Executive Jet Management’s Ben Murray
Interview by Jennifer Harrington - June 1, 2008
When Benjamin Murray decided 11 years ago to enroll in a flight school and get his private pilot’s license, he didn’t give much thought to where that interest might lead him. By his own admission, he lacked the patience to continue flying and soon gave up his pilot-in-command time, but the business aspect of aviation still fascinated him. He decided to start at the bottom–refueling airplanes and learning the basics of airport management–and used the experience to launch a new career.
Six years ago, Murray became vice president of sales for Executive Jet Management, the management and charter arm of NetJets, the leading fractional operator. Four years later, NetJets promoted him to vice president for new business development within NetJets sales, and last August, he returned to EJM as CEO.
Murray shared with us what he conceded was his “very aggressive” vision for EJM. The plan includes doubling its fleet size to 200 aircraft over two years and launching a boutique flight department for its customers.
How does it feel to be back at EJM?
I miss being next to [NetJets chairman and CEO] Richard Santulli and having the opportunity to learn from him every day, but it’s really nice to again be part of the EJM family. And it’s an exciting time. We’ve had so much success.
What, specifically, did you learn from Richard Santulli?
Richard is really an amazing businessman, and he’s always inspired me to reach for my goals. But the top things I learned from him are to deal with reality and get all the players to the table; talk to everybody–customers, employees and suppliers–and encourage subordinates to disclose their problems; be patient, because in Richard’s mind, all good things take time; fine tune the business plan every week, not just once a year; research and analyze every aspect of the business; and be able to articulate everything that happens in our industry.
When you say you fine-tune the business plan each week, how do you go about doing that?
We look at our business, and we make sure everything is aligned. And it’s not only recording historical data, it’s looking at trends in the business cycle and being mobile enough to make weekly adjustments as opposed to just analyzing first-quarter results or year-end results to revise the business. We’re constantly changing our business plan to meet the demands that our customers put on us.
Can you tell me about the success of the business over the past year?
In August, we had approximately 80 airplanes under our management. Today, we have 110. We also have eight airplanes that are transitioning into our management program. Those numbers indicate a growth of 27 percent, which will put us in the 150-aircraft range by the end of the year. We’re probably a year ahead of our business plan.
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