Aviation Business Journal 1st Quarter 2013 - 11

Key Leadership Staff Changes for
NATA in the New Year
NATA Welcomes Jim Coon as Executive Vice President,
Promotes Amy Koranda to Vice President
by Colin Bane

n November 2012, NATA
announced two key leadership team changes following
Tom Hendricks’ arrival in
September as the association’s new
President.
The association promoted
Amy Koranda,
NATA’s longtime Director
of Safety &
Training,
to Vice President, and Jim Coon,
previously Chief of Staff for the
U.S. House of Representatives
Committee on Transportation
and Infrastructure, joins NATA as
Executive Vice President, bringing
nearly three decades of experience
on Capitol Hill and in the private
sector to the association.
Aviation Business Journal
caught up with both Koranda and
Coon to help introduce them and
their new roles to NATA members. Upcoming opportunities to
meet and interact in person with
Hendricks, Koranda, and Coon
include: the 2013 Air Charter Safety
Symposium in Ashburn, Virginia,
February 26-27 and NATA’s 2013
Spring Training Week in Las Vegas,
Nevada, March 11-14.
Aviation Business Journal | 1st Quarter 2013

ABJ: Amy, before we get into what your new role at NATA will entail, I want to
ask about how you got into the aviation business in the first place. What was
the initial spark that attracted you to aviation?
Amy Koranda: I have always loved aviation for as far back as I can remember,
and I actually learned to fly before I learned to drive! One day, my father offered
flying lessons to my brother, and I looked at him and said, “Why not me?” So, I
guess I would have to attribute some of it to good old-fashioned sibling rivalry. All
my friends were focused on getting their driver’s licenses at the time, but I had my
eye on the sky. I remember, when I turned 16, I got my driver’s license specifically
so I could drive myself to the airport instead of having my nervous mother hanging
around while I soloed!

That is as perfect as any superhero’s origin story!
I guess so – I just look at it as the beginning of my passion with the aviation
industry. When I went off to college, I started at this little liberal arts college and
pretty quickly realized it was not for me. I talked to a terrific advisor at the college
and she said, “Well, what do you like to do?” I told her I loved to fly, and she was
the first to suggest that I look at something aviation oriented. The more I thought
about it, the more I thought, “She’s right!” So, I quit that school and went to flight
school to become a flight instructor. Getting a job as a 19-year-old female flight
instructor turned out to be harder than I had anticipated, so I went on to the
Florida Institute of Technology and got a four-year business degree, a Bachelor of
Science degree in Air Commerce and Transportation Technology.

What was your first gig in the industry?
My first job after graduation was at AOPA, the Aircraft Owners and Pilots
Association, where I was assistant manager of the flight planning department,
planning flights all over the world for corporate pilots. When I left there, I started
my own business, working with another person I had worked with at AOPA who
also started a flight planning business. We worked together, and for 10 years I
was the Washington representative, helping to expedite passports, visas, and
landing facility licenses for corporate pilots. At the same time, I also consulted with
the National Association of State Aviation Officials, working in their Center for
Aviation Research and Education (NASAO CARE) on their airports program.
Continued on page 12

Aviation Business Journal 1st Quarter 2013

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