VERO BEACH – Piper Aircraft continued its quest to break into the Asian general aviation market by naming a chief financial officer and two new board members to its executive team with experience in that part of the world.
The Vero Beach-based company has hired W. David Wilson as CFO. Wilson most recently held the same position with PolyOne Corporation,a spinoff of The BF Goodrich Company and Geon, where he led marketing initiatives in Europe and Asia.
Piper also named John Borghetti, a former executive with Qantas Airlines, and Michael Kolowich, a leader in developing internet content and digital video technology, as new additions to the five-person board of directors.
“We have been conducting a comprehensive search for the talent and expertise that will prove critical to our development and in taking Piper to the next level,” said Piper CEO Kevin J. Gould. “With these appointments, we have positioned the company with the financial expertise to prosper in what is one of the world’s most competitive businesses and with sales, marketing and operational experience vital to our interests and strategic growth.”Wilson will direct Piper’s financial strategy and will report directly to Gould. He most recently was Senior Vice President and Chief Financial Officer for PolyOne Corporation, headquartered in Cleveland. PolyOne, a $2.7 billion global provider of specialized polymer materials, was formed in September 2000 as a merger between The Geon Company and M.A. Hanna Company. The Geon Company, spun out of The BF Goodrich Company in 1993, was a leading vinyl polymer services and technology provider with operations in North America, England and Australia.
The team will follow the strategic plan laid out by Imprimis, a Singapore-based investment management firm that purchased Piper in May, to break into markets in Asia and the Pacific Rim. Since the acquisition, Imprimis has injected resources into the company, enabling Piper to move forward significantly in several key areas, including market expansion, research and development and ramping up PiperJet development.The company has been hard hit by the worldwide economic slowdown and has cut back production of its other planes as that market detoriated. Piper employees have had mandatory furloughs instituted each month which are expected to run through the end of the year.