Dealmakers 30
cover story
DEALMAKER: noun: A person who is skilled at bringing commercial or political deals to a satisfactory conclusion.
There is a lot of truth in the quote that “nothing happens until someone sells something,” but it is simplistic. The full truth is that nothing happens until a deal closes. Buyers and sellers always have choice and that can mean walking away. A Dealmaker’s job is to make sure that does not happen.
Corporate Jet Investor’s Dealmakers aims to recognise people who get deals done. We have included two types of dealmakers: aircraft dealmakers who make jet transactions happen; and corporate dealmakers - people who are reshaping the market through mergers and acquisitions. The two roles are very different – corporate dealmaking can be judged over decades – but both rely on similar skills.
To research it we canvassed more than 6,000 people and spoke to several hundreds. But the term ‘dealmaker’ is largely qualitative and, although we have tried to use data, please recognise that this list is subjective and please do not take it too seriously.
In this survey, dealmakers are people who initiate deals. This means we have not included key participants like financiers, advisers, lawyers, regulators and others that are essential in getting deals closed.
We may cover these in future listings. But it also reflects the unique role of brokers and aircraft advisers. This list is biased towards larger brokers, which is unfair. There are a lot of very good brokers out there who specialise in certain markets. We could easily have done a list of 50 brokers, so apologies if you just missed out.
There are also good brokers who deliberately chose to be low-profile. Several brokers actually asked not to be listed.
Disagree with our list? We thought you might. We have spent hours on this process, but we are sure that we have missed some key market players (apologies if it is you). Please do not get frustrated or angry without letting us know. We can always add people to the list, please email: [email protected]. As always, all feedback is genuinely welcome.
Rebecca Johnson/ Walter Stark
JetHQ, Vice President of European Sales/ Vice President of UK Sales EMEA
JetHQ IS growing fast. Its founder Garett Jerde established the company in 2012 with the goal of “closing the gap in service between buying a new aircraft from a manufacturer or buying a preowned aircraft.”
To achieve this goal, JetHQ has been snapping up business aviation talent left and right these past few years. Rebecca Johnson and Walter Stark are two of them.
Chris Leach/Justin Bowman
Air Charter Service, Chairman/CEO, UK
“AT THE END of the war, my father found himself a job at a charter airline, based at a disused airfield. They gave the pilots’ families homes at the airfield itself. One day, my mother said, my father was coming in with an engine out, and she went into labour. So, I was literally born on an airfield,” says Chris Leach, founder of Air Charter Service.
Marwan Khalek
Gama Aviation, CEO, UK
Recent acquisitions/joint ventures: Lotus Aviation Group, aircraft painting at Fort Lauderdale (January 2019), China Aicraft Services Limited (March 2018), Landmark Aviation (January 2017)
KHALEK is a rare CEO who enjoys both buying and integrating companies. The reverse take-over of Hangar8 that took Gama Aviation public followed on from more than 10 other acquisitions when Gama was a private company.
