People in Aviation: September 2018
Joshua Olds has been appointed president of the Unmanned Safety Institute (USI). Olds was previously vice president of operations for USI and serves as a member on the UAS FAA Safety Team (FAAST) and the Energy Drone Coalition.
L.J. Aviation has named Edward M. Kilkeary Jr. president and CEO. Kilkeary is an ATP-rated pilot with more than 10,000 flight hours and began his career at L.J. in 1991
Matt Smith has been appointed vice president of business development for Aviaâ. Smith previously worked for three years at DC Aviation Al Futtaim in Dubai where he managed an ACJ319 and Global Express XRS.
West Star Aviation announced John Mansfield as manager of satellite operations and mobile repair. Mansfield previously served as vice president of MRO centers worldwide for Embraer Executive Jets.
T.J. Horsager joined APiJET as vice president of business development and sales. Horsager formerly worked as director of connected aircraft and IoT solutions at Gogo and has more than 20 years of related experience.
Steve Berroth has been named senior vice president of operations for Aerion Corp. Berroth previously worked for Triumph Group and served in various leadership roles at Northrop Grumman for 31 years.
Dynon has named Randy Lervold vice president of marketing and sales. Lervold recently served as president of CubCrafters and will now be responsible for expanding Dynon’s worldwide market.
Mike McCafferty was named Northeast vice president for Guardian Jet. McCafferty was formerly the regional sales director at Flexjet.
Executive AirShare has promoted various personnel and created new positions to support company growth. Brian Jewell has been promoted to vice president of training, compliance, and strategy and has been with the company for 13 years. Alex Franz is now vice president of flight operations and director of FAR 119 operations. Ben Petersen will oversee company crew members as chief pilot and has been a pilot with the company for 11 years. Case May has been promoted to general manager of managed aircraft while Len Durr will become a full-time pilot after serving as director of managed aircraft.
Exclusive Aircraft Sales welcomed Nick Newby as director of jet sales. Newby has 20 years of industry experience and has received three Leading Edge awards from Cessna.
Alexandra Asche has been appointed sales director for Continental Europe for Global Jet Capital. Asche has 10 years of experience in the international corporate finance sector and was vice president of transportation finance and shipping at ING Bank before joining Global Jet Capital.
Elliott Aviation has promoted Kerry Olson to director of operations for paint and interior. Olson, who joined Elliott in 2016, has more than 20 years of MRO experience.
Perry Bradley has been appointed director of media relations for GE Aviation. Bradley will replace Rick Kennedy, who is retiring after 30 years with GE. Bradley, a former AIN publisher, most recently served as the lead communicator for the GE Aviation global supply chain.
PAMA has appointed six new directors to its board: Loretta E. Alkalay, Ernest Kiss, Ken MacTiernan, Michael Bartron, John S. Koza, and Marshall Puckett. Alkalay was an attorney for the FAA for more than 30 years and is an adjunct professor at Vaughn College of Aeronautics and Technology. Kiss is vice president of quality and engineering at Airborne Tampa/PEMCO World Air Services. MacTiernan has been an AMT for American Airlines for 32 years, and Bartron is a product safety manager and technical fellow with P&W/UTC. Koza is a flight safety investigator for P&W, and Puckett is president of AvReps.
Canada’s Aviation Hall of Fame has elected new members to its board of directors. Bob Payne has been elected to a three-year term as a director and secretary of the board. Rick Flynn joins the board and is executive vice president and chief corporate development officer for Chorus Aviation. Chairman of the board Rod Sheridan and directors Gordon Burturelli and Craig Richmond have been re-elected to the board.
Samantha Butero has been appointed director of marketing and business development at Global Aviation. Butero previously served as director of business development and regional sales for Tronair.
Michael Thompson has been appointed JetLoan Capital’s director of marketing. He will be responsible for increasing the company’s presence in the general aviation and business jet financing markets.
Dallas Avionics has named Charles Noble director of Canadian sales and technical support. Noble previously worked for GE and Honeywell.
