ISTAT PDP Instructors

Bob has worked in aviation for 31 years of which the last 18 years have been in SMBC Aviation Capital. He currently has responsibility for technical aspects of aircraft lease negotiations and lease transition project management. He has been closely involved in the negotiation of several of the company's Boeing direct order programmes and the subsequent technical management of those delivery streams. Bob started his Aviation career being trained by Swissair at Zurich for Shannon Aerospace in the early 1990’s and subsequently worked as a team leader in heavy overhaul at Shannon for a number of years before having other roles there as an instructor and later a Quality Audit Engineer. He then spent a number of years travelling as a field rep for aircraft Lessor’s managing lease transitions before taking up his current role with SMBC. Bob holds an EASA JAR 66 Aircraft Maintenance Engineer's license with aircraft type ratings including Boeing 737, Airbus A320 and McDonnell Douglas MD80 and various other related specialist technical qualifications. Bob regularly teaches aircraft technology modules within SMBC and has also been the Aircraft Technology guest lecturer for the past four years on the UCD Smurfit Graduate Business School MSc in Aviation Finance.

Barry Delaney, Senior Manager, Centre for Learning & Development, PwC Ireland. Throughout his career, Barry has been involved in the design, development & facilitation of L&D initiatives that address both individual and organizational needs from graduate to senior management level. Barry began his career in L&D in Financial Services in 2000 before joining PwC Ireland’s ‘Centre for Learning & Development’ in 2005. Now a senior manager, Barry facilitates a broad spectrum of Business & management skills specific courses to PwC people at all grades. These courses centre on and the key business and management skills participants require to be effective in their current role while also planning for the next stage of their career.

Ronan Doyle is a Partner of PwC and leads our audit services to the treasury, capital markets, leasing and structured finance sectors. In this capacity, Ronan provides both external and internal audit services, as well as advisory assistance and reviews to domestic and multi-national clients. He has significant experience in the implementation of IFRS, US GAAP and Sarbanes Oxley within banks and treasury centres. He is also responsible for the market risk services within PwC Ireland which provide advice on strategy, controls, complex accounting and valuation related issues impacting banks, treasuries and structured finance companies today. Ronan is the Irish representative on the PwC Global Corporate Treasury Technical Committee, the PwC European Treasury Leaders network and the PwC expert group on the impacts of changes to loan loss provisioning. He is also responsible for the Firm's Risk and Quality function, and in this role, is a member of PwC Ireland's Leadership Team. Ronan is a member of the Institute of Chartered Accountants in Ireland and the Irish Association of Corporate Treasurers.

Ronan Fitzpatrick is the Director of Digital and Emerging Technology within the Consulting team of PwC Ireland. Prior to joining PwC in 2016, Ronan spent over 22 years in the Aviation Industry, primarily in Digital, online and mobile roles spanning both IT and Commercial. Ronan has excellent practical knowledge of the Business, Customer Experience and Technology aspects of all digital, e-Commerce and mobile solutions. He has extensive professional experience in competitive, commercial environments with significant strategy development and implementation, infrastructure, architecture, application management, digital development and project/portfolio management skills. Ronan has been helping clients deliver value and efficiency on digital transformations, defining new target operating models for a digital age, establishing new ways of working, solving real business problems with appropriate emerging technologies, including Robotic and intelligent automation, Artificial Intelligence, conversational agents/chatbots.

Dick Forsberg has 50 years of aviation industry experience, working with airlines, operating lessors, arrangers, and capital providers in a variety of roles spanning business strategy, industry analysis and forecasting, asset valuation, portfolio risk management, and airline credit assessment. He retired from leading aircraft lessor Avolon in March 2019 and now provides advisory and consultancy support to the industry. He is currently supporting PwC’s Aviation Finance Advisory Services team as an external Senior Consultant. As a founding executive and Head of Strategy at Avolon, Dick’s responsibilities included developing and promoting the company’s business strategy with investors, lenders and stakeholders, defining the trading cycle of the business, providing the primary interface with the aircraft appraisal and valuation community, industry analysis and forecasting, driving thought leadership initiatives, setting portfolio risk management criteria, and determining capital allocation targets. Dick has published a number of white papers on key industry issues and is a regular speaker, moderator and panelist at industry conferences and aviation schools. Prior to Avolon, Dick was a founding executive at RBS Aviation Capital and previously worked with IAMG, GECAS, and GPA following a 20-year career in the UK airline industry. Dick has a Diploma in Business Studies and in Marketing from the UK Institute of Marketing and is a member of the Royal Aeronautical Society. He is a past Board Member and Vice-President of ISTAT and currently serves on the board of the ISTAT Appraisers’ Program.

