Alan Klapmeier – CEO and Chairman
Alan Klapmeier was the founder of Cirrus Design and served as its Chairman from its inception in 1984 to 2009. Cirrus is a manufacturer of high-performance single-engine aircraft, constructed from composite materials which revolutionized the general aviation industry when they were introduced. Approximately 5,000 aircraft have been delivered.
Mr. Klapmeier has served on several industry boards, including the General Aviation Manufacturing Association (GAMA) Board of Directors (and served as its Chairman for 2008), the AOPA ASF, currently known as the AOPA Air Safety Foundation Board of Visitors and the Board of Directors of the Small Aircraft Manufacturers Association.
Mr. Klapmeier received the 2007 Dr. Godfrey L. Cabot Award, the Experimental Aviation Association, (EAA) 2007 Freedom of Flight Award, Airport Journal 2006 "Living Legends" Aviation Entrepreneur of the Year, EAA August Raspet, Air Safety Foundation 2005 Admiral de Florez Award, and 2004 Ernst and Young Entrepreneur of the Year for Manufacturing.
Mr. Klapmeier was responsible for the certification of the Cirrus SR 20 in 1998 and the Cirrus SR 22 two years later. Mr Klapmeier has been at the forefront of introducing such technologies as the glass cockpit, whole-plane parachute systems and in-flight weather displays for small aircraft.
Mr. Klapmeier holds degrees in Physics and Economics from Ripon College in Wisconsin. With over 8,500 hours of flight time, Mr. Klapmeier has been a licensed pilot for more than 30 years and flies a wide range of aircraft including his prized 1950 DHC-1 Chipmunk, his long time SR22TN and his current PA-46T Meridian.
Edward L. Underwood – CFO and Board of Directors
Ed Underwood is a retired Executive Director of Arcapita, a private equity group based in Bahrain, London and Atlanta. While with Arcapita, Mr. Underwood was responsible for the Post-Acquisition Management of Arcapita’s portfolio.
Prior to joining Arcapita, Mr. Underwood was Director, Financial Controls for Investcorp, a $1.0 billion investment bank with offices in Bahrain, London and New York.
Prior to Investcorp, Mr. Underwood was responsible for Arthur Young’s management consulting group in the Middle East.
Mr. Underwood is currently on the Board of Directors of Camotion, Inc., a company specializing in computer controlled robotics. He also serves on the Executive Committee of the Georgia Tech Alumni Association. Mr. Underwood has served on the Board of Directors of Cirrus Design, B.R. Lee Industries, Smart Document Solutions, Caribou Coffee Company, Ballistic Recovery Systems and Watermark.
Mr. Underwood holds a Bachelor of Industrial Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a MBA from Cornell University.
Mr. Underwood is an instrument rated pilot with over 1,200 hours of flight time.
Steve Serfling – Executive Vice President, Product Development
Steve Serfling served as Executive Vice President of Product Development for Cirrus Design and was responsible for oversight of R&D Engineering, Design & Certification Engineering, Sustaining Engineering, and Program Management for the SR20/SR22 and SF50 aircraft.
Mr. Serfling also held several other positions at Cirrus including Vice President of Program Management, Executive Director of Customer Service, Director of Certification and Airworthiness, and various Avionics and Electrical Engineering roles, including approval as a Designated Engineering Representative (DER) for the FAA.
Prior to Cirrus Design, Mr. Serfling was employed at Honeywell Inc. in Program Management, Application Engineering, and Customer Support Engineering roles.
Mr. Serfling attended the University of Minnesota and holds a degree in Biomedical Engineering Technology.
Adrian Norris – Board of Directors
Adrian Norris managed Farnborough Aircraft Corporation from 2008 until the sale of its business assets to Kestrel Aircraft in April 2011.
Before joining Farnborough Aircraft, Mr. Norris served as a member of the Executive Board and as Director of Projects for TNT Express, a global provider of express, logistics and mail services employing over 75,000 people worldwide with annual revenues in excess of $8.0 billion. Mr. Norris led cross-functional teams to harmonize business processes and systems in TNT’s worldwide operations. Mr. Norris was also responsible for the implementation of SAP software throughout worldwide operations.
Mr. Norris previously served as Director of Projects for TNT Express France, with responsibility for post-acquisition integration, Business Systems Manager for TNT Information Systems, and as a Project Manager at TNT’s group head office in the Netherlands.
Mr. Norris holds a Bachelor in Chemistry from the University of York, UK and a Masters in Management from the London Business School.
Mr. Norris is a pilot with qualifications for mountain flying, floatplanes and aerobatics.
Anthony Galley – Board of Directors
Anthony Galley took over responsibility for Farnborough Aircraft Corporation in 2008 following its development by his father over a six year period. Previously his career had been in the contact lens and IT industries.
Mr. Galley was a founding shareholder of Precision Lens Laboratories, a contact lens manufacturer. At Precision Lens, Mr. Galley was involved in the development of a new manufacturing process which was later licensed to a number of the leading contact lens manufacturers. He was Vice President of Manufacturing for Ocular Sciences, with responsibility for facilities in the US, Puerto Rico and the UK.
In 1990 he created Aspect Vision Care to exploit the technology created by Precision Lens Laboratories, and in 1997 sold Aspect Vision Care to CooperVision. Mr. Galley served as European Managing Director of CooperVision where he led several acquisitions and also had responsibility for the UK based manufacturing operations, employing over 1,000 people in a high precision and highly regulated manufacturing environment.
In 2002, Mr. Galley acquired Mistral Internet, a business to business Internet Service Provider. During his ownership, he grew the company at an annual rate of approximately 15%. This was through both organic growth and the acquisition and integration of 10 other companies. Mistral Internet was sold to Kingston Communications in 2007. He continues to own Global Data Vault, a provider of Backup & Disaster Recovery services based in Dallas, Texas, and has other business interests in the United Kingdom.
Mr. Galley holds a Bachelor of Computer Science from Exeter University (United Kingdom), a Masters in Computation from Oxford University and a Masters in Management from the London Business School.
