Paul DeHerrera has been appointed COO of Universal Avionics. In addition, Daniel Reida has been promoted to vice president of marketing, and Don Berlin has been named senior corporate vice president of Universal Avionics Systems. He has also been appointed to the board of directors.
Raisbeck Engineering has named Sam Jantzen Jr. COO. He previously served as vice president and general manager.
Royce Stevens Jr. has been named COO-director of Fort Myers, Fla.-based PrivateSky Aviation Services.
ACSS, an L-3 Communications and Thales company, has promoted Cole Hedden to vice president and COO. He previously served as vice president and leader of the Business Innovation and Execution Group for ACSS.
Clayton Jones, chairman, president and CEO of Rockwell Collins, has been elected chairman of the board of governors of the Aerospace Industries Association for 2008. Robert Stevens, chairman, president and CEO of Lockheed Martin, was named vice president.
Hawker Beechcraft appointed Robert Blouin vice president of flight operations. He was previously president and founding partner of Sky Group Associates, a private aviation consulting firm in Washington, D.C., and before that he served as senior vice president of operations as at NBAA’s Washington headquarters.
Andrew Broom has left his post as director of public relations for Eclipse Aviation to take the position of director of media and public relations with Hawker Beechcraft in Wichita.
Nordam has named Meredith Siegfried, daughter of late chairman Ray Siegfried, vice president for global sales and North American operations. She has been with Nordam for nine years.
Joseph Gullion has been named vice president and general manager of MRO and business development for M7 Aerospace. He previously held senior executive positions with Allied Signal, Dalfort Aviation, AAR, National Equipment Services and Boeing.
Landmark Aviation has appointed Michel Menard vice president and general manager of the Springfield, Ill. operation. Most recently, Menard was divisional director of engineering, quality and operations for Standard Aero’s Enterprise Services business unit in San Antonio.
International Water-Guard Industries has named Brian Ulrich v-p for engineering.
Bruce Kay has been appointed senior director of engineering for Greenpoint Technologies. He has been with the company since 2001 and has more than 24 years of engineering and management experience in aircraft interiors, structures and systems.
Michelle Martell has been named director of strategic sourcing for the Circor Aerospace Products Group. She previously served as strategic sourcing manager for Motorola.
Era has appointed Tim Quilter director of product management for the air traffic management business unit. He joins Era from Roke Manor, where he served as head of air traffic management strategy and as a product line manager for multilateration systems.
FlightSafety International announced the following appointments: Brenda Seaman, assistant director, market research; Gil Schnabel, manager, Detroit Metro/Toledo Learning Center; Blaine Little, manager, airline marketing; and Christopher Frye, assistant manager, Atlanta Learning Center.
TAC Air has appointed Mike Wilwerding general manager of its Omaha, Neb. location at Eppley Airfield Airport. Wilwerding most recently served as assistant manager at the facility.
Lincoln, Neb.-based Duncan Aviation announced the following appointments: Doug Alleman, manager of service and engine sales; Alan Monk, Battle Creek airframe service sales team; Cary Loubert, Bombardier tech representative; and Brad Homeyer, airframe service sales representative.
Cessna has named Elia Dragone general manager of its New York Citation Service Center. Dragone rejoins Cessna after managing for the past three years the northeast territory for Jet Support Services.
Russell Otowchits has been promoted to avionics service manager at Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based Banyan Air Service. He recently served as an avionics technician.
Lin Roberts has been named manager of business development and marketing of Mojave, Calif.-based Flight Test Associates.
Mooney has appointed Keith Vasey as a representative for the Upper Midwestern U.S. He most recently served as the North Central Regional sales manager for Columbia Aircraft.
Crane Aerospace and Electronics has named Mark Harris site leader of its Fort Walton Beach, Fla. location. Harris joins the company from Danaher’s Gilbarco Veeder-Root division, where he served as business unit director for commercial products, fuel management systems and retail solutions.
Jason Moir has been named Learjet sales director, central U.S., for Bombardier. He has been with the company for eight years.
Rick Blanton has been appointed avionics systems integrator for Boise, Idaho-based Western Aircraft. He has served as an avionics technician and team lead for eight years.
Fort Lauderdale, Fla.-based CRS Jet Spares has hired Marissa Leighton as a marketing coordinator.
Awards & Honors
Steve and Nancy Sullivan, founders of Saratoga, Calif.-based Aris Helicopters, have received the 2008 Lawrence D. Bell Award for their excellence in management leadership in the civil helicopter industry. Aris Helicopters conducts flight training, energy exploration, logging, power and pipeline patrol, firefighting, search and rescue, emergency medical services and external load operations. Steve is a past chairman and board member of HAI and served as a member of the “Blue” team for the MD 900 helicopter and the California Wire Strike Task Force. He holds memberships in the International Society of Air Safety Investigators, Vietnam Helicopter Pilots Association and the American Helicopter Society. He has more than 11,000 flight hours as pilot-in-command–fixed wing and rotary–of which 10,500 hours are pilot-in-command helicopters, with 1,000 helicopter flight hours in combat, 3,100 hours as a helicopter flight instructor and 500 flight hours with helicopter external loads. Steve also received HAI’s Lifetime Membership Award and has received HAI’s Safety Award for 5,000 accident-free civilian flight hours. Nancy has served on numerous HAI committees and currently serves on the association’s scholarship selection committee.
Final Flights
John Ames, 49, president and CEO of Jetcraft, was killed in a snowmobile accident in Wisconsin on December 31. Ames had 23 years’ experience in the business aviation industry and worked for Dassault Falcon Jet, Boston JetSearch and TAG Aviation before joining Jetcraft. He was most recently based at the Minneapolis-St. Paul office of Jetcraft and specialized in acquisitions, sales and brokerage of midsize and large-cabin business jets. He is survived by his wife, Beverly, and children, Matt and Lucy.
Former New York Airways pilot Stephan Kennedy, 76, died December 26 after a prolonged illness. He was a native of Hungary but escaped to West Germany as a young man, where he later joined the U.S. Army. He became a helicopter test pilot in the U.S. Army and served in the Korean War. He later received an aeronautical engineering degree from Parks College, St. Louis University, and went on to fly helicopters for New York Airways, AirTran Helicopters and Island Helicopters. He also worked as a quality control manager for Controlex American Electronics Labs before his retirement in 1998.
