His dad had been the manager of Taunton Municipal Airport when Dave first began his foray into aviation more than two decades ago. By 1988, having earned a freshly minted license from the Commonwealth of Massachusetts, Dave became the states quote youngest airport manager. His commitment to aviation hasn't waned since.
Today, assisted by his sister, Kelley Dinneen, he stays busy running the day-to-day operations at Mansfield, where he also co-owns the facility's quote flight school, King Aviation. One of the airport's quote cornerstone projects, the "piece de resistance," as Dave calls it, is replacement of the FBO building, with construction programmed to occur within the next five years. While beyond the fence, local appreciation and acceptance of the airport has always been one of his top priorities. As a result, Dinneen remains very active in the community.
For the past nine years, he has been a Rotary Club member, where, in 2005-2006, he was honored as Rotarian of the Year. Likewise, in the Rotary Foundation, he served as president of the Paul Harris Fellow. He similarly has held a co-chair position with the Toys for Tots charity. While in aviation circles, Dave is just as active, and just as recognized for his contributions. In 2005, from the Boston Flight Standards District Office (FSDO), Dinneen was given the distinguished Airport Manager of the Year award. Two years later, the FSDO honored him as the region's best safety program supporter. In his 'free' time, Dave is a guest lecturer for the Aeronautics Department at Bridgewater State College. A long-time affiliate of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, Dave additionally is a member of the northeast chapter of the American Association of Airport Executives.
President
Al Peterson, Nantucket
Memorial Airport
In the past seven years, as the manager of Nantucket Memorial Airport, Peterson has adopted a very aggressive building campaign to address the needs of his facility. His efforts have resulted in full re-surfacing of the main runway (6/24) with all light wiring being moved into conduit; plus, the installation of a new ILS precision approach to Runway 6; and completion of a $29 million terminal modernization and expansion project set to open in late May. According to Peterson, Nantucket Airport has a very bright future, quite literally. Under his direction, the facility has upgraded to LED lighting on its main Taxiway E, and this has contributed to significant savings and longevity. While on the horizon are plans to construct a new aircraft rescue and fire-fighting building, as well as re-location of the airport’s FAA air traffic control tower sometime in fiscal year 2010.
A Vermont native, Peterson holds a B.S. degree in industrial management from the University of Vermont, along with an M.B.A. from Pepperdine University. His business management experience is extensive. A one-time principal for several companies in the synthetic fiber and textile industry in Vermont, New York and California, he also served as an artillery officer in the U.S. Army.
In 2006, Peterson was chosen as the Airport Manager of the Year by the FAA Boston Safety Team. He is a member of the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE), the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association, the American Bonanza Society and the Experimental Aircraft Association. Additionally, he serves on national committees for both AAAE and the National Air Transport Association. He has a commercial pilot’s license with an instrument rating, having logged 4,000 flight hours.
Vice President
Mark Germanowski, Pittsfield
Municipal Airport
Vice President, Mark Germanowski, has served the aviation industry professionally for seven years, the last five of which he’s spent managing Pittsfield Municipal Airport. His rise to that position has been the end result of a solid education coupled with diverse job experience, both in and out of aviation. “I have over 21 diversified years in multimodal transportation capacities,” he explains, to include 12 years’ experience dealing with the rail system’s infrastructure, operations and capital improvement projects. Yet Germanowski is clearly well-rounded in aviation too. An alumnus of the Daniel Webster College Aviation Management and Flight Operations program, he holds a master’s degree in transportation planning. While on the flight line, he carries a private pilot’s license and has flown Cessna 152s and 172s, Grob motor gliders, and aerobatic planes.
Before taking the top job at Pittsfield, Germanowski served two years as a regional transportation planner and two years as the city’s transportation planner and infrastructure project manager. What drew him into the airport management profession was the uniqueness of this industry, the diversity of his many public projects, plus the varied challenges of his job. “On a given day I could be dealing with any range of individuals—from the local farmer, to community leaders and elected officials—or, activities that range from (airfield) maintenance to negotiating land acquisition deals,” he says. The “end game” in all of these efforts, as Germanowski will attest, is to provide the best operational facility that resources will allow. Though a municipal facility, Pittsfield Airport today serves the state’s western region, and so accommodates a wide range of users, from corporate America to those seeking the cultural and scenic attractions unique to the Berkshires. For this reason, planning the airport’s future can be challenging, as Germanowski underscores his airport commission’s efforts to balance a dichotomy of users. In particular, he points to the smaller GA fleet that regularly competes with larger corporate jets at Pittsfield.
