People of the Industry

Wayne Starling, Executive Director, International Aircraft Dealers Association (IADA)
[email protected]

How long have you been at your current organization?

Over two years.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

I am responsible for the day to day operations and the financial well-being of IADA, IADA Foundation, and Aircraft Exchange. My focus is to continually find ways to bring value to all our current members while recruiting new members.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

My focus daily is to find ways to communicate more effectively with our members, answer various questions from members, and provide aid to the committees within IADA. I talk with various prospective members regarding the value of joining IADA while explaining why we require dealers to be Accredited and brokers to be Certified. Currently, I am also spending time talking with various publications providing updates on IADA, and what we are doing during these unusual times.

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Ryan Petersen, Director of Sales Engineering
Location: Minneapolis, MN, US

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

About 2 and a half years. I was originally a Sales Engineer working with a few different Sales Directors and now have shifted to the Director of Sales Engineering.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I work with the sales engineering team on how they interact with and support their sales directors. Functions include market summaries, research, valuations, training and helping with the marketing of aircraft.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

It can start early in the morning as the Sales Engineering team and offices are in multiple time zones around the world including the United States, Hong Kong and Europe. I typically start by checking emails to get caught up on activities and tasks and move into project-based work later in the day. When I became the Director of Sales Engineering, my role shifted from supporting Sales Directors to supporting the sales engineering team and making sure they have the tools that they need to do their job.

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Stedman Stevens, CEO, Vū Systems

How long have you been at your current organization?

I have been a part of this organization from the beginning. The first meetings were over 6 years ago on September 21, 2013.  It has been an exhilarating roller coaster ride building out an idea to a prototype, then to production scaling, and landing an international strategic partner like Saab.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

Directing strategy, sales and product development.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I spend my time building relationships with employees, suppliers and customers. This includes flying at the last minute to see a customer, editing legal documents, pushing engineers to speed up, flying in King Air test flights, reviewing costs and schedules, and lying awake at night worrying about what I forgot…

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Tim Yue, Sales Director
Location: Hong Kong

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I have been with Jetcraft for about 1 and a half years.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I am a Sales Director in Asia Pacific, my region covers mostly SE Asia. I maintain relationships with the customers in my region to best assist them on any of their aviation requirements. Given Jetcraft’s financial strength and geographical reach I am able to offer options that others might not be able to.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

There is not a typical day or week in this job. Aircraft sales is very fluid and dynamic. When I am in the office I’m mostly doing intensive research, following up on existing deals that are in the pipeline and trying to close them out. When I’m on the road, which is actually the majority of my time, I’m zig-zagging around Southeast Asia meeting with clients and hoping to help by finding the right deal!

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Tom Cyr, Director, Business Development, JSSI

How long have you been at your current organization?

It will be twelve years in February.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

Sales. I have a nine-state area in the Upper Midwest.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

As is typical for any business development type; prospecting, pursuit and maintenance of current client relationships. Lot’s of travel.

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Tobias Kleff, former Jetcraft Sales Director
Location: Las Vegas, NV, US

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I have been with the company since mid July 2019.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I am responsible for the Pacific Northwest U.S. (Northern CA, OR, WA, MT, ID, WY, AK) and British Columbia, focusing on Sales, Acquisitions, and Consulting with customers in that region.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

My day starts by checking my phone for emails and calls that came in overnight.

After the morning rush I usually find some time to have breakfast around 9:30 and go over my schedule for the day.

Within a typical week I try to balance my time amongst emails, phone calls and in person meetings. Traveling and meeting with prospects, existing clients and industry colleagues is another important part of my typical day to day. Also, daily updates with my Sales Engineer and counterpart Sales Directors throughout our 20+ offices worldwide help me stay well informed.

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Chris Hughes, Relationship Director Aviation, Lombard part of the Royal Bank of Scotland Group Plc

How long have you been at your current organization?

I have been with Lombard since March 2010 having previously worked in the Structured Asset Finance team at BNP Paribas Fortis in the UK, and before that at HSBC bank plc. I initially joined Lombard to work in the Corporate Asset Finance team but when an opportunity came up six years ago to get back into Aviation I jumped at the chance. The past six years have flown by …pardon the pun.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

As a Director within our Aviation finance team I am involved to a degree in all aspects of the client life cycle. My primary role is deal origination, negotiation and execution but I also get involved in credit management, and assessing policy and risk appetite for the aviation business in general. A key component of the role is relationship management of both our internal and external stakeholders as well as our growing customer base.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I like to start the day with an early Crossfit fix, an early workout always sets me up for the day ahead. First thing I do when I get into the office is to check my emails and action anything that may have come in overnight. From there it’s a real mix of client meetings, internal stakeholder sessions, client calls and external stakeholder meetings together with taking time to catch up with the team on workloads and pipeline. My wife would say that my working week will always include one lunch meeting in London too…..

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Colin Dunne, Sales Manager, Jetcraft
Location: London

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I started with Jetcraft on April Fool’s day 2019.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I work closely with two Sales Directors, one in the London office who is responsible for Northern Europe and one in Dubai who looks after the Middle East. I help them plan and execute business development strategies within their regions and also support them on any deals that they are currently working on.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I’m lucky that I can either cycle or get the tube to work. The cycle takes me through Hyde Park and if I get the Tube I can walk the last bit through Green Park. Either way I get a fix of open green space before I head to the office. Emails are always checked and if there is anything urgent I‘ll get to that. If it’s not holding up a deal, I prefer to focus on the proactive business development tasks. It’s a balancing act. I could be valuing an aircraft one minute to setting up meetings in another country the next, then out reviewing a prospective aircraft that has just surfaced that week.

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Rodger Renaud, President / COO, West Star Aviation

How long have you been at your current organization?

I started at West Star in April of 2012.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

President and COO – mostly business development, operations and strategy. I have a hand in everything – an overarching vison for everything to come together. There is always a master plan in mind and it takes a lot of coordination with the executive team to pull it off.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I start every day by walking the floor. I ask questions, check in on people, address concerns, or just stop by and ask, “How is your day?” What I learn from that every day is a great indicator of how things are going, and I really enjoy the hangar camaraderie.

I’m on email all day long. It’s time consuming, but I believe being responsive is key to not only being effective, but also to buidling genuine and valuable communication. It’s the same with phone calls from customers where it’s anything from sharing intel, reviewing customer feedback on projects, or just staying in touch.

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