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Tradewind Aviation Appoints Andreas Ponce de León as Chief Operating Officer

Direct News Source

20-Sep-2016 Tradewind Aviation has announced the appointment of Andreas Ponce de León as Chief Operating Officer. A widely experienced operations executive stepping into his first role in the aviation industry, Ponce de León is focused on further strengthening the independent airline's already strong operational foundation. As COO, he will have a broad remit and will initially focus on a wide series of enhancements to the business including financial systems improvements, strengthening of technology, operational efficiencies, and further developing processes in human resources, accounting, and marketing.

Ponce de León arrived at an expansive time for Tradewind Aviation. Over the past year, the airline introduced new shuttle routes from Westchester County Airport to Boston, Massachusetts, and Stowe, Vermont, as well as increased availability and access for their popular summer routes to Nantucket and Martha's Vineyard. To meet the growing demand on new and established routes, Tradewind Aviation also grew its fleet with four new Pilatus PC-12 passenger aircraft. With the additions, Tradewind Aviation now has 16 Pilatus aircrafts - the second largest civilian Pilatus fleet in North America.

"Tradewind Aviation has grown over 30% year-over-year since 2006, always maintaining our 97 percent customer retention rate," said Tradewind Aviation Co-Founder and President Eric Zipkin. "With our new routes, expanding fleet and additional developments on the horizon, Andreas' impressive operational experience will be a huge asset as we continue to expand while upholding our commitment to customer service. We're excited to welcome Andreas to the team where he'll be an integral asset during this important time of development."

Ponce de León arrived at Tradewind Aviation with 21 years of leadership experience in the financial services industry. For the past 10 years, he held Director-level positions in Operations and Risk Management at Citigroup, including Global Head of Risk and Quality for Anti Money Laundering Operations, Director of Fraud and Loss Mitigation, and Director of Credit Risk and Financial Forecasting for the Consumer Cards Business. During his over four year tenure as Global Head of Risk and Quality, Ponce de León transformed Citigroup's approach to process controls and quality assessment for a mission critical function with operations in 22 countries serving all core product segments across the firm. Prior to Citigroup, Ponce de León held leadership roles in Operations, Analytics and Risk Management at startup and established companies including Intellirisk, JP Morgan Chase, NewPower, NextCard, and BankOne/First USA.

A native of Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, Ponce de León earned a masters degree in technology management and bachelor's degrees in economics and in computer science from the prestigious Management & Technology Program at University of Pennsylvania.