Recently launched Four Corners Aviation is building its leadership team with senior appointments in the areas of client services, sales, operations, and safety and security.
Aquila Aviation Venture, which formed earlier this year through a partnership between venture capital firm City+Ventures and business aircraft brokerage and consultancy Mente Group, announced the establishment of Four Corners Aviation in October, combining City+Ventures Part 135 operator and management firm Millbrook Air and financial background with Mente Group’s marketing expertise. Earlier in November, Four Corners Aviation rolled out its first new product, Freedom, which is designed to create a “corporate jet as a service” approach to selling and delivering business aviation operations.
To develop and expand on this model, Four Corners Aviation named its initial senior leadership team: Diana Schneider, v-p of client services; Ray Bennett, v-p of sales; Mike Jefcoat, v-p of operations; and Phil Leone, v-p of safety and security.
Schneider, who joined Four Corners Aviation's predecessor in 2019, began her aviation career as an accountant/controller in 2007 and has a financial, managerial, and organizational background through other industries as well. Bennett has 30 years of aviation sales experience, including management roles in the areas of avionics, fractional aircraft, aircraft manufacturing, parts distribution, and aircraft management.
Jefcoat spent 18 years as an airline pilot, including with Delta Connection, and also has served as the chief pilot and director of operations for FlightWorks, a consultant with ATP Flight School, and an FAA-approved check airman on the Hawker 800 and Bombardier Challenger 300. Leone, meanwhile, has 26 years of experience in the New York Air National Guard, where he served as an aircraft commander, instructor, and evaluator in the C-5A Galaxy, an aircraft commander in the C-17 Globemaster, and the chief of safety for the 105th Airlift Wing in Newburgh, New York.
“This powerful group is charged with ensuring that we execute well and deliver the best product to our clientele,” said Four Corners Aviation president and COO Cameron Gowans. He added that the newly formed team “will take the corporate jet as a service, a fully integrated lift solution offered through Freedom by Four Corners Aviation, to clients across the country.”