Joe Barber

As Chief Commercial Officer for Clay Lacy Aviation, Joe Barber leads commercial operations to ensure the success of its service, sales and marketing initiatives across Clay Lacy’s aircraft management, jet charter, maintenance and FBO business units. With 12 years at Clay Lacy and nearly 20 in aircraft management services, his objective is to continuously professionalize and innovate aviation as a service (AaaS) to individuals and corporations. He believes in the fine-tuned balance of operational scale and service success. Having worked in many facets in business aviation, he prioritizes the people and culture as the primary driver of success.

Barber began his aviation career in 2004 as an intern at an aircraft management firm in Los Angeles and credits his excellent mentors for his continuous learning opportunities and career trajectory. Early in his career and before working for Clay Lacy Aviation, Barber had lunch with the founder and legendary aviator. Barber asked Lacy what it would take to be a legend like him and the response was, “my era was different, your opportunity is in improving the business.”

Barber is a committed business aviation professional, with a daily dedication to improving Clay Lacy’s legendary aviation experience, and an endurance for standardizing excellence in business aviation. He’s an NBAA Certified Aviation Manager (CAM), and was named to NBAA’s inaugural class of “Top 40 Under 40” in 2018. He holds an MBA from California Lutheran University and a B.S. in communications from California State University at Northridge.

Barber has chaired the NBAA Business Aviation Management Committee, which produces the NBAA Management Guide and the NBAA Leadership Conference, and is a board member for the Southern California Aviation Association. He is a husband, father of two and lifelong aviation enthusiast.

Updated March 4, 2025