Av8 has named Gary Stephens an engineering manager for the company’s Dallas facility, while Luis Rodriguez has been tapped as director of certifications. Stephens has 19 years of industry experience and Rodriguez has more than 30.
Bryan Davis is now manager of Duncan Aviation’s Dallas satellite location. Davis, who will be the second manager in the location’s 29-year history, worked at the company’s St. Louis facility over the past five years.
Recaro Aircraft Seating named René Dankwerth general manager of the Americas, while Heiko Fricke will take over Dankwerth’s previous role as executive vice president of research and development. Sunitha Vegerla will assume the role of director of quality and process management for Recaro.
Nathen Steiger has been named general manager of ACI Jet’s John Wayne Airport FBO in Santa Ana, California. Steiger most recently served as assistant general manager at Jet Source.
Constant Aviation tapped Scott LaFleur as senior sales manager for the company’s rotable exchange division. LaFleur has more than 25 years of aviation experience and previously worked as a Gulfstream and Hawker specialist for Business Aerotech.
Flight Data Services introduced Everett Brady as the company’s new general manager. Brady has a background in business and commercial aviation management and safety.
Ron van Zuilen has joined Liquid Measurement Systems (LMS) as a business development professional and has ten years of defense industry experience. Van Zuilen will be responsible for creating opportunities to provide primary and auxiliary fuel gauging systems for commercial and military applications.
Chris Baum has joined NATA’s regulatory team as a senior advisor. Baum is the president of Charlie Bravo AeroSafety and has more than 40 years of industry experience.
The Air Charter Safety Foundation has selected Mike Graham as its new chairman and Joshua Hebert vice chairman. Graham is director of flight operations, safety, security, and standardization at Textron Aviation. Hebert is the founder and CEO of Magellan Jets.
Goonhilly appointed Bob Gough head of business development for Australia and Asia-Pacific. Gough has more than 35 years of experience in the space and satellite communications industry.
AWARDS & HONORS
AIN photographer David McIntosh and senior editor Curt Epstein received awards at the Aerospace Media Dinner, held at the Royal Aeronautical Society in London on Sunday, July 15, the eve of the 2018 Farnborough International Airshow. McIntosh received the award for best aviation image for capturing the Republic of Korea Air Force’s Black Eagles formation during the Singapore Airshow earlier this year. Meanwhile, Epstein received the award for best business aviation submission for his coverage of the international devastation of Hurricane Irma, and his explanation of how the business aviation industry mobilized in the aftermath, in his article, “Hurricane Irma: For Most, It Could Have Been Much Worse.” AIN executive editor Mark Phelps accepted the award on Epstein's behalf.
Joe Corragio received the Phillips 66 Aviation EAA Young Eagles Leadership Award. Corragio has been involved in the Young Eagles program for more than 20 years, with continued dedication as a pilot, volunteer, and mentor.
FlightSafety International announced Francisco Roberto Gonzalez Calvo, David Thatcher, and Darren Fleming as the first Dassault Falcon pilots to become FlightSafety Master Aviators. Calvo has trained with FSI for some 32 years and has more than 9,000 hours of flight time. Thatcher and Fleming work for Glazer’s, with Thatcher serving as the company’s aviation director and Fleming as captain and safety officer.
Retired Major Harold Ryan has been awarded the Wright Brothers Master Pilot Award. Ryan dedicated 50 years of flying to the United States Air Force and business aviation.
FINAL FLIGHTS
Dr. J. Richard Kerr, of Kerr Avionics and founder of Max-Viz, died July 14 at 80 years old. Dr. Kerr held a Ph.D. in electrical engineering and was a pioneering developer of air transport head-up displays.
Kerr graduated from Stanford University and joined Flight Dynamics as vice president of product marketing before joining FLIR Systems as vice president of engineering and advanced development.
Kerr then founded Max-Viz and assembled the team that developed a commercial multi-spectral enhanced vision system. He also developed and patented an LED image processing product called instrument qualified visual range (IQVR).
After retiring from Max-Viz, Kerr formed Kerr Avionics in 2014 with Lou Churchville and acquired rights from Astronics to further develop IQVR products.
