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JOE CLARK
Mr. Clark’s aviation career began in the early 1960's, and in 1966 he founded Jet Air, the first Learjet dealership in the Northwest. His career in aviation grew quickly with marketing and sales assignments for Gates Learjet and The Raisbeck Group. In 1981, Mr. Clark teamed up with Milt Kuolt to form Horizon Air, a highly successful regional carrier that was later sold to Alaska Airlines. In 1986, he founded Avstar, Inc. and established a world wide sales system to market ex-military jet training aircraft to American companies and private individuals. In 1989, Mr. Clark founded Aviation Partners, Inc. to develop a revolutionary blended winglet system for the Gulfstream II – today, over 70% of the GII fleet wears blended winglets. During the 1999 Paris Air Show, Mr. Clark signed a joint agreement with The Boeing Company providing the opportunity to retrofit any and all of the 10,200 Boeing aircraft in the field. Additionally, one thousand Boeing NG / Classic aircraft, representing forty airlines worldwide, are equipped with blended winglets. Finally, Mr. Clark pursued the design, development and certification of blended winglets for the Hawker 800 series aircraft. Mr. Clark was named 2004 Entrepreneur of the Year by Aviation & Business Journal Magazine. |