WINGMAN
Paul Littlejohn

Paul Littlejohn

Every leaderneeds a wingman.

Business transformation consultant
& strategic adviser

Former RAF fighter pilot & COO

Talk to Paul Meet your wingman

Based in Dubai

Leadership & business transformation

Bring me in while you can still
change the decision.

I design how complex organisations compete and operate. I lead major transformations from design through delivery.

When the way your organisation works is holding back growth, or a major investment depends on teams working differently, I’ll help you decide what has to change and lead the work through.

See the work

Selected work

Experience with
results behind it.

From the design of the organisation to the decisions that make it work.

dnata Airline Services · Project Libra

Programme scope15,000

People across Airline Services.

I helped design a new operating model, then led its 18-month implementation. The programme removed USD 6.11m in annual costs.

Read the Libra case

Tourism 365 · ADNEC Group

USD30M

Revenue opportunity
unlocked.

Full digital integration and operating process alignment.

Meeting Point International

Where to compete. How to operate.

I led the workstream on where to compete, what to offer and how to win. We designed the organisational blueprint, common systems and operating processes around those choices.

Paul beside an F/A-18 during his flying career
F/A-18 instructor · US Marine Corps exchange

Meet Paul Littlejohn

A career built on
demanding standards.

Nearly 30 years in elite military flying, management consulting and senior business leadership.

Paul’s career has taken him from RAF fighter operations and US Marine Corps instruction to leading major transformations and international operations.

He helped design transformation at PA Consulting, then led its implementation across a 15,000-person organisation at dnata. Later came senior operating responsibility, a COO role and global operations across 17 countries.

Through Wingman, he brings the standards of elite performance into leadership and business transformation.

Read Paul’s story

Work with Paul

Before you commit.
When it has to deliver.

I work directly with the leaders responsible for the decision and the result.

01

Test a major commitment

Before you expand, make a major investment or take on a new remit, I’ll give you an independent view of what’s worth doing and what it will take to deliver.

Discuss the decision
02

Get the transformation moving

You’ve committed to the change and the organisation can’t deliver it as designed. I can reshape how it works and lead the change across the teams that have to deliver it.

Discuss the transformation

If a new public service depends on several authorities, I can design how they’ll deliver it together, including who owns the outcome and who can make the calls once it goes live.

Staying Ahead of the Jet by Paul Littlejohn. Four Disciplines for Judgement Under Uncertainty.

Staying Ahead of the Jet

You don’t need to
know everything.

You need to know what matters.

The thinking behind Wingman, explored in Paul’s forthcoming book.

Explore the thinking

Four questions for when things get complicated

What do we actually know?

Separate the evidence from the assumptions. Find out which missing facts would change your next move.

What are we trying to achieve?

Keep sight of the outcome worth pursuing, including the standards and commitments that must be protected.

What do we need to decide now?

Distinguish the commitment needed now from decisions the available evidence cannot yet support.

Can we survive if it goes wrong?

Understand the consequences you would have to carry. Preserve the capacity to recover and pursue the next opportunity.

Mission artwork showing an F/A-18 on an aircraft carrier at sunset
F/A-18 on deck · Mission artwork
The Mission By Wingman
Executive

Private executive offsite · Dubai

Launch an F/A-18. From a carrier.

For one day, your leadership team becomes a fighter squadron. Take the controls and fly the mission together in full-motion, full-VR simulators.

Discover The Mission

One private team of 4–6 · No flying experience needed

Two participants flying the full-motion F/A-18 VR simulators at Fightertown
Fightertown Dubai
  1. Brief the mission

    Agree what success looks like and who makes which calls.

  2. Fly it together

    Share what you see and make decisions as the situation changes.

  3. Debrief with Paul

    Review what happened and take the lessons back to work.

Start a conversation

What needs
to happen next?

An important change.
A business that could perform better.
A decision worth getting right.

Talk to Paul [email protected]

Selected career organisations

Royal Air Force PA Consulting dnata Meeting Point International Tourism 365 · ADNEC Group

Nearly 30 years in elite military flying, management consulting and senior business leadership.

Paul’s career connects the standards of elite performance with the demands of leading complex organisations. It spans fast-jet operations and instruction, consulting design, large transformation programmes and responsibility for international operations.

He understands what a proposed direction asks of an organisation, the expertise needed to make it work and the leadership required to carry it through.

