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David Groen the cofounder of Groen Brothers Aviation with his late brother Jay has served as its President & CEO for the past fifteen years. Following the death of Jay Groen in October of 2006 David was elected to the additional position of Chairman of the Board of Directors.
David and Jay founded the Company in 1986 with the goal of re-discovering and developing the science of autorotative flight used by gyroplanes and gyrodynes. By 2001 they had grown GBA’s staff to more than 130 people they had flown the world’s first turbine-powered gyroplane the GBA Hawk 4 and were proceeding toward FAA commercial certification of that aircraft. The same year however the impact of the severe economic down turn of the Tech Sector crash and subsequently 9/11 necessitated that management reassess its strategy to insure survival. In order to conserve the Company David curtailed the certification program and reduced the work force by more than 100 people through a painful layoff but he retained the resources necessary to continue to move the Company’s science forward.
David’s continuing emphasis on exploiting the huge potential of the technology of autorotative flight gained quick recognition. As early as 2002 the Aerospace Industries Association in their summer Executive Report of that year stated that What the Wright Brothers did for the airplane 100 years ago the Groen Brothers are doing for the gyroplane today. By that time under David’s direction the Company had initiated the development of its light gyroplane the SparrowHawk which has established new safety and performance standards for both personal and public use of this type of aircraft.
In 2005 the Company was awarded a very significant contract from the U.S. Department of Defense Advanced Research Projects Agency (DARPA) to develop a demonstrator gyrodyne rotorcraft. The principle use of this aircraft named by DARPA as the Heliplane is to serve in a Combat Search & Rescue (CSAR) role. The contract resulted from the concerted efforts of both Jay and David to convince Washington decision-makers of the power and versatility of GBA’s technology. The Heliplane will take full advantage of this technology allowing vertical takeoff and landing a top speed twice that of current helicopters and an impressive payload and range. The application of GBA’s technology has a broad range of important military and commercial applications that the Company intends to exploit. As the third element in the Company’s growth plan David’s ever continuing efforts in funding the renewal of the Hawk 4 certification program resulted in a signed Memorandum of Understanding on December 14 2006 between GBA and the Government of Aragon Spain. The MOU to calls for the formation of a Joint Venture to complete FAA certification production marketing and delivery of GBA’s Hawk 5 Gyroplane a five place turboprop vertical takeoff and landing aircraft based upon GBA’s original Hawk 4 design.
As a result of these initiatives under David’s leadership the Company has now grown the company back to more than 80 full time and part time employees divided between its Salt Lake City Utah and Buckeye Arizona facilities.
Immediately prior to forming Groen Brothers Aviation David Groen was a founding partner and Chief Financial Officer (CFO) for Seagull Recycling Company. Previously he has held numerous executive positions in the helicopter industry with Sales and Marketing Safety Officer Branch Manager and Chief Pilot responsibilities.
Having extensive military and commercial experience in helicopters Mr. Groen has logged over 7 000 hours in rotor-wing and fixed-wing aircraft. Mr. Groen received his Certificate of Graduation in 1970 from the U.S. Army Warrant Officer Flight Training School was awarded Army Aviator Wings and promoted to the rank of Warrant Officer. As a combat helicopter pilot and Aircraft Commander in Vietnam he flew hundreds of combat sorties. He is qualified as a pilot in most American and French helicopters and has attended Aerospatiale factory schools.
Over the years Mr. Groen’s numerous commercial helicopter missions have involved such work as EMS (emergency medical service hospital air ambulance) power line construction and patrol topographical survey USGS map making wildlife management predator control herd management back country tour guides heli-skiing forest fire fighting long line seismic oil exploration and wildcat on-shore and off-shore oil drilling operations.
These years of commercial flying added to his tenure serving in management positions within the rotor-wing industry have given Mr. Groen a wealth of management and leadership experience in a variety of relevant fields. David Groen is co-author along with his brother Jay of a best selling novel entitled Huey. | 