for Diversity & Inclusion and the Irish aviation industry. Established in 2019, the initiative aims to build awareness, enhance understanding and foster collaboration in the industry. The first research of its kind within the aviation industry Ireland, the initiative seeks to create ongoing data input from multiple segments of the aviation industry including airlines, airports, MRO, aircraft leasing and manufacturing. The insights gathered from this research have and will continue to inform the development of action plans that foster inclusive working environments and position the aviation industry to compete for diverse talent and drive innovation going forward.
In 2017, Amelia was honored to be named the inaugural recipient of the Aviation Woman of the Year award by one of the global aviation industry’s leading news sources, Euromoney’s Airfinance Journal.
Before relocating to Texas in 2014, Amelia lived in Phoenix, Arizona, where she held the positions of Assistant Treasurer and Director of Corporate Audit for copper mining giant Phelps Dodge Corporation, and Managing Director of Corporate Finance for US Airways. She also served the community as a Trustee of the Arizona Opera from 2012-2016, and as Board Treasurer and Finance Committee Chair of Arizona’s Children Association, one of Arizona’s oldest and largest statewide child welfare and behavioral health not-for-profit agencies, from 2009-2013.
Amelia holds a BS degree in Finance and Economics from the University of Alabama in Huntsville, and an MBA degree in Corporate Finance from Georgia State University in Atlanta. Amelia and her husband Robert, an attorney, have two daughters and reside in Coppell, Texas.