Dean Gerber is currently Executive Vice President and General Counsel of Valkyrie BTO Aviation (a Blackstone company). In his previous role, he served as General Counsel for Orix Aviation. Prior to that he served as Executive Chair of the Global Transportation Finance team at Vedder Price P.C. in Chicago (where he practiced for over 25 years) and served on the firm’s Executive Committee. Mr. Gerber is regularly named one of the top aviation lawyers in the world by a variety of legal publications including Legal Media Group’s Expert Guides, the International Who’s Who of Business Lawyers and Chambers Global. He has extensive experience in transactions involving aircraft operating lessors, airlines, credit enhancers, underwriters, governmental agencies and others on various aspects of aircraft acquisition, finance and leasing. His experience includes securitizations (including ABS and EETCs), operating leasing, mortgage and synthetic lease financings, manufacturer-supported financings, bankruptcies, restructurings and workouts. Mr. Gerber, also a certified public accountant, previously served on the Executive Committee of the Aviation Working Group's Legal Advisory Panel and currently serves as President of the Board of Directors of ISTAT.

Nils Hallerstrom is the ISTAT-PDP Program Director and serves on the boards of Novus Aviation Capital and Rockton Aviation. Nils worked for PK AirFinance 1984-2018, as president since 1991. Prior to PK, he worked for SAAB AB on a regional turboprop program. He has also, in co-operation with a vendor in Sweden, developed Monte Carlo simulation software used across PK AirFinance for pricing, structuring and underwriting new loans, managing portfolios, valuing loans, and data mining and analytics. Previously, Nils has also been a Director of International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT) and on the Board of Governors of their appraisal program as well as a regular lecturer on Aircraft Financing. He holds an MSc in Aeronautical Engineering from the Royal Institute of Technology in Stockholm and a MSc in Accounting & Finance from the London School of Economics.

Pam Hendry is United’s vice president and treasurer. In this role, Pam is responsible for Corporate Finance, Treasury Operations, Tax and Risk Management. Pam is a senior aviation finance executive who has an extensive background in strategically and cost-effectively financing aircraft. Prior to joining United, she spent the majority of her career at International Lease Finance Corporation where, among other roles, she served as senior vice president and treasurer and was responsible for raising more than $140 billion across the capital structure. More recently, Pam was a consultant with Plane View Partners as well as a consultant on the 2017 sale of CIT Aerospace. From 2016 to 2018, Pam served on the board of advisors for Hudson Structured Capital Management. Pam grew up in southern California and received her bachelor’s degree in Business Economics from UC Santa Barbara. She is married and has two daughters.

Brian Leonard is a tax partner with the PwC financial services tax practice in Ireland. Brian specialises in the corporate taxation of aircraft and equipment lessors, asset financiers and banks and has significant experience of advising on domestic and international taxation matters, including international tax structuring through Ireland and the taxation of capital market transactions including securitisations. Brian has in-depth knowledge and experience in the aircraft leasing industry and provides assistance and support on all aspects of managing an aircraft portfolio to his clients. Brian has considerable experience working with international aircraft leasing and private equity clients on a wide range of tax structuring matters. Brian advises a number of the largest global aircraft lessors and investors that have acquired aircraft from lessors. These include GECAS, SMBC, Orix, Nordic Aviation Capital and Avenue Capital. He has authored a number of published articles and spoken at a number of industry conferences and events on the topic of the impact of BEPS on the aviation leasing industry. As part of the PwC Aviation Finance Tax Directors’ Network Brian has sought to represent the leasing industry in respect of same.

