Jetrader - Summer 2018 - 45

the industry primarily focused on aircraftbacked debt plus some aircraft equity interests, so my perspective was that I could
contribute by letting appraisers know what
investors wanted. I was fortunate to have
served on the IBG for two terms before
becoming executive director."
Monteleone and Straebler are quick
to point out that Jeff's status as a nonappraiser is a benefit to the program.
"Clearly, as a non-appraiser, I'm going to
have opinions or ideas that are more from a
consumer's perspective, so that should add
value to the program," Straebler stated.
Straebler' role, however, isn't to be a counterweight to the chair; he reports directly
to Monteleone and serves to implement the
vision of the IBG. "Jeff is essentially the
chief of staff," Monteleone added. "He's
running the trains."
In addition to the establishment of the
executive director position, the IBG was
recently expanded to include a vice chair
(Olga Razzhivina) and a secretary (Stuart
Rubin) who, together with the chair, form
a newly created executive committee. So,
while having an executive director allows
the chair to focus on the big picture
and less on the day-to-day details, the
executive committee allows these three
senior appraisers to bounce ideas off of
one another and to share the workload
on strategic issues. Also, as Monteleone
put it, should the chair "get hit by a bus,"
there are people in line who can step into
that role and provide seamless leadership.
"The ability for me to delegate to Jeff
day in and day out is great," Monteleone
said, "but when it comes to the leadership
side of things, that's not Jeff's job. As he
has aptly said, his job is to make the vision
happen, but having an executive committee is critical to the future success of our
program. The IAP has grown substantially
in the last ten years, but resources did
not. In the past, there was an unintended
bottleneck at the top with only a chair
and a part-time administrative director.
Expanding the executive team and having
a dedicated full-time resource administering the IAP should alleviate that issue."
In addition to the executive committee,
the ISTAT Board recently authorized the
following standing committees to provide

Current ISTAT Appraisers' Program Leadership
Chairman
Bryson Monteleone
Senior External Consultant, PwC |
Aviation Finance Advisory Services

Secretary
Stuart Rubin
Principal
ICF International

Vice Chair
Olga Razzhavinia
Director
Oriel

Executive Director
Jeff Straebler
ISTAT

another layer of accountability: education
and training, program outreach and external
relations, and examinations and testing.
These committees have now been staffed
by IBG non-appraiser members and appraiser
volunteers with each currently focused on
generating ideas under its area of responsibility to further enhance the IAP.

What's Next?
With new and expanded leadership comes
the opportunity to truly enhance the IAP
and allow it to better serve ISTAT members
and the industry at large. One initiative
on the IAP's agenda is the development of
more robust and frequent continuing education programs, which includes eventually
adding continuing education sessions at
ISTAT Asia and the ISTAT Latin America
Forum. The IBG is working on arranging
off-site education opportunities at aviation-focused institutions of higher education, MRO and part-out shops and freighter
conversion facilities. These would be in
addition to the usual appraiser updates
hosted by OEMs throughout the year.
"In the past 10 years, ISTAT has focused
heavily on the "international" part of its
name, and we're following suit," Monteleone
said. "We recently held our third Asianlocated Appraising 101 session at ISTAT
Asia, and I'd like to offer that soon in
Latin America, as well, although growth
takes time, commitment and resources.
But we get nothing but support from the
ISTAT Board of Directors. I can't emphasize
enough that at every board meeting they're
saying 'We're here. Let us know how we
can help.'"
Beyond expanded continuing education,
Monteleone and Straebler both described

their long-term to-do lists for IAP growth
as including the following items:
* Broadening the program's membership
internationally
* Further educating ISTAT membership on
the IAP
* Regularly engaging with consumers of
appraisal services at the program level
to better understand their needs and
convey them to IAP members
* Offering appraiser certification exams
in Asia - not just in the United States
and Europe
* Continuing to revamp and improve the
current appraiser exams
* Revising the Appraisers' Handbook
as well as the Principles of Appraisal
Practice and Code of Ethics
* Implementing an online tutorial for
potential appraiser candidates
While Monteleone and Straebler both
acknowledge that there is a lot of work
to be done, both are excited by the IAP's
growth thus far and its long-term potential
to serve the industry and ISTAT members.
"We owe it to ourselves, to our clients
and to ISTAT to be educated and informed
by the OEMs, the banks, the leasing companies and everybody in between to be a
valuable, vital part of the aircraft finance
industry," Monteleone said. "We have to
be more open in our relationships with the
greater community at large. We want to have
a continuing dialogue with the industry, and
we want to make sure that we're accountable
to the industry and to ISTAT members. So
please come and talk to us. And once you
learn what we do, you can hold our feet to
the fire, as you should, and we can all make
sure that we're continuing to be responsible
stakeholders in this community."
Jetrader * Summer 2018 45
Jetrader - Summer 2018

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