Avionics News January 2012 - 72

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West Star Aviation
Ken Rice
WEST STAR AVIATION

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Universal Avionics
DAN REIDA, vice president of marketing and product support for UNIVERSAL AVIONICS, announced MICHELLE JAMES has accepted the newly created position of director of marketing and communications. In this new role, James’ responsibilities include oversight of and responsibility for Michelle James all of Universal Avionics’ advertising and campaigns, as well as exhibit and convention activities. “James has done an excellent job of defining our marketing strategies and seeing them through to execution,” said Reida. “With our expansion of the department, she was the obvious choice for leading these efforts.” In July 2000, James began her career with Universal Avionics as document control specialist at the company headquarters located in Tucson, Ariz. In 2001, she transferred to the technical publications department as junior technical writer and was promoted to technical writer in 2002, and senior writer thereafter. James was then promoted to her most recent position of relationship marketing manager for Universal Avionics’ marketing division in 2008. For more information, contact Universal Avionics at 520-295-2300 or visit www.uasc.com. q

T.J. Jaeger

Jason Blust

announced three personnel changes at its Grand Junction location. KEN RICE, T.J. JAEGER and JASON BLUST have all been promoted from their current positions within the West Star organization. Rice, who previously held the position of Gulfstream/Learjet program manager, has been promoted to director of maintenance. In this new position, he will oversee all mainte-

nance operations at the facility. Jaeger has been promoted to Gulfstream/Learjet program manager. He will supervise all Gulfstream and Learjet specific maintenance projects. Blust has taken over the position of Learjet team leader. In this new position, he will lead maintenance projects on all Learjet aircraft. For more information, contact West Star Aviation at 800-922-2421 or visit www.weststaraviation.com. q

Astronics Corp.
ASTRONICS CORP., based

in East Aurora, N.Y., paid $24 million to acquire privately held Ballard Technology, an Everett, Wash.,-based manufacturer of avionics interface systems for defense and commercial aerospace applications. An additional purchase consideration of up to $5.5 million may be paid by Astronics if Ballard achieves certain revenue growth targets in each of the next five years, according to Astronics.

Founded in 1986, Ballard is projecting 2011 annual revenue of about $11 million, achieving a compound annual growth rate during the previous three years of more than 20 percent. The company’s product line includes commercial off-the-shelf avionics databus interfaces and embedded computers. For more information, contact Astronics at 716-805-1599 or visit www.astronics.com. q

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http://www.weststaraviation.com http://www.astronics.com http://www.uasc.com

Avionics News January 2012

Table of Contents for the Digital Edition of Avionics News January 2012