EAA Presidents: (L/R) Incoming president, Rod Hightower; EAA founder and first president, Paul Poberezny; chairman and outgoing president, Tom Poberezny. Photo by Jim Koepnick / EAA.
Longtime pilot/EAA member becomes only the third president in organization’s history; Poberezny to continue active role as chairman.
OSHKOSH, WIS. – Tom Poberezny, chairman and president of the Experimental Aircraft Association, announced on the first day of EAA AirVenture, July 26, 2010, that Rod Hightower, 51, a longtime EAA member, pilot and aviation enthusiast who has established a distinguished career in business senior leadership positions, was named EAA’s new president. Hightower assumed his responsibilities effective September 7.
Hightower is only the third president in EAA history and the first president outside the Poberezny family. His duties include directing EAA’s day-to-day operations and EAA’s many member-focused programs. Poberezny will retain an active role as chairman of the organization, a position he has held since March 2009.
“Rod’s selection completes a process that I began in 2005,” said Poberezny, who has served as EAA president since 1989, when he succeeded his father, Paul, who had been president since EAA’s founding in 1953. “He has the passion for aviation that is absolutely essential to serve EAA’s 160,000 members, as well as the extensive business operations background that is necessary to successfully meet the challenges and opportunities ahead for EAA.”
Meanwhile, Poberezny, 63, will utilize his years of experience and relationships that he developed to foster and grow EAA’s business partnerships, philanthropy and the organization’s endowment. He will also remain as chairman of the annual EAA AirVenture fly-in at this time.
Hightower grew up in modest circumstances, as his father was a welder with Ford Motor Company. In order to learn to fly and pay his way through college, Hightower started a business when he was 15 years old and kept it operating during his college years before selling it in 1984, two years after his graduation from Central Missouri State University in which he holds a Bachelor of Science Degree in Aviation Technology.
During more than 25 years of business management and leadership experience, Hightower has led domestic and international business operations with as many as 2,300 employees and annual revenues of up to $470 million.
Hightower began his career as a sales engineer with two smaller companies engaged in industrial automation and process control before joining Square D Corporation in 1990. His initial assignment was as a sales specialist, but he was quickly promoted to lead sales for the entire Midwest region. He later headed Square D’s channel marketing and was promoted to vice president in 1996. After rising to lead matrixed sales and marketing across several of Square D’s business units, he joined York Corporation as vice president of North American sales and service for its engineered systems group. He later led a turnaround of York’s EMEA air conditioning business in a general management role, responsible for a $470 million autonomous business with responsibilities on an international level.
After returning to the United States, Hightower became CEO at Public Safety Equipment, a supplier of emergency lighting, radar and video systems used in law enforcement and military applications. He remained in that position until late 2008, although he remains an equity holder in that company.
Hightower is a vintage aircraft enthusiast, having restored his own Stearman biplane out of Creve Coeur Airport near St. Louis, Mo. He is a director of the National Stearman Foundation and helps organize the annual National Stearman Fly-In in Galesburg, Illinois, in September.
“This is a very exciting time for EAA and general aviation,” said Hightower. “I’m honored to be selected as the next leader of such a passionate group of aviation enthusiasts as EAA members, since I’ve long been a part of the organization for more than 20 years. There is much work ahead, but I am eager to start.”
Hightower was selected from more than 700 candidates for the position, including those from inside and outside the aviation industry. Hightower is married, and he and his wife, Maura, have five children, all of whom were present at AirVenture when the announcement was made.
