Contact: Cassandra Bosco
Las Vegas, NV, October 13, 2004 – The Voting Membership of the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) today elected five Directors to three-year terms during its Annual Meeting at the Las Vegas Convention Center: Randal J. Hudon of BellSouth Corporate Aviation and Travel Services, Jeffrey W. Lee of IBM Corporation, John H. Ratcliff of Ford Motor Company, George A. Saling of Altria Corporate Services, Inc., and Douglas Schwartz of AT&T Aviation.
Randy Hudon joined BellSouth as a pilot in August of 1989, and he became president of corporate aviation & travel services in 1998. During his tenure, Hudon has served as captain on a number of business aircraft and held the director, safety and standardization role for BellSouth’s aviation department. He leads and manages all aspects of BellSouth’s corporate aviation team, commercial travel business and corporate meeting planning organization. Hudon earned a B.S. in aviation management from Auburn University in 1979 and MBA in aviation from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University in 1985. From 1980 to 1989, he served in the U.S. Air Force. Hudon holds an ATP certificate, is a Certified Aviation Manager (CAM) and serves on the NBAA CAM Governing Board. This will be his first term on the NBAA Board of Directors.
NBAA Treasurer Jeffrey W. Lee is the director of flight operations for IBM Corporation, which he joined in 1980 as a copilot. He earned a B.S. in engineering from the United States Air Force Academy and was a USAF flight instructor from 1974 to 1980. Prior to joining the NBAA Board in 2001, he served first as vice chairman and then chairman of NBAA’s Corporate Aviation Management Committee.
John H. Ratcliff joined Ford Motor Company in 1973, where he held positions as pilot, supervisor of flight operations and chief pilot, respectively, before assuming his current position as aviation director and chief pilot. From 1967 to 1971, Ratcliff was a U.S. Air Force active-duty pilot, and he also has served as a member of the Michigan Air National Guard. In 1966, Ratcliff graduated from the University of North Texas with a B.A. in mathematics, and in 1979, he earned an M.S. in accounting from Eastern Michigan University. He joined the Board in 2001.
Immediate Past Chairman George A. Saling assumed his position as vice president, aviation and travel services for Altria Corporate Services, Inc. in October 2000. He is responsible for providing worldwide aviation and commercial travel support for all of the company’s operating divisions. Prior to joining the company in 1991, Saling spent more than 17 years in various management positions with FlightSafety International, GTE Service Corp. and Tenneco Inc. After graduating from Ohio University in 1968, he began active duty in the U.S. Army, and during 1970 and 1971, he served as a combat flight platoon leader in Vietnam flying O-1 Birdogs. He was elected to the Board in 1994 and also has served on the NBAA Corporate Aviation Management Committee.
In early 1999, Douglas Schwartz joined AT&T, where as aviation director, he currently is responsible for the oversight of the entire flight operation, including aircraft scheduling, staffing and supervision, aircraft maintenance, and facilities management. Prior to joining AT&T, he worked for 25 years for FlightSafety International, the world’s largest commercial aviation training company. As director of pilot training standards, he managed a group of 1,300 instructor pilots at 27 training centers. Schwartz is a graduate of Vanderbilt University with a B.A. in economics, and he attended the University of Houston Graduate School of Business. He has served as chairman of NBAA’s Security Council since its inception in 2002. He also is president of the Morristown (NJ) Aviation Association and past chairman of the NBAA Safety Committee. He is a pilot with 4,000 hours. This will be his first term on the NBAA Board.
These five Directors’ terms will conclude at the NBAA 60th Annual Meeting & Convention, scheduled to be held in Atlanta, GA, from September 25 to 27, 2007.
Also during today’s Annual Meeting, Philip A. Roberts, president and CEO of PAR Travel Tech, Inc., retired from the NBAA Board of Directors, having completed nine years of service on the Board, including a term as chairman from 1999 to 2001.
NBAA represents the aviation interests of more than 7,700 companies that own or operate general aviation aircraft as an aid to the conduct of their business, or are involved with business aviation. NBAA Member Companies earn annual revenues approaching $5 trillion — a number that is about half the gross domestic product — and employ more than 19 million people worldwide. The NBAA Annual Meeting & Convention is the world’s largest display of civil aviation products and services.
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International Business Aviation Council Ltd.