| Eric Zipkin With over thirty years as a pilot, Eric is the founder of Tradewind Aviation. He began his aviation career as a charter sales representative for Westchester Air, eventually serving as a pilot, Director of Marketing, and General Manager. Prior to aviation, Eric developed residential and commercial real estate in southern New York and founded a successful e-commerce business. Eric holds a B.S. in entrepreneurial management and economics from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania and an Airline Transport Pilot Certificate. Eric is also founder and President of the D-Day Squadron, a philanthropic organization dedicated to historic aircraft from World War II. Founded in 2001 by Eric and his brother David who have turned their passion for flying into the leading regional private airline. Tradewind provides personal air travel—both private and scheduled service—throughout North America and the Caribbean. Tradewind believes that every single flight is an opportunity to create an exceptional client experience with their people, planes, and personal service. Their unique approach to flying is less harrowing than flying commercial and more intimate than flying private. It is flying personal. And it is what they strive for every day. Tradewind provides scheduled service to top leisure destinations throughout the Northeast and Caribbean, including Nantucket, Martha’s Vineyard, Newport, St Barths, Anguilla, and Antigua. Tradewind also provides unique and efficient private travel solutions for leisure or business travel, with access to thousands of airports throughout North America and the Caribbean in their fleet of Pilatus PC-12 and Citation CJ3 aircraft. Tradewind’s vision is for an elevated flight experience that is streamlined and understated, where every flight deserves the highest quality aircraft, crew, and service, giving guests control over their own time and confidence in their travels. www.flytradewind.com |
.jpg)
| Carlos Rodriguez Carlos Rodriguez is the Executive Director of the Lee A. Archer Jr. Red Tail Youth Flying Program, Inc., and the RedTail Flight Academy. This program uses aviation as an inspirational platform to recruit, develop, expose, and place talent with an emphasis on candidates of color in honor of the Tuskegee Airmen. Carlos comes to aviation with a strong business and operations background highly focused on leadership, process execution, continuous improvement, and people development. His aviation back ground includes Instrument Rated Commercial Pilot, CFI, MEI, AGI, IGI, and a CE525 Type Rating. His operational background includes leadership positions in the USMC, IBM Corp., Harsco, and Business Consulting focusing on change management and execution optimization. Education includes but not limited to a MSc in Industrial Administration from Carnegie Mellon University, Masters in Project Management, and BSc in Mathematics / Operations Research, APICS certification CPIM and CSCP, PMP, OSHA 10 / 30, and Lean Sigma Certifications. Core belief – A “Bias for Action” and “Safety” must be fully integrated into everything we do for us to drive positive change. |
| Todd Wesoloskie Todd Wesoloskie is the Senior Manager of Talent Acquisition, Partner-Pilot at Wheels Up, the leading provider of on-demand private aviation in the United States. Mr. Wesoloskie leads the Pilot Recruiting Division that has hired over 600 Pilots during the last year. He works closely with the Wheels Up executive team and has created several inaugural Pathways to Part 135 Pilot opportunities, which is a first in private aviation. With over 37 years of aviation experience, Mr. Wesoloskie has served in various parts of the industry including as an aircraft mechanic, flight engineer, pilot and more. Throughout the years, he’s logged 10,000 hours in the cockpit, degrees in Aviation Operations, Business and Aircraft MX Technology, served in the United States Air Force as a C-5 Aircrew member with close to 1500 Combat/Combat Support hours and he even flew for Pan American Airways on the 727-200. He’s a consistent advocate for ensuring the development for the industry’s next generation of Pilots. |
.jpg)
| Michael Burger
Michael joined FlightSafety in 2004 as an instructor at the Farnborough Learning Center in the United Kingdom. He then served as an examiner for Hawker HS125 series aircraft and manager of FlightSafety’s Safety-/ and quality management system. After 10 years as Director of Training at the London Farnborough Learning Center, Michael moved to the Teterboro Learning Center where he is the Center Manager and EASA Head of Training for FlightSafety International. Prior to joining FlightSafety Michael held a number of positions with Swiss International Airlines and Crossair AG. During his nine years with the airline, he was as an instructor, first officer, pilot in command, and Deputy VP Head of Training and chief ground instructor at Swiss Aviation Training. Michael started his flying career as a flight instructor at Mazzei Flying Service – School of Aeronautics, in California. He received a Master of Business Administration from Basel Business College and studied aviation management at the European Aeronautical University. Michael holds an EASA ATPL pilots license, is an EASA certified type rating instructor and examiner, holds several type ratings and is also a Class-/ and Instrument Rating Instructor. He also earned an FAA Airline Transport Pilot certificate and is a Certified Flight Instructor. Michael has over 4,600 flight hours and is type rated in the Saab 2000 and Hawker 800XP and the Falcon 2000 EX EASyII aircraft. |
.jpg)