Bryson Monteleone is a Senior Aviation Finance Advisor to PwC Ireland. Bryson has over 20 years’ experience in the commercial aviation industry. With an extensive background in commercial aviation finance, specifically aircraft appraisal and valuation, lease advisory, aircraft technical consulting, and aircraft remarketing. Throughout his career Bryson has worked closely with, and advised - airlines, aircraft leasing companies, aircraft manufacturers, governments, rating agencies, institutional and alternative investors, and banks. As a Subject Matter Expert (SME) on aircraft finance, leasing and valuation, he is requested frequently to brief and provide advisory to investors that are looking to deepen their aviation exposure and better understand aircraft values, maintenance forecasts and market dynamics. As an ISTAT Certified Senior Appraiser, Bryson has provided both valuation and technical due diligence assistance to both buyers and sellers of aircraft, including current market appraisals and on-site physical inspections of the aircraft and associated records, along with end of lease and return condition analysis in conjunction with an operating lease. Earlier in his career Bryson was heavily involved in valuing and appraising many of the larger Enhanced Equipment Trust Certificate (EETC) and Asset Backed Securitization (ABS) projects for the capital markets, as well as providing intrinsic valuation advisory for OEMs, leasing companies, hedge funds, banks airlines and institutional investors. Bryson currently serves as the Chairman of the ISTAT (International Society of Transport Aircraft Traders) International Appraisers Program (IAP) and a member of the ISTAT Board of Directors.

Jim Morrison is the Head of Portfolio Management at Avolon, responsible for identifying and projecting key industry trends, performing market analysis, monitoring aircraft values and managing aircraft appraiser relationships, evaluating asset risk and developing aircraft investment cases. Jim has over fourteen years of aviation industry experience with leasing, manufacturing, research, and technology organizations. Jim joined Avolon in 2017 having previously held airline marketing, aircraft evaluation, market analysis, and product strategy roles with CIT Aerospace and Bombardier Commercial Aircraft. Jim is an ISTAT Certified Appraiser and a licensed Professional Engineer in Ontario. He holds a Master of Science in Technology and Policy from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Applied Science in Engineering Physics from Queen’s University, Kingston.

Stephen Murphy is the Head of Corporate Finance for Goshawk , having joined in 2015. Stephen manages a team that has responsibilities for capital markets activities, equity strategy and other corporate finance remits such as corporate/structured finance ratings and M&A. The capital markets aspect included a broad spectrum of secured and unsecured financing such as 144a ABS debt/equity, USPP, Schuldschein, acquisition financing and all aspects of structured finance. Prior to his time in Goshawk, Stephen worked with HSBC, looking after the aircraft leasing relationships for the bank, and also worked prior to that with another international bank, having trained with Deloitte. Stephen studied Engineering and holds a MSc in Business Studies in Cork, Ireland.

Dan Pietrzak is an aviation professional with more than 30 years in the industry. He most recently served on the aviation investment team at BlackRock trading and leasing used commercial aircraft and spare engines. Prior to that, Dan retired from Delta in 2019 after a 31-year career with the airline. Dan was Managing Director of Fleet Management for Delta Air Lines. He was responsible for managing and executing mainline and regional fleet renewal and procurement strategies whether through new aircraft campaigns or creating and capitalizing on opportunities in the secondary market, working closely with Network Planning, Technical Operations, and Finance / Treasury teams. Dan also was responsible for negotiation and management of leased aircraft as well as fleet disposition. Since Delta’s merger with Northwest in October 2008, Dan was instrumental in negotiating a number of wide-body, narrow-body, and regional aircraft campaigns including having overall responsibility for the Entry-Into-Service, acceptance, and delivery of over 350 aircraft. Dan also led cross-disciplinary teams involved in lease acquisition in the secondary market, entry-into-service conversion, and bridging activity of Delta’s entire B-717 fleet as well of the expansion via the secondary market of Delta’s MD90, B-757-200, B-737-800, and E170 fleet types. Dan further transformed Delta’s fleet retiring aircraft such as the B-747-400, MD88, domestic 767-300s, and CRJ200 and led the sale and disposition of hundreds of aircraft, simulators, and spare engines. Dan began his airline career at Northwest Airlines in 1988 and held various positions with increasing responsibility within Engineering, Supply Chain, Treasury and Fleet organizations. Dan was a key contributor to NWA’s highly successful bankruptcy reorganization through aircraft debt and lease restructuring, purchase of aircraft off lease, and the return of rejected aircraft. Dan has been an active member of ISTAT since 1997, has served as a Board member since 2005. Dan started his aviation career at Dassault followed by a move to Northrop Grumman before joining NWA. Dan has a Bachelor of Science degree in Aeronautical Engineering from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Marjan Riggi is Senior Managing Director – Transportation and Commercial Finance – Marjan heads Kroll Bond Rating Agency’s transportation and commercial finance ratings. She has over 25 years of multi-sector expertise in credit analysis of banks and specialty finance, as well as securitizations. She initiated ratings of aircraft lessors at KBRA in early 2013 and has since been responsible for the development of our rating franchise and the analytical framework for all transportation assets (including aviation, rail and shipping, etc.) as well as various commercial finance firms globally. Prior to joining KBRA, Marjan was a Senior Credit Officer at Moody’s with senior lead responsibility for banks and diversified financials (finance companies, private equity firms, stock exchanges, and other securities firms). Before covering financials, Marjan was a lead analyst in Structured Finance at Moody's where she covered ABS and RMBS as well as ratings criteria development. She began her career as a Banking Analyst at the Federal Reserve Bank of New York. Marjan has a Masters in International Affairs and Finance from Columbia University in NY and a B.A in Linguistics from University of Kansas.