As for his proudest accomplishment to date: “I developed an airport maintenance plan that quantified and helped justify the creation of an airport inspector position,” Germanowski says. “A successful campaign was then launched to lobby the city’s elected officials, to budget for this position.” Since taking over the airport manager position, he also points to a 75 percent increase in airport revenues, encouragement enough of Pittsfield’s bright future.
The airport currently has a 5,000-ft. main runway comprised of a non-standard, 150-ft. long runway safety area (RSA). With corporate jet operations now averaging about 4,000 annually, Pittsfield is well positioned to receive federal and state grants, estimated at $20 million, to construct an FAA-compliant RSA, while extending the runway to 5,790 feet. From a safety standpoint, Germanowski believes such an undertaking is well worth his planning efforts. “Our airport is situated in the Berkshire Mountains, at a 1,200 ft. field elevation, and subject to the Berkshires’ weather,” he says. “So both the RSA and the increased runway length components are needed to better accommodate safe corporate jet operations.”
Secretary
Michael Miller, Lawrence
Municipal Airport
Treasurer
Tom Maher, Plymouth Municipal
Airport
Gregg Andrews
Michael Bolton,
Westover Metropolitan Airport
Andrew Davis
, Worcester Regional Airport
In 2009, following a 26-year career with American Airlines, Andy Davis joined Massport as the director of Worcester Regional Airport. In fact, it was through his long-standing commitment to the airline industry that Davis developed the kind of management experience so applicable to airport work today. At hubs large and small, from Eagle/Vail (CO) to Chicago O’Hare, Davis held both operations and staff level positions, where his resume today includes positions held at 10 airports, to include Boston, Providence, Hartford/Springfield and Steward/Newburgh. He's assisted American with start up operations in 12 other cities as well.
While he's gained substantial "OJT" from his work around the country, Davis began his professional foray into aviation as a local guy. Here, he was active early on as a member of the Rhode Island wing of Civil Air Patrol. In college, he attended New Hampshire's Hawthorne College, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree, double majoring in business administration and aviation management. As president of Hawthorne's student government, Davis, in his senior year, received the institution’s Damaree Award for his noteworthy accomplishments, and was thus inducted into the Who's Who in American Colleges and Universities.
Today, while handling day-to-day operations, Davis has cast a serious eye forward, as he looks to match the airport's great promise with worthy development projects. And for Worcester, he believes the future is especially bright. Of special note, he says, is "a modern passenger terminal, suitable for both narrow body and regional jet aircraft, and several hundred acres of developable land, which have the airport well positioned to support aviation growth in the region." A vocal supporter of both commercial and general aviation interests at Worcester, Davis stays particularly busy these days promoting the use of Worcester through his participation in the region's chambers of commerce, the Central Massachusetts Convention and Visitors Bureau, and area business associations.
Sean Flynn,
Martha's Vineyard Airport
Arthur "Butch"
Lisenby, Provincetown Municipal Airport
Robert Mallard,
Airport Solutions Group
Bob Mallard is the owner and president of Airport Solutions Group located in Woburn, Massachusetts. With 26 years of experience as a civil engineer, to include 20 years in airport development, Mallard is a licensed professional engineer (PE) and private pilot.
A graduate of the University of New Hampshire, with a Bachelor of Science degree in civil engineering, Mallard began his profession in the private sector before joining the Massachusetts Aeronautics Commission (MAC) in 1992. There, he served as its Manager of Airport Engineering until 1999 when he became the agency’s Deputy Director.
In February 2000, Mallard was appointed to the Executive Director position, which he held until 2005, before moving back into the private sector. During his tenure at MAC, Mallard had managed more than 300 airport projects totaling $253 million. Under his direction, some notable accomplishments included: finalizing an Economic Impact Report of Public Use Airports in Massachusetts; working closely with the state legislature and aviation industry to support passage of the aircraft tax exemption bill; authoring MAC’s statewide airport security directive following the terrorist events of 9/11; chairing NASAO’s Security Committee for the National Association of State Aviation Officials (NASAO), and authoring the NASAO white paper on general aviation security; authoring the aviation section of the 2002 Massachusetts transportation bond bill ($31 million); developing the statewide airport identification badge program, which received a national award; serving as the Aviation Chair to Governor Romney’s Transportation Reform Steering Committee, and as a member of the former governor’s Executive Committee on Commonwealth Security; as well as serving on the Airspace Security Subcommittee for the 2004 Democratic National Convention.
