Kenn Ricci

Aviation entrepreneur Kenneth C. "Kenn" Ricci is the principal of Directional Aviation Capital, which owns or invests in various aviation enterprises including Flight Options and Flexjet, which he also serves as chairman. Ricci also is an operating partner at Resilience Capital Partners, a private equity firm with a wide variety of portfolio companies, including an investment in Flight Options, and has helped found or lead other companies, including Nextant Aerospace and Constant Aviation.

In 1981, Ricci began his entrepreneurial career by founding Corporate Wings, an aircraft management and charter operation company providing charter flight service to corporate clients. The company grew rapidly, with annual revenues increasing from $300,000 to approximately $3.4 million between 1981 and 1985, they still remain the industry leader. The firm was named to the Inc. 500 list of America's fastest-growing companies, among other honors.

Over time, Ricci expanded Corporate Wings into a diversified service-oriented transportation firm that provided other aviation support services; including aircraft maintenance, fueling and storage, and other aspects of aircraft operations.

In 2005, Corporate Wings acquired a stake in Mercury Air Centers, a company operating aircraft support facilities at airports around the U.S. As chief executive officer, Ricci realigned its operating divisions, deployed $245 million of invested capital and eventually sold the company to the Macquarie Infrastructure Trust in 2007. The deal was valued at $615 million.

Ricci founded Cleveland, Ohio-based Flight Options in 1998 in an effort to develop a nationwide fractional jet services ownership program. Flight Options enjoyed significant early success, with its annual revenues growing from $35 million to $300 million in 17 months of operations. In December 2001, the company combined operations with Raytheon Travel Air, a subsidiary of Raytheon Company, doubling the company's size.

Ricci left the company in 2003, but then re-purchased a stake in Flight Options in April 2008 and rejoined the company as chairman that summer. In March 2009, Directional Aviation Capital, an investment firm led by Ricci, and private equity firm Resilience Capital Partners, acquired an interest in Flight Options.

Like other companies in the private jet market, Flight Options saw its business diminish during the recession of 2008. However, the firm has recovered rapidly since then. Flight Options currently provides a suite of fractional jet services, membership and 25-hour jet card programs for personal travel by individuals using a full line of previously owned aircraft from a diverse range of manufacturers.

In September 2013, Ricci announced that Directional Aviation would acquire Flexjet, a leading provider of fractional, jet card and charter services, from Bombardier Aerospace, the world’s largest business aviation manufacturer, in exchange for a $185 million cash payment.

Ricci also announced substantial investments in Flexjet’s fleet during 2013, placing orders with Bombardier that, with options, could total $5.6 billion in new aircraft.In 2014, Flexjet further expanded its fleet, moving beyond its former exclusive commitment to Bombardier-manufactured planes to add the Embraer Phenom 300 under an existing contract between Directional Aviation and Embraer. It also placed orders for up to 50 long-range aircraft from Gulfstream. In total, Flexjet has confirmed orders for 207 new planes with options that could total up to 445 aircraft.

Also during 2014, Flexjet prepared to exit the charter market. As part of the first consolidation of its aviation companies, Directional Aviation combined the charter brokerage operations of its Flexjet, Flight Options and Sentient Jet companies under the Skyjet brand name, which it had acquired from Bombardier as part of the Flexjet transaction. Skyjet would concentrate solely on charter services, with Flight Options, Flexjet and Sentient Jet continuing to offer fractional and membership programs.

In November 2015, Flexjet announced that it had placed a firm order valued at $2.4 billion for 20 Aerion AS2 supersonic jets, with delivery to begin in 2023.

Ricci also has founded or been involved with the management of several other companies, including Nextant Aerospace, which he serves as chief executive officer. Founded in 2007, Nextant is the first company to introduce the concept of aircraft remanufacturing to the business jet market with its Nextant 400XT, a remanufactured Beechjet 400A/XP equipped with the Williams FJ44-3AP engines and Rockwell Collins Pro Line 21™ integrated avionics suite. More recently, Nextant has developed the Nextant G90XT, which applied the same principles of remanufacturing to the turboprop market.

An alumnus of the University of Notre Dame and the Cleveland–Marshall College of Law, Ricci had a long career as a type-rated pilot in Gulfstream, Falcon and Citation jets that included serving as personal pilot to President Bill Clinton during his first race for president.

Ricci also has been recognized for his writings in management philosophy, which center around the principles of treating employees in an open and trusting manner. "Management by Trust," a distillation of his philosophy, is a widely read management primer.

He has served on a number of boards, including those of the University of Notre Dame’s Board of Trustees; Business Advisory Council of the University of Notre Dame; University Hospitals; the Arizona Cystic Fibrosis Foundation; the Rainbow National Leadership Council; Gilmour Academy; and the Stonebriar Commercial Finance board. He is also an active member of the Young Presidents' Organization.

Ricci has received many awards, including an Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award and four NEO Success Awards for business growth. He also has been named one of the most influential people in aviation by Aviation International News. In 2010, Ricci received the Harvard Business School's Dively Entrepreneurship Award. In 2012, he was the recipient of the William A. Ong Memorial Award from the National Air Transportation Association, awarded for his extraordinary achievement and extended meritorious service to the general aviation industry. In 2015, Corporate Jet Investor ranked Ricci as no. 1 on its Power List 2015and Nextant was selected as Aviation Week’s 2015 winner of the Laureate for Business Aviation for introducing new technology to business aviation.