Team Airship Ventures
Principals
Key Personnel
Consultants
Advisors
President Brian Hall
Brian is the Founder and CEO of Mark/Space, a 17 year old software company based in silicon valley. He has a passionate interest in space, aviation and airships in particular and after flying on the Zeppelin NT07 in Germany, decided that this was the perfect vehicle for operations in the USA. Brian is responsible for the overall strategic direction of Airship Ventures, and is particularly excited about the future potential for airship technology. He is experienced in start ups, branding and brand development and has expertise in major on-line retail and promotion.
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CEO Alexandra Hall
Alex is a former visitor attraction/science center CEO which gives her a background in business, management, fundraising and most importantly, understanding what your audiences want and delivering it with exceptional customer service. Her previous roles have given her a large network of contacts in local, state and federal agencies, as well as within aerospace and aviation and the skills to navigate business meetings, social gatherings and extensive red tape! Her academic background is in astrophysics and as a former TV host for the BBC and author, she has an in depth grasp of communications. Alex spent six years articulating the vision for, and delivering the National Space Center, the UK's national visitor attraction based on space and astronomy. She relocated to California to take on the lead role at Chabot Space and Science Center in the Oakland hills and recently stepped down from that post to pursue this opportunity. She continues to remain involved in the visitor attraction community as a board member at Hiller Aviation Museum.
She is very excited to be directing her talents and energies towards bringing the NT07 to the USA.
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Interim CFO Lynn Roulo, CPA
Ms. Roulo has fifteen years of professional experience in accounting, finance, and operations. Her experience is varied and includes four years in venture capital, six years consulting to high technology and healthcare companies, three years in private industry, and two years in public accounting. Currently, Ms. Roulo manages her own consulting practice offering financial and accounting services to high technology and healthcare companies. Clients range from multi million dollar companies to early stage startups. Prior to her consulting practice, Ms. Roulo was the CFO for Parker Price Venture Capital, a San Francisco based venture capital firm. In that role, she participated in all aspects of the investment cycle, including sourcing new deals, participating in due diligence, and participating in the management of portfolio companies. Prior to her consulting practice and her experience in venture capital, Ms. Roulo was the Director of Finance and Administration for a software company in New England. Ms. Roulo is a Certified Public Accountant in the state of California.
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J. Scott Danneker, Airship Consultant and Zeppelin Pilot
Scott has twenty two years experience as an airship pilot and possesses licenses
issued by the FAA, the LBA in Germany, the CAA in Great Britain, and the JCAB in
Japan. His experience includes commercial and passenger operations, airship
flight training and developmental and certification flight testing.
In 1996, Scott was employed by Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik, GmbH as chief test
pilot. In this capacity, he introduced new operational techniques and procedures
necessary to maximize the effectiveness of the airship's unique thrust vector
steering arrangement. In September 1997, he was pilot of the prototype
Zeppelin-NT on its first test flight. He has flown passenger operations in
Friedrichshafen, participated calibration tests of the DLR
"Galileo" global navigation system in
Munich, and demonstrated the capabilities of the NT at the 2001 Paris Air show.
Scott maintains a close relationship with Zeppelin that continues to this day,
most recently serving as a member of the Zeppelin/DeBeers survey team in
Jwaneng, Botswana.
Scott has acted as a Captain on passenger operations in Oakland, California,
Cardington, England and Elizabeth City, NC and as Pilot in Charge and Operations
Manager of the Carling O'Keefe passenger
operation in Toronto, Canada. Additionally, he has served as the Captain
of the Fuji Blimp, and as Pilot in Charge
of the Konica Airship in Germany and the
Pepsi Blimp in the USA. More recently he
was chosen to act as Director of Operations of the
Ameriquest "Soaring Dreams" Airships
Freedom and
Liberty.
As an airship instructor, he oversaw the day-by-day activities of the Airship
Industries USA, Inc. pilot training department and has been designated by the
FAA and LBA as a pilot examiner.
In 1990, he was selected by Westinghouse to act as a test pilot on the
Sentinel 1000 certification and
development program. In that role, he participated as test pilot during
the FAA certification process, as well as special programs including underway
replenishment at sea, over the horizon communications using the airship itself
as the link, passive airborne radar demonstrations, long endurance operations
and automated ground handling techniques utilizing specialized vehicles and
experimental airship propulsion systems.
In 2003, Scott was awarded the American
Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics (AIAA,)
Lighter-Than-Air
Lifetime Achievement Award.
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Facilities Consultant Captain Dwayne A Oslund USN (Retired)
Dwayne Oslund joined the Airship Ventures team in April 2007 and is presently providing services related to integrating the airship operations, maintenance and facility requirements at a home base and at remote sites. In that regard, he is assisting with the preparation and negotiation of leases and other agreements for the administrative, hangar and ramp space needed to support all aspects of Airship Ventures' operations, and coordinating with the FAA to secure certification for airship operations in the Bay Area.
Prior to joining Airship Ventures, Dwayne gained significant experience as a senior-level manager and project manager. He served as Associate Executive Director and Finance Director at a science center, and as Facilities and Leasing Manager for the Oakland Base Reuse Authority responsible for developing and implementing the Interim Leasing Program at the former Oakland Army Base.
Dwayne is a retired U.S. Navy Captain and helicopter pilot. His Navy assignments included Chief of Staff to the Commander Naval Base San Francisco, commissioning crewmember for a new amphibious assault ship, a tour in Washington, DC, developing promotion plans and policies for the Navy's 72,000 officers, and commanding officer of a primary flight training squadron.
In August 1990, Dwayne led the first contingent of Navy personnel to Riyadh, Saudi Arabia, following Iraq's invasion of Kuwait. During Operation Desert Storm, he was in charge of 32 aircraft providing Navy air logistics services and operating from 6 remote bases in the Persian Gulf and Red Sea.