Christine Rovelli is currently the Senior Vice President Finance & Fleet Management of Finnair Oyj, the flag carrier of Finland. Christine started her career at Finnair in 2012 in the Resource Management group, which was comprised of network and traffic planning. Since becoming Finnair’s Treasurer, she has played a key role in the Company’s capital structure and strategy efforts, managing a team responsible for secured and unsecured financing in the bank and capital markets, liquidity management, cash management and payment systems, the Finnair pension fund, implementation of accounting standards such as IFRS 9 and 16, and the hedging of Finnair’s jet fuel, interest rate and currency exposures. Prior to joining Finnair, Christine worked in investment banking in London and New York, advising airlines, aircraft lessors, shipping companies, and logistics providers on restructurings, M&A and capital markets transactions. Christine is a member of the IATA Treasury Working Group and is a Trustee of the ISTAT Foundation. In addition to pastry and viennoiserie certificates from Le Cordon Bleu, Christine has a BA from the University of Illinois, and an MBA (with concentrations in Accounting and Analytic Finance) from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Radha Tilton heads the Transportation Structured Finance Group within Investment Banking of Goldman Sachs. She is responsible for sourcing, structuring and marketing public and private asset backed debt financings and structured asset sales for transportation companies. Radha joined Goldman Sachs in 2007 as an associate and was named managing director in 2015. Prior to joining the firm, Radha spent two years as a research associate at the Federal Reserve Board of Governors in Washington, DC and also worked at the Center for American Progress, a public policy think tank. Radha earned a BA, cum laude, in Economics from Wellesley College in 2002 and an MBA with a concentration in Analytic Finance from the University of Chicago Booth School of Business in 2007.

Richard Walker has over 30 years’ experience in the commercial aviation industry and is Head of Investor Marketing for Airbus, based in Toulouse. He is currently also a Board member of the International Society of Transport Aircraft Trading (ISTAT). Since joining Airbus in 1997 he has held several positions within the Asset Management and Marketing divisions at Airbus headquarters in Toulouse and China, including Head of Customer Marketing for Airbus China. Prior to joining Airbus Richard was an analyst at Airclaims (now Ascend by Cirium), appraising and valuing aircraft. During this time he became an ISTAT Certified Appraiser. Richard's professional career began in 1988 at the UK Department of Transport Civil Aviation Policy Directorate, following his graduation from the University of Manchester.

Rudolf Zivcic is an experienced Revenue Management professional, specialized in passenger airlines and air cargo, and is founder of RMSP Consulting. Rudolf has been working for 15 years in the field of Revenue Management and Pricing, mostly in managerial positions within passenger airlines, low-cost or full-service carriers, and air-cargo. During this time, he implemented various revenue management tools and practices in start-up companies and helped to improve performance in established companies, while customizing solutions to reflect specifics of given business environment. After establishing own company, he continued deeper cooperation with technology providers for revenue management – improving on their systems capabilities and advising airlines on using these tools to full potential. Sharing the gained knowledge is as important for Rudolf as acquiring it, and so he is giving lectures on airline commercial operations and specifically on topic of Revenue Management at Estonian Aviation Academy.