Last year, Karin Tennstedt was just one of a number of entrepreneurs launching a new business at NBAA; as she put it, “wandering the halls with a net and looking for customers.”

This year, the president of Mach 1 Design and former corporate flight attendant is the head of a successful turnkey completion management company.

Tennstedt created Mach 1 last summer after more than a decade in business aviation. As a corporate flight attendant for a Fortune 10 company, she managed the completion of two new Gulfstream IVs, and then worked as an interior designer at Falcon Jet’s completion center in Little Rock, Ark. More recently, she was manager of design for a major completion facility. All this, she said, “has put me on both sides of the fence and given me a unique perspective and intimate knowledge of the entire completion and refurb processes.”

Mach 1 takes the interior process from design creation through the choosing of vendors, writing of specs and supervising the entire fabrication, installation and tests required for a new or refurbished interior.

Since last year’s NBAA Convention, Little Rock-based Tennstedt has overseen the completion process for two Falcon 900EXs and is currently managing interior work on another Falcon 900EX and a Challenger 604. Most recently, she won a three-year contract to consult on the executive refurbishment of three Boeing 737s for an overseas operator.

“It’s been very satisfying,”  Tennstedt told AIN. “The key is catching the wrong decision before it becomes a big mistake and ends up in costly change-orders and frustrating delays.”

Tennstedt offers additional information on the Mach 1 Web site www.mach1design.com