Since 1994, Dwayne has volunteered his time as the Vice Chair of the San Francisco Fleet Week Committee, where he oversees the annual production of an air show featuring the Navy's Blue Angels that is witnessed by over 1,000,000 spectators on and around the San Francisco Bay. He also coordinates numerous events and activities featuring the port visit by as many as 10 Navy, Coast Guard and international ships and over 10,000 crew members.
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CXO Communication
CXO Communication is a strategic communication consultancy that works with companies to align their brand with their business strategy. Our clients are corporate executives and marketing leaders who are focused on taking their organizations to the next level – expanding into new markets, reaching new customers, launching new products – and need to build and execute a brand strategy to achieve their business goals. We help these companies articulate what they do and why it matters, and communicate that story to their most critical audiences for maximum impact.
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Morrison and Foerster LLP
Great client service requires insight, expertise, responsiveness, proactivity, and integrity. We strive to understand each client's business, industry, and goals. We assemble the optimal team of resources from across the firm to tackle our clients' legal challenges. When we achieve a successful IPO, trial victory, or satisfying resolution of a pro bono matter, we build lasting relationships with clients by delivering results.
Partner in Morrison and Foerster LLP's San Francisco office, Robert S. Townsend, represents Airship Ventures, Inc. in the area of corporate practice.
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Pillsbury Law
Pillsbury Winthrop Shaw Pittman has one of the oldest and broadest aviation practices, covering the entire radar screen in the field of aviation law. With decades of experience, they can advise on complex accident investigations and litigation, regulatory and enforcement matters, finance and insurance matters, securities offerings, financial restructuring, bond counsel, international trade and licensing, or tax policies. With lawyers in Washington, DC, Houston, New York, London, Los Angeles, San Francisco, and Tokyo linked by advanced communications technology, they can offer comprehensive services to the international aviation industry.
They regularly represent clients on all continents. Among their clients are many of the world's largest aerospace companies, including aircraft, engine, and component manufacturers; top cities and airports; major air carriers; new entrants; charter operators; cargo carriers; foreign air carriers; large repair stations; international banks; the largest computer reservations systems and internet travel distributor; and leasing companies and brokers. They act as general counsel to established U.S. and international airlines and to newer carriers in Eastern Europe, South America and Asia, and handle specific assignments from spare parts consignment agreements to litigation.
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Seigel Inocencio
Seigel Inocencio is a Bay Area based interface design partnership with over a decade's experience working with some of the best startups and established companies out there: Apple, Good, Handspring, Hyundai, IBM, Intuit, PalmSource, Sun and TIBCO to name a few. On a broad range and style of application design projects: "get-it-done-now" and long term future research, consumer apps, corporate apps (desktop & internet), internal apps, assorted PDAs, devices and appliances.
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Townsend Public Affairs
Townsend Public Affairs, Inc. (TPA) is an intergovernmental advocacy and consulting firm specializing in transforming legacy projects from dreams into realities. By providing integrated local, state, and federal advocacy for governmental agencies, non-profit organizations, and a select group of private sector clients, TPA lives up to its motto of "doing well by doing good." TPA maintains offices in Sacramento across the street from the State Capitol and covering the Central Valley, in Orange County covering Southern California, in Oakland covering the Bay Area, and maintains on-going partnerships with offices in both Sacramento and Washington, DC. Founded in 1998, TPA has grown to be one of the top 15 advocacy firms in the state.
TPA is working with Airship Ventures to build strong ties to local governments throughout the Bay Area and explore ways that Airship Ventures can develop a successful public-private partnership working with the Bay Area state and federal delegation.
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Carl A. Albert
Mr Albert is providing advice to Airship Ventures on aviation, investment and operational issues.
Since April 2000, Mr. Albert has served as the chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Fairchild Venture Capital Corporation, a private investment firm. From September 1990 to April 2000, Mr. Albert was the majority owner, chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Fairchild Aerospace Corporation and Fairchild Dornier Corporation, and Chairman of the Supervisory Board of Dornier Luftfahrt, GmbH, all aircraft manufacturing companies. From 1989 to 1990, Mr. Albert was a private investor. After providing start up venture capital, Mr. Albert served from 1981 to 1988 as chairman of the board and chief executive officer of Wings West Airlines, a California based regional airline that completed an initial public offering in 1983 and was acquired by AMR Corporation, parent of American Airlines, in 1988. Following the acquisition Mr. Albert served as President until 1989. Prior to this, Mr. Albert was an attorney, specializing in business, real estate and corporate law. Mr. Albert received a B.A. from the University of California at Los Angeles and an L.L.B. from the University of California at Los Angeles School of Law.
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Esther Dyson
Esther Dyson is a long-time catalyst of start-ups in information technology in the US and other markets, including Russia. Since selling her company EDventure Holdings to CNET Networks in 2004, she has taken on newer challenges in private aviation and space as well as in health care (as a director of 23andMe, a consumer genetics company). Her IT investments have included Flickr and del.icio.us (both sold to Yahoo!), and Medstory (sold to Microsoft), as well as Meetup Inc., Eventful.com, Boxbe and Voxiva; she sits on the boards of the latter four companies. Dyson is also an active investor in air and space, with holdings in Space Adventures and Zero-G Corporation, as well as XCOR Aerospace, Constellation Services International, Coastal Technologies Group, Airship Ventures and Icon Aircraft. She does business under the (reclaimed) name of EDventure Holdings.
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Michael Schieschke, COO, Zeppelin
Zeppelin Luftschifftechnik are providing advice and support to Airship Ventures in all aspects of the operations of the NT07 airship. They are also sharing their experiences of providing a tourist "flightseeing" service as well as using the airship for scientific research and media purposes.
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