Tue, Jul 13, 2004
Conklin & De Decker Founder Retires After 62 Years In
Aviation
Conklin & de Decker founder Alan H Conklin, announced his
retirement from the company, effective June 30th, 2004. Alan will
become "President Emeritus" and will work on special projects and
serve in an advisory role.
Alan and his wife, Martha Conklin, founded Al
Conklin & Associates 20 years ago, in 1984. In 1989, the
Conklins partnered with Bill de Decker and the company became
Conklin & de Decker Associates in 1993. Alan and Bill first met
in 1970 while working at Dassault FalconJet. In 1971 the two of
them collaborated on business aviation’s first true relative
cost database, the forerunner of the Aircraft Cost Evaluator. Back
then, there were eight business aircraft in that edition.
Today’s Aircraft Cost Evaluator has over 390 fixed and rotary
wing models.
Al’s service to aviation began in 1942 as a pilot in the US
Army Air Corps. Since then, Al Conklin has held management and
aircraft sales positions with many of the aviation industry’s
leading sales, service and manufacturing companies including
Atlantic Aviation, Aero Commander, Beechcraft, Cessna, Sabreliner
and Dassault FalconJet. Al Conklin is the co-author (with Bill de
Decker) of "Aircraft Acquisition Planning." Al recently published
his memoirs, "God Is My Instructor Pilot."
Today, company ownership is split between Bill de Decker, Brandon
Battles, David Wyndham and Nel Sanders-Stubbs. The company focuses
on fixed and rotary - wing aircraft operating cost, performance and
specification databases, maintenance management software, financial
management, fleet planning, market research, aviation tax issues,
and financial, tax and management seminars. Conklin & de Decker
also consults with numerous individuals, corporations and
government agencies worldwide.
The essence of Al Conklin’s contribution to aviation lies not
in his accomplishments in the military or in aircraft sales, but in
his unique contribution to business aviation. Prior to Al Conklin,
business aviation was struggling to prove itself as a business tool
and not a "perk." Al Conklin not only recognized this, he developed
and refined a set of impartial operating cost numbers that, today,
set the standard in business aviation. Al Conklin showed in the
cold analysis of finance that business aircraft were a valuable
resource.
He acknowledged the questions of the CFO, conceptualized the data,
organized it, developed the format and communicated its existence.
The benefits to business aviation are obvious. Conklin & de
Decker’s "cost numbers" make the acquisition, operating and
selling of aircraft a more intelligent, more informed and more
efficient activity that puts all the cards on the table in an
impartial manner.
What Al Conklin has done for business aviation is to make the
financial case that the term "business aircraft" is not an
oxymoron.
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