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Conklin & de Decker announced that the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) has selected Bill de Decker for the prestigious John P “Jack” Doswell award, honouring him for lifelong individual achievement on behalf and in support of the aims, goals and objectives of business aviation.
For more than 40 years, Bill de Decker has been involved in virtually every area of business aviation, including operations, training, management, aircraft design and sales. From business aircraft operations to sales, training to engineering, market research and aerodynamic design, Bill has contributed greatly to aviation. His career began in the 1960s when Bill was a design engineer on the Apollo moon landing program. Bill’s success led him to roles with Boeing, then Dassault Falcon and later he tenured with FlightSafety International in management of fixed and rotary wing learning centers as well as the company’s courseware development division, where he led many training initiatives.
Bill de Decker and Alan Conklin originally met and worked closely together at Dassault Falcon in the early 1970s. In 1989, Bill rejoined Al at the company he founded and together they successfully built Conklin & de Decker into a multi-million dollar company that is now celebrating its 30th year in business. Bill was instrumental in developing new programs and seminars for the company. His areas of expertise and where he continues to provide his consulting services today, cover financial management, business and fleet planning, certification issues, life cycle cost and operations.
Together, Bill de Decker and Alan Conklin co-authored the Aircraft Acquisition Planning book that is on many NBAA members’ bookshelves today and was the basis for the popular seminar Conklin & de Decker holds every year on the subject matter. By providing the industry with critical aircraft cost, performance and specification data into easy-to-use programs, Conklin & de Decker has remained the standard for the industry since 1989 for aircraft operating cost information.
As a loyal NBAA member since the early 1970s, Bill de Decker served on the Associate Member Advisory Council from 1999 to 2005. The Conklin & de Decker staff is planning a reception during the 2014 Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition in Orlando, Florida, October 21-23, in recognition of Bill’s award, as well as to celebrate the 30th Anniversary since the business was formed.
The NBAA John P. “Jack” Doswell Award was named for the remarkable man whose gifts inspired a high standard of involvement in the business aviation community. The award honors those who have an exceptional record of service in the field of business aviation, like Jack Doswell did. “I am truly honored to be nominated and recognized for this award,” stated Bill de Decker. “Jack was an industry leader that I always looked up to and I am grateful to have known him.”