Through Wingman, Paul works directly with leaders on business performance and important change, providing senior advice and transformation leadership.

Professional background

The career behind the advice.

Royal Air Force

Squadron Leader
& fighter pilot

1997–2013

Sixteen years in fast-jet operations, leadership and instruction.

Paul’s RAF career included roles across operations, training, and test and evaluation. On exchange with the US Marine Corps, he served as an F/A-18 instructor and department head, including carrier operations aboard USS Eisenhower.

That formation is central to Wingman: demanding preparation, sound judgement and the development of other people’s performance.

Paul beside an F/A-18
US Marine Corps exchange · F/A-18 Hornet

PA Consulting

Management consultant

2013–2014

From diagnosing the business to designing the change.

Paul moved into aviation consulting and business transformation, working on client engagements and new business development. He helped design dnata’s Libra transformation programme, including a revised organisational structure and operating-model blueprint.

He subsequently joined dnata to lead the implementation, taking responsibility for carrying that design into practice.

dnata · Emirates Group

Programme lead to
Divisional Vice President

2014–2021

Major transformation followed by substantial operating responsibility.

Paul led Libra’s 18-month implementation across Airline Services, an organisation of 15,000 people. The programme reshaped roles, processes and ways of working, removing USD6.11M in annual costs against a USD8.17M consultancy projection.

As Vice President, Customer Services, his remit covered 130 airline customers and 10 million passengers a year. He later became Divisional Vice President, Airside Operations, with a USD250M budget and a management team of 47 directing more than 10,000 indirect staff.

A USD15.6M operating-cost reduction over three years.

Meeting Point

COO & Global Head
of Operations

January 2022–September 2023

Local business leadership and a global operating remit.

Paul was COO for the UAE and Oman destination businesses and Global Head of Operations across a network of 17 countries. His responsibilities included operating strategy, business processes and a transformation programme of more than 20 projects.

Before joining, he had helped design the four pillars of the business’s blueprint. His subsequent remit included the Operations Function committee of 11 destination COOs.

Results include a 40% improvement in profit per sale at Meeting Point UAE. Customer complaints fell by 95% within 12 months.

Tourism365 · ADNEC Group

Executive Director,
Destination Services

May 2025–March 2026

Connecting technology and organisational change to commercial opportunity.

Paul led transformation across technology, the operating model, processes and management development. The work digitised the product portfolio and integrated client and partner connectivity, replacing manual operations.

He also supported blueprint work going into the business. The operating-model redesign was delivered within the contract window.

The digital infrastructure made a USD30M revenue opportunity accessible.

Today

Founder of Wingman

Bringing the standards of elite performance into leadership and business transformation.

Paul brings together his experience of developing people, designing change and leading operations. His contribution is to help leaders establish what matters, draw on the right expertise and lead work that improves the organisation.

His forthcoming book, Staying Ahead of the Jet, explores the judgement behind that work.

Explore the thinking

Staying Ahead of the Jet

You don’t need to know everything to make a good decision.

You need to know what matters.

I learnt these habits flying fast jets. I put them into four questions after I left the RAF and realised how much I was drawing on them to run businesses and lead change.

What do we actually KNOW?

In a fighter, we were acutely aware of the difference between the world we were flying through and the picture we had of it. We made decisions from that picture. Those decisions had to work in the world as it was. Building and maintaining situational awareness took constant effort. We had to separate what we knew from what we assumed and what we hoped was true, then update the picture as things changed.

What are we trying to achieve?

We could make a call in seconds because we’d done the hard work before launch. We knew what success had to look like in enough detail to use it when the plan changed. I ask the same questions every day in the office. What are we trying to do here? What does good look like? The answer has to be clear enough to help you choose when two things you want are in conflict.

What do we need to decide NOW?

The world keeps moving while you’re deciding. I plan as far ahead as the job demands and commit as far as the next useful move requires. I make that move, look again from where it’s left me, then decide what to do next. Working in short cycles keeps me moving towards the result and gives me room to change course.

Can we survive if it goes wrong?

Before I commit, I ask where the worst credible outcome would leave us. A reassuring guess at the odds is a poor reason to take a risk that could put us out of the fight. If we couldn’t carry the loss, I’d change the move. When we know we can live with the downside, we can move quickly and put our effort into making it work.

At Wingman, I bring that judgement to the decisions leaders face in a transformation and to the work of delivering it.

Read the manuscript excerpt