NBAA Announces 2019 Kern Professionalism Award Recipients

Contact: Dan Hubbard, 202-783-9360, dhubbard@nbaa.org

Las Vegas, NV, Oct. 24, 2019 – The National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today recognized 15 recipients of its annual Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award, which honors individuals in the business aviation industry for outstanding professionalism and leadership in support of aviation safety.

The 2019 Kern Award winners are:

Keith (Fred) Anderson

Chris Ayers

Chris Bodine

Randall Brooks

Reid Columbia

Nat Iyengar

James Kazin

Kyle Kerekffy

Brad Lindow

Ryan Retelle

Marilena Sharpell

Steve Thorpe

Lance Toland

Mark Ward

Edward White

“In our fourth year of these awards, we continue to be impressed by the skill and commitment of the nominees and to the strong future they represent for the business aviation industry,” said Mark Larsen, NBAA senior manager of safety and flight operations. “This year we are proud to acknowledge these 15 individuals from across the industry for exemplifying the high level of professionalism championed by Dr. Kern.”

Created in 2015 to honor Dr. Tony Kern, a co-founder of Convergent Performance, distinguished U.S. Air Force veteran and author of five books on human performance, this peer-nominated award recognizes individual pilots, maintenance technicians, flight attendants, dispatchers and other aviation professionals who excel in leadership in the following areas:

Professional ethics

Vocational excellence

Continuous improvement

Professional engagement

Professional image

Selflessness

The nominations are vetted by a panel of NBAA Safety Committee Professionalism Working Group members.

NBAA will begin accepting nominations for the 2020 awards in January. Learn more about the Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award.

Learn more about NBAA’s efforts to promote professionalism in business aviation.

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Founded in 1947 and based in Washington, DC, the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) is the leading organization for companies that rely on general aviation aircraft to help make their businesses more efficient, productive and successful. The association represents more than 11,000 companies and professionals and provides more than 100 products and services to the business aviation community, including the NBAA Business Aviation Convention & Exhibition (NBAA-BACE), the world’s largest civil aviation trade show. Learn more about NBAA at www.nbaa.org.

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