Cirrus Aircraft last month announced a series of personnel moves meant to “reinforce the company’s leadership depth and further position the enterprise for global growth.”
Ben Kowalski has joined Cirrus Aircraft as vice president of marketing, giving him responsibility for developing marketing, branding,communicationand distribution strategies to support the company’s strategic growth plan, including activities around the launch of theVision SF50 jet in 2015. He brings more than 15 years of experienceleading initiatives in sales, marketing, operations and training for both regional and global companies.
Cirrus has also appointed David Moser as the new vice president of fleet and special-mission sales. In this role, David will oversee the Cirrus fleet andspecial-mission platforms sales team. Moser’s aviation career began at Diamond Aircraft, where he served as director of fleet sales.He then founded Flightline Solutions, whereherepresented Cirrus Aircraft and other products and services for the flight-training market. Previously, he held several key positions with General Electric, GTE, Sun Microsystems and Advanced Energy.
The appointment of Kowalski and Moser came only three weeks after Cirrus announced it promoted Todd Simmons to executive vice president and chief customer officer. Simmons joined Cirrus in 2008 as vice president of marketing and most recently served as executive v-p of sales, marketing and support. Prior to joining Cirrus, Todd was a principal at CubCrafters and previously held positions at both Delta Air Lines and AmericanAirlines.
Simmons’ appointment coincided with an announcement that Don McIsaac has joined Cirrus as executive vice president and CFO. McIsaac has held senior leadership positions in both private and public companies in a variety of industries in Canada and the U.S.
Yet another key executive appointment involved Judi Eltgroth, whom Cirrus promoted to senior vice president of human resources. With Cirrus since 1996,Eltgroth now oversees human resources, organization development and regulatory compliance. She also serves as the company’s national security director with reporting responsibility to the U.S. Department of Defense.Bringing more than 25 years experience in the field, Eltgroth has led human resources initiatives through multiple transitions, including mergers and acquisitions.
Cirrus has also appointed Carolyn Zhang to the new executive leadershipposition of senior vice president of strategic planning and business development. The position calls for Zhang to concentrate her efforts on long-term strategy and growth plans, including expansion intoemergingmarkets and newownership and serviceofferings. Zhang most recently worked at Helsinki-based CargoTec.
Finally, Curtis Landherr has joined Cirrus as its general counsel. Prior to joining Cirrus, Curtis spent 15 years practicing as in-house corporate counsel, including seven years with Garmin, where he provided primary legal support for that company’s aviation division.
