Christopher Martino, former chief of the U.S. Coast Guard Aviation Forces, joined the Helicopter Association International to lead its operations efforts. As vice president of operations, Martino will steer HAI’s flight operations, technical services, safety and regulatory efforts. He will also coordinate with HAI’s education department on operator professional development initiatives.

Martino steps into his new role with 30 years of Coast Guard experience. While with the Coast Guard, he accumulated more than 4,000 hours as a helicopter pilot and managed a program that had 4,100 personnel at 28 units and 200 aircraft logging 100,000 hours annually. He also served as the commanding officer and group commander for Coast Guard search-and-rescue units that were responsible for the California coastline. He was executive officer of the Coast Guard Aviation Training Center.