Air France / KLM Virtual Airlines Staff Roster

Air France / KLM Virtual Airlines STAFF ROSTER
Senior Staff
Paul Hale Executive Vice President Of Operations	phale@afva.net	Paul has been using Flight Simulators since the release of FS2002 and joined DVA as a 737 first officer in December 2010. He Transferred to AFVA in January 2012 as a 747 Captain and then worked his way through the staff ranks including holding the positions of 737 ACP, Concorde CP and CP of the Historical program before being promoted into the Vice President of Operations role. Paul held the Vice President role for three years before stepping down due to real world commitments. Paul continued with AFVA as the Chief Pilot of the A330 Program and has recently returned upstairs to the Senior Staff office as Executive Vice President. Paul lives just outside London in the UK with his Fiancee and two sons aged 16 and 14 Professionally, Paul is working as a Careers Advisor, Trainer and Assessor both as a paid employee on UK government contracts and also on a private self-employed basis. Away from flight simulation, Paul is a fanatical swimmer and gym user and also plays darts to a high standard.
Daniel Duhon Executive Vice President Of Human Resources	dduhon@afva.net	Daniel is the Executive Vice President of Human Resources. He is studying to be an Aerospace Engineer at Texas A&M University. Daniel has been flying since he was six months old and has fallen in love with airplanes. He first began flying in the flight simulator world in 2007 with Microsoft Flight Simulator X, and migrated to MSFS 2020 in January of 2021. Joining DVA in 2012 after a trip to Albania on Delta Airlines, he became more serious about his virtual career and learned how to fly more realistically. He started in the 737-800 program and then moving up to the 757 program. About 6 months later, he transferred to AFVA and started in the A330 program. After becoming captain in the A330, he transferred to the 777 program and has been in that program ever since. In December 2018, he joined the staff team as an Assistant Chief Piot in the 777 Program and moved up to Chief Pilot a year later. In May 2021, he was promoted to Executive Vice President of Human Resources, joining the Senior Staff team after nearly 8 years with the virtual airline. Outside of flight simulator, he enjoys the outdoors, traveling, photography, and spending time with friends and family.
Brian Hankey President and CEO	bhankey@afva.net	Brian is currently the President and CEO of AFVA. He was responsible for the initial launch and then became the Chief Pilot of the A380 program that opened March 1st, 2010. He remained at the helm of the program until September 1st, 2012. Brian Hankey has been flying with Flight Simulators since 1990-91 with version 4. He has been involved with Virtual Airlines since 1995 when he joined WestWind Airlines. During his tenure with WWAL, he held successive management roles around the globe. In 2000, Brian was the CEO of a couple of smaller airlines that eventually became part of the Unity Airways Group in 2001. He joined the Global Virtual Airlines Group in 2008, starting as a 757 pilot for Delta Virtual Airlines then was selected to become the Assistant Chief Pilot of the CRJ Program at DVA. In January 2010, he was transferred from Delta Virtual Airlines to Air France Virtual Airlines where he was selected to become the 1st Chief Pilot for the Airbus A380 program. Professionally speaking, Brian works as a software delivery manager for a leading software company in the United States. Prior to that, he spent several years with successive companies where he was involved in new-hire training development, the redesign of training curriculum and manuals, as well as disaster recovery team efforts, developing policies and procedures, and working with customers to resolve technical issues. He began his career with the United States Air Force as a Weather Observer. During his time in the Air Force, he developed and edited training programs for personnel responsible for monitoring weather conditions. He holds a B.A. in History from the University of Central Florida in Orlando. He is working on his M.A. in International Affairs from Texas A&M University. In his free time, Brian volunteers both at his kids' school on the Advisory Committee and with Scouts BSA as a Commissioner and Assistant Scout Master. Brian currently resides in Austin, TX. with his wife and three boys that are already being imbued with the love of aviation (see the related thread from 2010 in the cooler about AOPA Sun n Fun)
Chief Pilots
Mark Stead Chief Pilot A380 Program	mstead@afva.net	Mark is the Chief Pilot of the Airbus A380 Program. Mark has been doing flightsimming since FS2002 came out, and has been hooked ever since. Mark joined AFVA in 2010 after being transferred from Delta Virtual Airlines and worked his way up from various programs to the A380 program, where he was awarded Senior Captain status, then he transferred to the Concorde Program- he applied for a staff position and was became Chief Pilot of the 747 program which he held for about a year, then when another staff member resigned as A380CP, Mark applied for the position, and was fortunate enough to get it. He loves being staff, as he can now give back to the VA he loves.Often as a child, he used to persuade one of his family to drive him to the airport just to watch the aircraft land and takeoff. In the real world he lives in South Africa, and is a sales rep for a company doing vehicle conversions-in his spare time, away from the sim, he likes to do walks, reading, running and sound mixing. Needless to say, he loves his flying and he really enjoys helping his fellow pilot at AFVA!
Ethan Fortier Chief Pilot A320 Program	efortier@afva.net	Project Engineer IRL, I also have a PPL and I'm working on my multi and instrument ratings.
Florian Barea Chief Pilot A350 program	fbarea@afva.net	Florian is the Chief Pilot of our Airbus A350 program.
Ben Maskell Chief Pilot B747 Program	bmaskellafva@gmail.com	Ben is the Chief Pilot of the Boeing 747 Program. He has been flight simming since 2006, where he got hooked on it. He began with British Airways in August 2018 as a Ground Operations Agent for British Airways at Heathrow terminal 5. After 5 months he was offered the job as an Aircraft Mechanic in the hangar, where he works on A319s, A320s, A321s, A320 NEO, A321Neo. He will also works on the new A350. He also has cover on the Boeing 747, Boeing 777 and the Boeing 787. Before he worked in Heathrow terminal 4 for Cobalt for a year and a half. 2015 to 2017 for 2 years as a Senior Ramp Operative with Swissport at Southampton airport. He resides in Windsor, England and enjoys snooker, Darts and maybe a few rounds of Golf.
Tomas Bloemink Chief Pilot B787 Program	tbloemink@afva.net	Tomas is the Chief Pilot in the Boeing 787 program. Originally from New Zealand, he got in touch with aviation at the age of 4. The enthusiasm grew into love for flight simulators, starting out with his own copy of FS9, which was replaced with FSX a few years later. At the moment, Tomas likes to fly all around the continent as well as the globe, both virtually and in real life. He joined AFVA in 2010 in the F100 program when it still existed, gradually moving up via the A320 and A330 before ending up at the Boeing side in the B777 program and finally, the B747 program as a captain, before joining the staff ranks in 2018 as 737 Assistant Chief. In April he stepped up to leading the 787 program.
Georges Eid Chief Pilot, Concorde	georgeseid@afva.net	Georges is the Chief Pilot of our Concorde program.
Terry Ward Chief Pilot Historical Program	tj.ward99@live.co.uk	Terry is the Chief Pilot in the Historical Program
Benjamin Buske Chief Pilot ERJ-190 Program	bbuske@afva.net	Benjamin is the Embraer 190 Chief Pilot. He was a real life ATP, certified on the Boeing 737NG series until 2015 and held also ratings of the A320 family and the E190, until his retirement from active flying in March 2020. He also is a certified Web Developer and Programmer as well as a Linux expert. Since his retirement from flying, he is working full time for his IT business, which he founded as a part time adventure in 2016. Benjamin lives in Caracas with his wife and his two dogs, spending most of his free time flying, using X-Plane 11.
Teodor Negru Manager of Documentation, Chief Pilot A330 Program	TNegru@afva.net	Ted is the Airbus A330 Chief Pilot and Manager of Documentation.

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