People of the Industry

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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Melody Phillips, Sales Engineer, Jetcraft
Location: Hong Kong

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I joined the Hong Kong office in May 2018, so it’s been just over a year now.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I support David Dixon and Tim Yue for the South East Asia Region as well as Mick Doohan & Daniel Renwick for AUS & NZ. I primarily assist with the generating of specs, conducting market research, technical reviews, Valuations and whatever they may need in order to get those transactions successfully completed.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

Most days are spent at my desk providing the necessary sales support to my sales directors, other times it requires me networking with clients & customers at events or airshows in my designated areas. The gathering of information takes most of my time in order to provide my sales directors with as much information as possible. Again this is aviation, there is no such thing as a typical day or week, but it does make things interesting and the job is never boring.

What do you love most about your job?

Diversity! Living and working in Hong Kong is amazing, getting to meet people in this industry from all over Asia-Pacific is always fun and exciting to grow my network.

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Jeremy Bogle, Executive Vice President, JetSelect Aviation

How long have you been at your current organization?

11 years

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

Help to oversee the operation of a 25+ aircraft fleet, to include sales, maintenance, and operations.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

It can involve walking a prospective owner through the operating cost of aircraft ownership, solving mechanical and crew issues, sales proposals, maintenance planning with owners, etc

What do you love most about your job?

I love the diversity in our side of the business and the ability to interact with customers on a daily basis. Working around airplanes is exciting but trying to stay one step ahead of your aircraft owner is demanding and requires attention to detail in everything we do.

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Francois Gautier, Founder and CEO, Blueberry Aviation

How long have you been at your current organization?

I founded the company in 2003 after 14 years at Airbus where I met and worked closely with Jetcraft owner Jahid Fazal-Karim. Over the last 16 years my team and I have developed two distinct activities, commercial aircraft sales and lease to airlines, financiers and lessors, and civil helicopter trade to operators, corporations and private individuals.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

I am a very hands on CEO, sharing my time between the commercial aircraft and helicopter commercial activities. I define strategies with the teams and am in the loop of most transactions, but leave the teams much autonomy including to suggest ideas and new directions. I am here if they need me. Meanwhile I focus on business development.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

There is no such thing as a typical day, especially as we have two different markets to cover. I travel a lot but when I am in the office, my door is always open and I am often seen sitting in one of the teams’ offices discussing opportunities and ongoing deals.

What do you love most about your job?

Building an exceptional team which performs well and has fun working together is the most fulfilling part of my job.

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Jayan Fazal-Karim, former Sales Engineer, Jetcraft
Location: Brooklyn, NY, US

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

As an employee, 3 and a half years, and as a supporter, 11 years. I’ve seen Jetcraft and everyone who works with us grow immensely over that time. Not to mention they have seen me grow from the time I was 15 when my father joined the company. I am proud to call Jetcraft family.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

Sales Engineers at Jetcraft are the designated right hand man to their assigned Sales Director(s). I like to call us their swiss army knife – whether we do things such as covering them for a showing or aircraft review, conducting market research, building specs, or creating thoughtful presentations for them to use, we do all we can to support our Sales Directors in helping them complete more transactions. I am very lucky to be able to support my father as his Sales Engineer.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

As is common with the answers to this question from our team, there is no typical day or week! As cliché as that sounds it is really true. Some days you are locked in your office rifling through emails, completing aircraft valuations, and reviewing specs. Other days you are hopping from FBO to MRO conducting showings and tracking PPIs, and some days you are at events all around the world interacting with some of the most interesting people our world has to offer.

What do you love most about your job?

If I could sum it up in one word: Variety. No task is the same, no day is the same, no location is the same, no culture is the same, no person is the same, no aircraft is the same. I love exploring and appreciating the differences in our world and what better job to expose one to those differences.

