Story ID: 
Bob Stangarone Takes Helm of CAN
By: Kerry Lynch
Caption: Stangarone brings decades of experience as a communicator, journalist, and consultant
Word Count: 361
Veteran industry communications specialist Robert Stangarone has taken the role of president and CEO of the nonprofit Corporate Angel Network (CAN). Stangarone fills a position that has remained vacant over the past year with the departure of Gina Russo. In the interim, Courtney Easton, CAN’s senior director of operations and marketing, had steered the organization.
CAN arranges free transportation for cancer patients aboard empty seats of business aircraft. Since its founding in 1981, the charitable organization has coordinated more than 68,000 flights.
“The decision to bring Robert on board was driven by the recognition of his impressive background, extensive expertise, and proven success as a corporate leader, journalist, and pilot,” said CAN chairman John Rosanvallon. “I believe he is the ideal leader to steer CAN to even greater heights.”
Stangarone brings some five decades of aviation and aerospace experience as a journalist, communicator, and consultant to his new role. For the past decade, he has managed his own consultancy, Stangarone & Associates, and more recently he took on the additional role of chairman and president of the New England Air Museum.
His career has included key communications roles with companies including Embraer, Cessna Aircraft, Safire, Litton, Rolls-Royce, Pratt & Whitney, Sikorsky, and Fairchild Dornier. As a journalist, he was managing editor of Business & Commercial Aviation magazine and also has been published in the Washington Post, International Herald Tribune, Los Angeles Times, Aviation Week & Space Technology, Smithsonian Air & Space Magazine, and Air Transport World.
A former flight and aerobatics instructor, Stangarone holds a commercial pilot's license with instrument and multi-engine ratings and is type-rated in the Cessna Citation CJ Series. He was recognized by the National Aeronautic Association as a 2023 McDonald Distinguished Statesman of Aviation recipient.
“Corporate Angel Network is a quintessential illustration of how the business aviation community contributes to our quality of life and helps save lives,” Stangarone said. “The program offers companies with corporate jets the ability to couple business activities with corporate social responsibility while reducing cancer patients’ physical, emotional, and financial stress as they go through the most difficult of times."