07/27/10 02:19PM EAA, OshKosh AirVenture, Rod Hightower

Rod Hightower named new EAA President, Poberezny remains chairman




The Experimental Aircraft Association announced today that pilot and EAA member Rod Hightower will succeed Tom Poberezny as the organization’s president.

Hightower was introduced by Poberezny, during his opening day remarks. Poberezny will remain as EAA chairman and chairman of the annual AirVenture convention.

Hightower, a Missouri native, has a distinguished career in business leadership. His career spans more than 25 years of business management for manufacturing and industrial companies. He has led both U.S. and international operations with as many as 2,300 employees and annual revenues of as much as $470 million, according to an EAA press release.

The organization said Hightower is also a vintage aircraft enthusiast, having restored his own Stearman biplane, which he flies out of Creve Coeur, Missouri. He is a director of the National Stearman Foundation and has helped organize the annual Stearman National Fly-in. His duties as EAA president will begin September 7 and include the day-to-day operations as well as direction of EAA programs and strategy. He is only the third president in EAA history and the first outside the Poberezny family.

As chairman, Poberezny will use his experience and background to foster EAA's business relationships, philanthropy and the organization's endowment, according to the EAA press release.

"This is a very exciting time for EAA and general aviation," said Hightower, who is attending this week's EAA AirVenture with his wife, Maura, and their five children. "I'm honored to be selected as the next leader of such a passionate group of aviation enthusiasts as EAA members. I've been a part of the organization for more than 20 years. There is much work ahead, but I am eager to start."

The selection of a new president stalled last year when General Aviation Manufacturers Association CEO Peter Bunce declined the position after he learned the board's executive committee had not selected him unanimously.

Poberezny then began working with KornFerry, an international executive recruitment firm, to develop a description of his ideal successor and assist in the search.

Hightower was selected from more than 700 candidates for the position. He will be the organization’s third president. Poberezny has been EAA president since 1989, when he succeeded his father, Paul Poberezny, who was president since EAA's founding in 1953.

"Rod's selection completes a process that began with an initial meeting of EAA's executive board in 2005," Poberezny said in a statement. "Rod has the passion for aviation that is absolutely essential to serve EAA's 160,000 members, as well as the extensive business operations background that is necessary to successfully meet the challenges and opportunities ahead for EAA."