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Dagmar Grossmann
March 19, 2013
Dagmar Grossmann
Dagmar Grossmann’s first experience of what was then Czechoslovakia was anything but an auspicious prelude to her subsequent emergence as a private aviation pioneer in that country. It was 1967, the year before the so-called Prague Spring and revolution was in the air.
Flexjet's Deanna White
February 7, 2013
Flexjet's Deanna White Photo Credit: Bill Bernstein
Deanna White, the new president of Bombardier-owned fractional provider Flexjet, told us her company will continue to pursue what she called a “stealth wealth” clientele while offering customized solutions to clients’ private air travel needs. Doing so, she added, may require bringing more capital into the business from Bombardier or “some other facility.”
PlaneSense CEO George Antoniadis
October 23, 2012
PlaneSense CEO George Antoniadis
You don’t have to spend much time with George Antoniadis to figure out why he has achieved success with PlaneSense, the fractional-aircraft-share company he founded in 1996. Granted, he was probably in the right place at the right time with the right airplane, the economical Pilatus PC-12 single-engine turboprop.
Chris Holifield
September 5, 2012
Chris Holifield
As a young worker at fast-food joints, Chris Holifield daydreamed about owning her own company instead of focusing on the business at hand and this led on some occasions to her getting fired.
Dan Schwinn
June 27, 2012
Dan Schwinn
After launching a successful high-tech startup–communication equipment manufacturer Shiva Corporation–Dan Schwinn turned his talents to fixing a glaring problem with the utility of small general aviation airplanes.
Air Partner’s Philip Mathews
February 1, 2012
Air Partner’s Philip Mathews
Phil Mathews wanted to be a pilot since childhood, but bad eyesight precluded that dream. Instead, after graduating from England's University of Buckingham in 1989, he began a job as a check-in agent at London's Gatwick Airport. He was hired just for summer vacation, but he wound up being promoted to flight dispatcher and manager of general operations and spending four years there.
Sage-Popovich's Nick Popovich
November 8, 2010
“My prediction is that in two years we’ll have an airplane shortage. The CEO
Nick Popovich looks like a bouncer and can talk like a longshoreman. But he also has a keen understanding of geopolitics, international finance and commercial trends. He runs a far-flung global aviation business, Sage-Popovich, from his 120-acre ranch near Valparaiso, Ind. He drives a Bentley, breeds thoroughbred Rocky Mountain horses and enjoys fine cigars.
Piaggio America's John Bingham
August 1, 2010
"When I was telling people that I joined Piaggio," said John Bingham, "they would say, 'I didn't realize that you had gone to work in motor scooters.' I quickly understood that we needed to do something about the name of the company. So that is why we branded it 'Piaggio Aero.'"
Delta AirElite's Michael Green
June 1, 2010
WHAT HAPPENS WHEN A BIG AIRLINE tries running a business jet charter and management subsidiary? In the case of Delta AirElite, what might at first seem like a prescription for disaster turns out to be a near-perfect elixir of airline value blended with the exceptional service and efficiency of private jet travel.
VistaJet's Thomas Flohr
February 1, 2010
“It’s as if you book a hotel and have no idea what you are getting except a b
Remember Victor Kiam-the man who liked Remington electric razors so much he bought the company? Well, you might say VistaJet chairman Thomas Flohr is Kiam's alter ego-he disliked an industry so much that he started a company to try to fix it. The industry in question is business jet charter.

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Quote/Unquote

“When you get into the larger aircraft it becomes like a hotel, with dozens of staff supporting the plane based in a galley area down below. You have very comprehensive cooking facilities, and on larger aircraft we have looked at theatres, with spiral staircases and a Steinway grand piano. The limitations for what you can put inside a plane are pretty much the limits of physics, and even money cannot always overcome that. Even so, people are still always trying to push [the limits]. ”

-Howard Guy of Design Q, a UK-based consultancy