Cessna Changes At The Top

Cessna Aircraft Company's Chairman and Chief Executive Officer, Russ Meyer, has announced the company's transition of leadership to Charlie Johnson, effective immediately. Johnson will have full operations responsibility for Cessna and will report directly to Textron Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Steve Loranger.

"For more than 20 years, Charlie has been a major contributor to the success of our company.  His vast knowledge of the aviation industry, Cessna products, and a total commitment to customers, makes Charlie the perfect choice to continue building on Cessna's tradition of producing the finest aircraft with the best customer service in the industry. Under his leadership, I am confident we will emerge from the current economic uncertainty with new and improved products ready to serve a growing aviation market," said Cessna Chairman and CEO Russ Meyer.

From The Ground Up

Johnson originally joined Cessna in 1979 as manager of production flight test. He served in a variety of positions in quality control and product support before being named Vice President, Aircraft Completion and Product Support in 1988. He was promoted to Senior Vice President, Operations in 1993, Executive Vice President of Operations in 1995, and was named President and Chief Operating Officer in 1997. Johnson began his aviation career after completing U.S. Air Force pilot training in 1968. He accumulated over 1,000 hours of military flight time in the F-105, serving in combat in Southeast Asia. He holds Airline Transport and Instructor Pilot Certificates with type ratings in all Citation models and has logged over 14,000 hours of commercial flight time. Johnson is a member of the Kansas Business Roundtable, Wichita Metro YMCA Board of Directors, and is President of the Kansas Technical Training Initiative Board of Directors.

Charlie and his wife, Gayle, live in Andover, Kansas, and have two grown daughters.

FMI: www.cessna.com