Through the years, for his many contributions to aviation, Mallard has been recognized by three Massachusetts governors, the MAC, FAA, MAMA and NASAO. While beyond his profession, he also assists his wife, Caroline, in running the annual Treats for Troops campaign that coordinates, collects and ships Halloween candy to U.S. troops stationed in Iraq and Afghanistan.
Russ Maguire,
Norwood Memorial Airport
For the past 12 years, Maguire has been the chief executive at Norwood, where he established the first-ever municipal airport department. His duties today include oversight management of flight safety and operations, airport security, capital projects, environmental stewardship, airport engineering; as well as master planning, business development; internal and external relations. Under his administration, capital projects at Norwood now total $12 million. Maguire is a fully accredited airport executive with the American Association of Airport Executives (AAAE). From that organization, he also earned the airport-certified employee designation, specializing in airport security. He holds a master’s degree in aviation/aerospace management, with undergraduate degrees in both aviation technology and journalism. Author of more than 300 industry articles and communications pieces, Maguire—a one-time public relations director in the civil industry—is also a rated senior aviator, having flown medevac and air assault missions for 13 years in the U.S. Army. He holds a commercial pilot’s license with an instrument rating as well. Nationally, he serves on AAAE’s General Aviation Committee, with professional membership in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.
Warren Smith,
Plymouth Municipal Airport (Retired)
Robert Stetson,
Marlboro Municipal Airport
G. Robert (Bob) Stetson has been involved in aviation for more than 40 years. For the past ten, he’s owned and managed Marlboro Airport, the state’s oldest privately owned, public-use airport. “We have a busy maintenance facility and an active flight school,” he says, “with about 40 aircraft based at the airport, including many antiques.” Stetson himself is a private pilot—and remains active, flying an assortment of aircraft, to include Cessna 150s and 172s, Piper J-3s and Aeronca Champs. He currently owns a Cessna 150, a Cessna 172 and a Piper J-3. The flight school he owns and operates offers lessons in Cessna 150s, a Cessna 172 and several Aeronca 7ACs, one of which is being restored.
Training a generation of pilots to use a 1,600-ft. long runway, with obstructions at both ends, tends to offer up a higher level of competence, Stetson believes. He says that “pilots trained at Marlboro Airport are among the most proficient pilots to receive certification, in that the skills of the pilots must be at their peak to use the Marlboro runway.”
Prior to becoming an airport manager, Stetson spent 35 years at the Raytheon Company. (He holds a bachelor’s degree in electrical engineering from the University of Massachusetts.) There, he managed research projects often tied to the aviation industry. “The one of which I am most proud,” he recalls, “is the design of a system to take tracking errors out of the AN/TPN-19 Precision Approach Radar and digitize onto a VHF uplink for de-coding and display in the cockpit…the glide slope errors and range-to-touchdown of the aircraft.”
Stetson is an active member of the MAMA group, where he has played an important role in helping to establish an Aviation Caucus within the Massachusetts legislature. “The Caucus has shown itself to be a valuable force in promoting the aviation cause in Massachusetts,” he notes. While on a more immediate, local level, he’s drawn to “extending the future of a small, struggling airport facility and building it for future generations.” This is important to Stetson, whose home-grown love of aviation transcends his local facility: “What I like best about my job is the opportunity to make a positive difference in the future of Marlboro Airport and in all of the Commonwealth.”
The project most critical to the future of Marlboro Airport, he believes, is the re-construction of its deteriorating movement surfaces. “The runway and taxiway pavement is over 40 years old,” he says, “and was not very good when it was new in that it’s only oil and sand over a turf base.” Cost estimates for the re-construction are in the $1 million range. Reluctantly, he predicts: “The airport will fail to survive if the runway and taxiways are not replaced soon.”
In his spare time, Stetson is building a Pietenpol Air Camper. And beyond his support for the MAMA group, he’s a member of the Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association.
