Jetrader - Summer 2018 - 5

from the president

Douglas W. Runte, CFA
ISTAT President

Dear Fellow ISTAT Members,
The first half of 2018 has been a busy
and successful period for ISTAT, with several
new milestones achieved in the period. The
society passed 5,000 members at the start
of 2018, ISTAT Americas in San Diego in
March reached a record attendance level of
2,000-plus, and attendance at ISTAT Asia
in Singapore in May hit a record attendance
level of nearly 800. To put these numbers
in perspective, ten years earlier in 2008,
total membership was 1,700, attendance at
ISTAT Americas was 1,100, and attendance
at ISTAT Asia was...well, ISTAT Asia didn't
even exist in 2008.
ISTAT Americas 2018 was a great success not only in quantity (record attendance) but quality (overwhelming positive
member feedback). Despite more than
2,000 people in attendance, the beautiful waterfront San Diego Marriott Marquis
hotel and its vast conference facilities
felt both spacious and easily navigable.

ISTAT Americas had a terrific array of
speakers - as always - and also introduced a number of extremely well-received
new features. These new features included:
The ISTAT Bistro, providing grab-and-go
meals for those running between meetings; and the ISTAT Airline Lounge, a special airline-only lounge for the exclusive
use of the airlines that are the lifeblood
of our business.
ISTAT Americas 2018 is not just one of
our three major conferences (the others
being ISTAT EMEA and ISTAT Asia); it's also
the annual meeting of the society. In that
context, we were very pleased to present
the members with a large, highly qualified
slate of candidates running for two open
seats on the ISTAT Board of Directors. We
are pleased to welcome Peter Blakeney,
Apollo Aviation Management Limited,
and (Joe) Ye Tian, Ping An International
Financial Leasing Company, to new fouryear terms on the ISTAT Board of Directors.

I look forward to seeing many of you at our
ISTAT events at the Farnborough Air Show in
July - our opening night reception on Monday
of the show as well as the ISTAT Chalet,
which is guaranteed to keep you comfortable
and very, very, very cool.

Additionally, I'd also like to welcome
Bryson Monteleone, PwC | Aviation Finance
Advisory Services, who joins the board as
chairman of the ISTAT Appraisers' Program
(IAP) Board of Governors. Finally, I'd like to
thank Tony Diaz who rolls off the board after
12 years of very active and highly valuable
service and recognize Phil Seymour, who
leaves the board at the conclusion of his
term as IAP chair.
ISTAT Americas 2018 also saw the recognition (and a bit of roasting!) of Jeff
Knittel, now of Airbus Americas, as the
ISTAT Award Winner for his accomplishments in the industry and his contributions
to ISTAT. Jeff has a long and continuing
history in the aviation industry, and his
contributions to ISTAT date back to his
inclusion in the initial group of ISTAT
Certified Appraisers. Jeff's entertaining
and informative speech was capped by
the announcement of an incredibly generous personal donation of $100,000 to
the ISTAT Foundation, which was kindly
matched with a $25,000 contribution from
Airbus. Thanks, Jeff!
ISTAT Asia returned to Singapore in May
and had record attendance for the event
by members and airlines. ISTAT Asia is
less than 10 years old and yet has already
become a fixture in the aviation industry calendar of must-attend events. I'm
still a bit jetlagged from the 20-plus hour
flight back to New York, but the event
itself was very well received by members
both longstanding and new, thanks in no
small part to a particularly memorable
reception at the beautiful Clifford Pier
(see photo above).
I look forward to seeing many of you
at our ISTAT events at the Farnborough
Air Show in July - our opening night
reception on Monday of the show as well
as the ISTAT Chalet, which is guaranteed
to keep you comfortable and very, very,
very cool.
Regards,

Jetrader * Summer 2018 5

Jetrader - Summer 2018

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