New leadership at AOPA

He succeeds Mark Baker, who retired after leading AOPA for more than 11 years. Pleasance’s aviation and business background make him the ideal next chief executive for the association. His passion for aviation started after moving from Boston to Livermore, California, at age 13. After discovering model airplanes, he became interested in full-scale aircraft while in the Scouts, seeking to earn an aviation merit badge. His scout leader was a flight instructor, who noticed Pleasance’s interest in airplanes and gave him his first flight lesson in a Cessna 172 at Livermore Municipal Airport (LVK). Pleasance completed his first solo flight on his sixteenth birthday in a Cessna 150. He earned his private pilot certificate at age 17, his instrument rating and commercial certificate at age 18, and shortly thereafter his flight instructor certificate. After a few months teaching primary students, Pleasance pursued his instrument instructor and multiengine instructor ratings. By age 19, he had earned all his ratings.

Pleasance initially intended to be an airline pilot, until a chance opportunity to fly second in command in actor John Travolta’s Hawker jet led him down a different path. He spent a season flying bush airplanes in Alaska before returning to California to fly corporate jets for a private equity firm. He earned his MBA at the UCLA Anderson School of Management, and joined consulting firm McKinsey & Co, “which allowed me to work with some of the biggest companies in the world on some of the most challenging issues that they contend with,” he said. Pleasance next led global customer acquisitions for Google before joining Cisco, ultimately leading Cisco’s Acceleration Center, formed to accelerate the success of Cisco’s business transformation.

Pleasance enjoys the camaraderie of ownership as much as the airplanes themselves. While he owns more than one airplane, “I have partners in all of them,” he said. “I’ve discovered that I can only fly one at a time. And it’s good for airplanes to fly. I’ve been intentional about having at least one, sometimes a couple of partners.”

Pleasance sees GA—and AOPA—as central to the futures of aspiring air ambulance pilots, aerial firefighters, bush pilots, and airline pilots since most of these pilots are trained at local airports. “I’d love to have AOPA playing an even bigger role in helping more individuals out there see the breadth of opportunities that exist in aviation.”

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