People of the Industry

Chris Strong, Senior Vice President, Conventions and Membership, NBAA

How long have you been at your current organization?

This is my 10^th year with NBAA

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

I work within a pretty wide swath of the NBAA team, including primary responsibility for our three large annual conventions, NBAA-BACE (held each year, currently in either Orlando or Las Vegas), EBACE (held annually in Geneva, Switzerland) and ABACE (held each year in Shanghai, China). Additionally, I am responsible for strategic direction for membership and member programs.

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Eric H. Roth, President, International Jet Interiors

How long have you been at your current organization?

I started International Jet Interiors 32 years ago – November 5, 1986.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

As President, I touch on every facet of our organization and I remain personally involved from the initial bid through the final delivery. I am very “hands on” and active in the development and daily activities of the company.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

I am in the office by 8am daily and meet with my operations team to attain updates on all current projects. From there I work with my front office on design, engineering, finance, strategic growth, marketing and sales – finalizing quotes and speaking with brokers and clients. To break up the day, I walk through our shops and hangar multiple times to inspect our work, talk with our highly-talented employees and to ensure that we deliver an extraordinary experience and quality completion for our clientele.

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Matt Potts, former Corporate Counsel, Jetcraft
Location: London, UK

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I have been with Jetcraft about ten months – since July of 2017

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

As Corporate Counsel my role is to work with the sales team to manage the legal aspect of our aircraft transactions. I just moved to London and my focus is to support our EMEA sales team. That includes drafting and reviewing agreements, advising on the risks that may be involved in a specific transaction, and making sure that the closings occur on time and efficiently. I am also handling the general legal matters for the office here in the UK as well.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

Part of what I like about working in our industry is that there really aren’t typical days. My goal everyday is to make sure that I am never the person that is holding up a deal. Whatever I need to do in a given day to make sure that is the case, is what I will end up doing.

What do you love most about your job?

As with a lot of people in aviation, I grew up just loving planes and I always wanted to work in the industry. As a kid, I thought that would lead me to be an aeronautical engineer, and then that evolved into me wanting to be a commercial airline pilot. I ended up in law school with a pilot’s license and an undergraduate degree in engineering. Now, I get to come to work every day and talk about planes while using every bit of my education.

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Matt Thurber, Editor-In-Chief, AIN Publications

How long have you been at your current organization?

18 years

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

As editor-in-chief of AIN Publications, I’m responsible for all editorial content in our various products. These range from AIN’s monthly print magazine, Aviation International News, to our business aviation, air transport, and defense e-newsletters, online content, and show daily issues.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

There is no typical day for this job, and what I do depends a great deal on my travel schedule. When I’m in the office, I write, edit, and proofread stories, consult with my colleagues on upcoming projects, work with AIN’s management team on business development and strategy, and deal with normal office challenges. I travel frequently to visit the companies that we cover in AIN’s publications, including to fly new and interesting airplanes, and during these trips I try to visit as many people as possible to learn what’s new in our industry.

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Denise Siedow, Market Analyst, Jetcraft
Location: Minneapolis, MN, US

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I have been with Jetcraft since October 2008, so nearly 10 years.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

My first position with Jetcraft was an administrative role. I’ve carried responsibilities from that position into my current role as Market Researcher. I also provide support to my sales team by facilitating maintenance program transfers and offering general program support.

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Dennis Bolton, SVP – Head of Equipment Management, Wells Fargo Equipment Finance

How long have you been at your current organization?

I have been with Wells Fargo since August 2005 by way of merger with Wachovia. Prior to 2005, I spent 16 years at Fleet Capital and later Banc of America Leasing, which merged in 2003. I just started my 29^th year in the business.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

As Head of Equipment Management, I am responsible for all facets of equipment appraisal/valuation, portfolio management and equipment remarketing across all of Wells Fargo Equipment Finance’s business lines. Additionally, my group helps support our colleagues in these areas across the entire bank footprint.

Describe a typical day or week in your role.

My days usually start early sometime between 5 and 6:30 a.m. depending on the day. The first couple of hours are quiet and dedicated to strategic initiatives, focused, intense projects and general catch-up. Once the day begins, it’s a series of meetings and calls around business strategy and new business initiatives, portfolio performance, compliance and regulatory requirements, pending accounting and policy changes, integration projects and assisting my teams achieve their goals and problem solve.

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Brian McCarthy, former Sales Engineer, Jetcraft
Location: New York, NY, US

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I have been with Jetcraft since September 2015.

Why did working in the Business Aviation industry interest you?

After graduation from college I went into the Financial Services industry. While working at my previous company, I was put on several Business Aviation M&A projects and I caught the “business aviation bug”. I then decided to spend all of my vacation days and my savings traveling to the business aviation shows where I was fortunate enough to build a strong relationship with Jetcraft. I left my job and took an internship with the company in September 2015 and I started working full-time in January 2016 in Minneapolis, MN, US.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

On the sales side, I support Dan Kilkeary in the North East United States. I also work on the company’s market research / annual forecast, and valuation of aircraft. A lot of our research and valuation work ties into our deal plans for our acquisition of aircraft for owned inventory and trades.

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Daniel Renwick, Sales Director – Jetcraft Australia and New Zealand
Location: Gold Coast, Australia

How long have you been at Jetcraft?

I started with Jetcraft in January 2017, with my first introduction to the Sales and Sales Engineering teams at the annual Jetcraft team meeting in New York.

What are your responsibilities within the global Jetcraft team?

I am a Sales Director for the Australia and New Zealand region, and as such, my responsibilities include developing relationships with new and existing customers and assisting them with all aspects of acquisition or sale of the aircraft from the beginning all the way up to closing and beyond.

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Vincent Rey, Senior Design Director & Co-owner – M&R associates design

How long have you been at your current organization?

I started M&R 11 years ago with another designer, Florent Magnin. Each of us have over 20 years of experience working in design departments of major completion centers and aircraft manufacturers which is a major strength when it comes to designing VVIP aircraft. The organization headquarters is located in Geneva and we have now offices in Basel and Paris.

What are your responsibilities within your organization?

I am co-owner and Senior Design Director at M&R, which means I perform design project management and oversee all design related activities.

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