WICHITA, KS – Hawker Beechcraft Corporation (HBC) announces that Randy Nelson, HBC’s senior vice president, Product Development and Engineering, will retire on Dec. 1, 2008.
A 30-year veteran of the aviation industry, Nelson played an important role in the sale of the company from Raytheon to Hawker Beechcraft Inc., a new company formed by GS Capital Partners, an affiliate of Goldman Sachs, and Onex Partners – creating the world’s largest privately held aircraft manufacturer.
“Randy played an instrumental role in preparing HBC for the future by leading numerous innovative product development programs, including an unprecedented five new aircraft certifications in a span of just six months,” says HBC chairman and CEO Jim Schuster. “The entire HBC family wishes him nothing but the best in his well deserved retirement.”
Nelson joined the company from Cessna Aircraft Company, where he held the position of vice president, Research and Advanced Technology. Nelson joined Cessna’s technical engineering department in 1978, holding various technical and leadership positions.
Edward Petkus, currently HBC’s vice president, New Product Development, will take over as acting vice president, Engineering. Petkus joined HBC in May 2007 following 16 years at Boeing.
Since joining HBC, Petkus has led product development program teams dedicated to improved product research planning, program execution and technology development processes. Petkus’ most recent position at Boeing was director, 787 Airplane Development, where he led the 787 program development team responsible for requirements, configuration development, airplane level analyses, environmental impact and reliability/maintainability.
