New Positions, Promotions, Honors And Elections, May 18, 2020

Amy Gowder has been hired by Aerojet Rocketdyne as chief operating officer. She succeeds Mark Tucker, who is retiring. Gowder also will serve as an officer of parent Aerojet Rocketdyne Holdings. She was Lockheed Martin vice president and general manager for training and logistics within the rotary and mission systems unit. 

Thales has appointed Alex Cresswell CEO and chairman of Thales UK. Christophe Salomon succeeds him as executive vice president for land and air systems and joins the executive committee. Salomon was chief information officer at EDF. 

Akima has hired Duncan Greene as president of mission systems for engineering and technology. He will oversee group companies providing mission support, IT and analytic services to the Defense Department and the intelligence community. Greene, a former CIA officer, was BAE Systems vice president and general manager for space intelligence and global analysis.   

James R. Clapper has joined the University of Pennsylvania’s Center for Ethics and the Rule of Law executive board. He was director of national intelligence, undersecretary of defense for intelligence, and director of defense intelligence, respectively, for several administrations. After the Sept. 11, 2001, terrorist attacks, he came out of retirement to become the first civilian director of the National Imagery and Mapping Agency, transforming it into the Nation-al Geospatial-Intelligence Agency. 

Carol Tome has been named CEO of UPS. She succeeds David Abney, who will retire from the board in September. Tome has served on the UPS board since 2003, and was chief financial officer for Home Depot.  

Keystone Aviation has hired J. Dan Govatos as director of operations for its private jet charter, aircraft management and maintenance services. He has captained on Airbus, Boeing, Falcon, Gulfstream and other aircraft types for airline and corporate operations. 

Jennifer Upton has been named director of acquisition at the NATO Communications and Information Agency. Upton’s Defense Department contracting experience includes service with the U.S. Naval Special Warfare Command and U.S. Special Operations Forces. 

Allianz Global Corporate & Specialty (AGCS) has named Chuck Couch North America head of aviation programs and product development. He was AGCS product lead for aviation workers’ compensation in the U.S. and manager for a group of national aviation specialty programs, including Allianz Drone. 

Kaman Corp. has promoted Rebecca Stath to vice president of accounting and principal accounting officer from internal audit manager and Lisa Barry to vice president of financial planning and analysis from finance manager.  

Robert Ulibarri has been named general manager of Saab’s $37 million aerospace facility for high-tech commercial aerospace systems development at Purdue University’s Discovery Park District. He was industrial automation general manager at Eckhart USA and held leadership positions at Lennox International and Oshkosh Corp. 

North American Aerospace Industries, an aircraft recycling company, has hired Janos Virag as director of innovation. He was an aviation manufacturing instructor and manager of Airbus A350XWB fabrication with Lenoir Community College/Spirit AeroSystems in Kinston, North Carolina.

APOC Aviation has promoted Jim Nypels to its new engine trading division. He will facilitate engine-part sales and evaluate engine stock for trading, leasing or teardown. Nypels was project manager for airframe teardowns. 

Inflite Group Jet Centre has appointed Steve Hughes general manager of Excellence Aviation Services Ltd., located at London Stansted Airport, as well general manager of its continuing airworthi-ness management organization (CAMO) activity. Hughes was general manager of CAMO and UK Civil Aviation Authority nominated post holder at Luxaviation.

Markus Haggeney has been named secretary general of the World Air Sports Federation from acting secretary general. 

Wisk, the urban air mobility company behind the world’s first autonomous, all-electric air taxi, has hired Dan Dalton as vice president of global partnerships. Dalton was Airspace Systems’ executive vice president of strategic partnerships and a visiting scientist at Lawrence Livermore National Laboratory. 

Racquel Asa has been hired as chief marketing officer for Beep, a startup in the autonomous mobility communications sector for future robotic vehicular passenger transport systems in low-speed environments. Asa was a transportation journalist for WFTV in Orlando. 

HONORS AND ELECTIONS

Veteran Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum curator Dorothy Cochrane has been chosen by the National Aeronautic Association to receive the 2020 Katharine Wright Trophy, awarded for long-term advance-ment of “the art, sport and science of aviation and spaceflight.”