Mr. Mitchell joined Essex Aviation Group (“EAG”) in 2014 and brings nearly forty (40) years of business aircraft experience to the EAG team. Tom’s past aviation experience has been in aviation consulting, aircraft operations, senior management roles, aircraft management, asset analysis and a variety of significant aviation industry related projects.
For nearly twenty years, Tom held positions with Jet Aviation including Senior Vice President and was a member of the Board of Directors. His responsibilities and leadership included direct accountability for the company’s four U.S. based facilities including Jet Aviation’s FAR Part 145 Repair Stations at Teterboro NJ, Bedford MA, West Palm Beach FL and Dallas TX, which provided aircraft support of heavy maintenance, paint, interior, avionics and structural engineering for various mid-size and large-cabin size business aircraft.
Tom then served as a department manager for a Fortune 500 company. His responsibilities involved implementing and monitoring operating budgets and managing the technical activities of the companies five (5) large-cabin, long-range business aircraft. He managed new aircraft completions by way of project oversight, negotiating of contracts, monitoring vendor performance and the final delivery. Tom also introduced a series of risk management programs and co-authored the development of the “Safety Management System”.
During earlier years, Tom served as a Director of Maintenance for FAR Part 135 charter providers operating business aircraft and helicopters, has hands-on aircraft maintenance experience and designed and built an authorized turbine engine repair facility performing major repairs on Pratt and Whitney, Lycoming turbine and General Electric engines.
Tom is an FAA licensed Aviation Maintenance Technician and holds an FAA Inspectors Authorization. He has attended Harvard Business School’s Executive Education Program for Senior Executives, American Management Corporation’s Marketing and Accounting Principles, ARGUS’ Safety Management Systems course, Flight Safety International’s Cockpit Resource Management and various training focusing on aviation and safety management. During his career Tom also received formal training on Cessna, Bombardier, Dassault, General Electric, Gulfstream, Rolls Royce, Honeywell and Pratt & Whitney products. Tom’s management, operational and technical experience combined with his varied business achievements provide his clients a unique perspective and approach to the variety of challenges encountered today in business aviation.