Rachel Smit has been a Member of Cabinet of the European Commissioner for Transport, Adina Vălean, since January 2021, where she is primarily responsible for aviation policy. She has 20 years of experience in European affairs, public policy development, strategic analysis and communications – of which 10 in the European Commission, with experiences in the UK Task Force, the Directorate-General for Mobility and Transport, as well as in the internal think tank under former President Juncker (the European Political Strategy Centre. Before joining the European Commission, she worked as a consultant for PricewaterhouseCoopers (PwC) for 5 years, specialising in strategic and policy advice to public sector institutions and organisations. She is also a former journalist and news editor for the EU specialised online media EurActiv.