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Philipp Wieser, former Jetcraft Sales Director, Central Europe
Location: Zürich, Switzerland

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I joined Jetcraft in March 2018 so I have been there just about a year now.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I am the Sales Director for Central Europe and based in Zürich, Switzerland. I oversee Austria, Germany, Hungary, Italy and Switzerland. My role is to assist our clients in the process of purchasing a new aircraft or selling their current one, prospecting new clients and keeping up the relationship with them as well as with colleagues and partners of the industry.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I wake up before 07:00 am and start my day with a coffee while checking e-mails that came in through the night. I try to make time for a work out before getting ready for the day. So much to a possible routine, as really the days are always different and I have to prepare either for a day in the office or for travelling. For a day in the office I spend time catching up on e-mails, following up on current deals or leads and taking care of administrative tasks. For days of traveling, nothing compares to face-to-face meetings, so traveling is a major part in our business, whether visiting existing clients, meeting new ones or attending events and conferences.

What do you love most about your job?

As a sales person for business jets I deal with basically every little detail that comes with the transaction – where and how was the aircraft built, its technical and cosmetic details, its history if pre-owned, and finally the whole process of selling / re selling it. I started my aviation career as a pilot on corporate jets and after a while I honestly got quite bored just flying the aircraft. In Aircraft Sales I can speak to manufacturers, the pilots, the technicians / engineers, the bank, the legal counsel and last but not least to the owners. Every transaction, every person I meet is different and unique in its own way which makes my job everything but monotonous … that is what I love.

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Jonah Adler, Chief Revenue and Marketing Officer, Jet Edge

How long have you been at your current organization?

I have been on the Client Advisory Board of Jet Edge for 2 years, and active in my operating role for 1 year.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

As CRO/CMO I am responsible for all of the company’s Sales and Marketing efforts. This includes driving strategy and management of all of our sales teams (jet sales, jet management, and charter), and our Marketing/PR/Community team. I also consider one of the most important parts of my role to support our Founder/CEO in helping him continue to execute his vision.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I typically spend about 70% of my time at our new HQ on the field at VNY. The remaining balance is split between visiting our customers worldwide, and recruiting amazing talent from both inside and outside aviation to join the Jet Edge team. My days are always pretty structured. Early morning meditation followed by exercise. First meetings/calls start around 08:30. Followed by spending as much time face to face with our team as possible. You can also find me in the hangar every day inspecting aircraft and making sure they look flawless and ready for charter. The true highlight of my day is connecting with my daughter who is 5, and is always very confused when other people are on “her” plane when we fly commercial!

What do you love most about your job?

The best part of my role is being able to see and touch the full lifecycle of our business. From the sale of an aircraft to a new owner, all the way through to seeing that owner enjoy their aircraft and generate the best charter revenue industry-wide to significantly offset their cost of ownership. Nothing gets my adrenaline pumping more than sending an owner the confirmation of a $1m charter.

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Jeremy Mowrey, Production Artist, Jetcraft
Location: Raleigh, NC, US

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I have been with Jetcraft for about 5 years. I started out as a temporary contractor and never left!

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I am the Production Artist in the Marketing department. I maintain the ebrochures and online inventory for all aircraft listings, support advertising efforts with any graphics needed, and also assist with event materials.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I work with the Sales team in putting together/updating marketing materials (e-brochures, eblasts, magazine ads, website listing, etc.) to promote our aircraft inventory and company branding. Every day is different depending on whether an event is coming up or if an advertisement is due. The one consistent thing is that I am always working with the Sales and Sales Engineer team to ensure that our listing materials are up to date.

What do you love most about your job?

I enjoy using my graphic design background in a fast paced, task-oriented environment. The team that I work with is a lot of fun and the bizav industry is exciting to be a part of.

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Matthieu Barthlen, former Sales Engineer, Jetcraft
Location: Zurich, Switzerland

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I started working for Jetcraft in October 2017, so it has been a little over a year.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I provide technical and sales support to Philipp Wieser in Central Europe, Guillaume Chamoin in Southern Europe/Northern Africa, Danie Joubert in Africa, and any other Sales Director in EMEA as needed. I assist with aircraft valuation analysis, building and updating specifications, coordinating marketing, aircraft viewing or inspections, etc.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I usually start by reviewing my emails in order to prioritize the tasks for the day. The support tasks I provide to the EMEA team varies a lot and it can involve being at my desk to gather needed information or travel for a records review or aircraft viewing.

What do you love most about your job?

I enjoy dealing with a large diversity of business aircraft models and contributing to the global success of Jetcraft.

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