At its annual board meeting on October 14, the ARSA Board of Directors elected Josh Krotec as 2023 President. Krotec serves as Senior Vice President of First Aviation Services and is committed to the leadership volunteer with the association for several years, serving as President of Government Affairs before his election to the Board of Directors in 2019.
ARSA’s Board of Directors represents a wide range of international maintenance interests, ensuring that attention is paid to the entire aviation safety lifecycle. Krotec represents the small business segment of the industry – most association members – and its professional network touches all aspects of aviation. Since his first election, he has helped recruit five of the board’s nine elected directors since 2020.
“Leaders need to be proactive in their dealings with governments,” Krotec said of his support for the association. “Everyone encounters inconsistencies and contradictions between rules, advice and personal interpretation. To ease the burden of these unavoidable, there must be active engagement at all possible levels to make government oversight effective and efficient. ARSA values our individual and collective actions.
Outgoing ARSA President Terrell Siegfried, Deputy General Counsel and Corporate Secretary of NORDAM, will remain on the Board. Siegfried has made retention and recruitment of members the major themes of his presidency. At the end of his one-year term, Siegfried was able to celebrate record membership renewal rates and a host of new ARSA members. In his latest article for the association’s monthly newsletter, Siegfried acknowledged the good health of ARSA members as a platform on which to build.
Krotec brings its own interest to the senior management of the association. Drawing on his personal experience with the FAA, Departments of Defense and Commerce, and other U.S. and international government agencies, he will focus on building professional relationships with regulators and policy makers at all levels.
“Since I have known Josh, he has worked to resolve issues from the local to the federal level and at every legislative stage in between,” said ARSA Executive Vice President Christian Klein. “He worked side by side with – sometimes in front of – the association team on Capitol Hill, in local jurisdictions, at the Pentagon, on Independence Avenue [at FAA headquarters], and on issues spanning the globe with the Department of Commerce. His experience and polite tenacity are – and will continue to be – an asset to this association and the industry it supports.
Krotec’s commitment is not limited to ARSA. He is also a member of the US Department of Commerce’s International Trade Advisory Committee and a member of the Board of Directors of the Modification and Replacement Parts Association (MARPA). He also holds management positions for First Aviation subsidiaries: Aerospace Turbine Rotables; Aviation blade services; Aerospace Evolution; Heliblade International; and Piedmont propulsion systems.
“Josh is resolute,” ARSA Executive Director Sarah MacLeod said. “He moves his business and the industry steadily in the right direction. He ensures there is a return on investment by engaging the ARSA team for the industry while ensuring that the commercial interests are taken into account. Over the next year, ARSA and Josh will work to leverage these investments for the benefit of the entire industry.”
Gary Fortner, vice president of engineering for Fortner Engineering & Manufacturing, was elected for the third time as vice president of ARSA. Bob Mabe, director of regulatory compliance for HAECO Americas, joins Krotec and Fortner on the executive committee as the association’s treasurer. The association welcomed new directors Rob Roedts, vice president of aviation solutions for Columbia Helicopters, and Jon Silva, president and CEO of AeroKool Aviation, who were elected for an initial term of one year.
