AOPA President Darren Pleasance is suddenly leaving his post as AOPA President effective immediately. AOPA issued a statement shortly after the news broke and cited geography as the main reason for the abrupt change in leadership.
“Over time, it’s become increasingly clear that the AOPA CEO role should be based full-time in Frederick, Maryland, at AOPA’s headquarters,” the statement read. “The AOPA Board appreciates the substantial time Darren has spent traveling from his home in Bend, Oregon, to be present in Frederick and with members across the country. Recognizing this, now is the right time to transition leadership in a way that best supports the organization’s long-term needs.”
CEO duties will be taken over by Chief Financial Officer Jill Baker and Senior Vice President of Membership Strategy and Growth Katie Pribyl, who will serve as Acting Co-Presidents, the news release said.
Pleasance will take on an advisory role and will help in the search for his successor. He took over the job a little more than a year ago and has been a prominent spokesman on a variety of GA-centric topics, including ADS-B data use and the transition to unleaded fuel.
“I’m incredibly proud of what we were able to set in motion at AOPA in a relatively short period of time,” Pleasance said. “In addition, I had the opportunity to meet thousands of members across the country, hear their stories, and work on issues that matter to everyday pilots, which has been deeply meaningful.
He came to AOPA after a long career as a senior tech executive, most recently with Cisco where he was leading their modernization effort. When he was younger, his corner office was a bush plane in Alaska and, later, as a member of John Travolta’s corporate flight department. He keeps several personal aircraft, including an RV-6, Piper Meridian, and Sea Rey, and has a share in a P-51 Mustang.
AOPA’s full news release is below:
AOPA announcement: “FREDERICK, Md.—The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association (AOPA) today announced a leadership transition as President and CEO Darren Pleasance steps out of the day-to-day CEO role and into an advisory capacity to support AOPA and the Board of Trustees during the search for AOPA’s next leader.”
There hasn’t been a replacement with staying presence since Phil retired … in 2008.
Mark Baker held the job for 11 years, I believe. And I thought he was terrific. One year is maybe too soon to form an opinion of Darren’s leadership, but I am not unhappy he has chosen another path.
So they kicked him out because he didn’t want to relocate to Frederick.
35 year AOPA member and I’m particularly upset about this, as I consider Darrin Pleasance to be the best leader that AOPA has had in a very long time. I have met him twice, and had email conversations with him. He’s the real deal, an actual pilot who loves GA.
Wow! After such a short tenure. We really need someone in that roll with staying power!
Sorry to see Mr. Pleasance go. I was looking forward to his input and advocacy on small ultralight eVTOLs. The four small ultralight eVTOLs available all have 3 separate softwares that talk to each other continually to keep aircraft stability. And LIDAR for avoidance of wires, trees, & signs and anything else. All the unused airspace above road, alleys, streets, boulevards, and highways in cities and metro areas needs to be put to use to reduce traffic jams. And with private property owners owning their airspace to the base of navigable airspace means a transition to a road in front of one’s house is a natural. As ultralight VFR only aircraft, the current small ultralight eVTOLs need to be brought into the national transportation system as reliable alternatives to autos. The sooner the better. Traffic jams in metro areas are beyond ugly in the US and probably around the world. A good way to waste valuable time; getting stuck in a traffic jam. Having lived in the SF Bay Area in the distant past, spending two hours going and coming to work for a 15 minute commute is highly unlawful, same in LA; but so far, no one will do anything about it. The Pivotal Helix has a width under 14 feet. The other 3 three have a width under 10 feet. So can fit in where ever space is available on the side of most roads in an emergency. And with 8 propellers and 8 motors, can lose one and still fly. Or, an obvious fix to a very large problem in all metro areas. Anywhere an auto can go, an ultralight eVTOL can go, but above. How wonderful is that? I call it joyful!!!!
I just don’t see these as reliving street traffic. If you pluck 12 cars out of an L.A. freeway, four lanes wide, and backed up for miles as usual, those 12 cars will never be missed. And I really can’t imagine many more than that flying about at one time. At best they can be a faster shuttle from home to the airport, while adding more workload to the airport traffic. But at least giving the proud owner an escape. And it will require a pilot, for now. But that is all I can see it for, not freeway/street traffic reduction of any noticeable amount.
“Over time, it’s become increasingly clear that the AOPA CEO role should be based full-time in Frederick, Maryland, at AOPA’s headquarters. The AOPA Board appreciates the substantial time Darren has spent traveling from his home in Bend, Oregon, to be present in Frederick and with members across the country. Recognizing this, now is the right time to transition leadership in a way that best supports the organization’s long-term needs.”
Last I heard, now-Acting Co-President Katie Pribyl lives in Montana…
He made it clear when he accepted the position that he was not going to relocate. Suddenly, a year later, it’s no longer OK. Coincidentally, Dale Klapmeier (Cirrus) just joined the AOPA board on Monday. Two days later, Pleasance is out. That is too much of a coincidence for me.
I think the “relocation” excuse is just that – an excuse. If that was truly the reason, he would have remained as president and CEO until they found a replacement, just like they have always done. Instead, he was summarily fired, and now they have no CEO or president and are starting the search for a new one. That means this was not a considered decision – it happened all at once. I think the “relocation” excuse is not the real reason.
Exactly. Unless Oregon SUDDENLY got further away from Maryland, something else is going on here. Not a conspiracy theorist, but this isn’t the way normal succession goes. For his sake and AOPA’s I hope it is not something distasteful. 🙁
They almost literally used the traditional corporate double-speak of “He wanted to spend more time with his family”. There’s definitely more to the “relocation” excuse.
I think the problems at AOPA are bigger than just the CEO’s living location. I was a member for many, many years but dropped them a few years ago. They no longer represented my interests so there was no point. As their membership dropped, they raised the rates to stay afloat, too. That wasn’t a big thing but I wasn’t getting anything out of them. And, they were taking credit for things other organizations were doing. When I found out what Mark Baker was being paid, that was the final straw.
I wish them luck but if they want to be just another Flying magazine … they’re gonna fail. Hopefully, Klapmeier will reinvigorate them?
Though if Klapmeier was the reason for Pleasance being fired (as some others above are speculating), I doubt he will reinvigorate them.
What will reinvigorate them is going back to catering to regular-folk pilots, not $1M+ aircraft owners. Sure, they offer services for “regular” pilots, and have made some good efforts toward supporting flying clubs, but their magazine regularly features aspects of aviation that are well outside most of their members’ reach.
Nothing I’ve ever seen has indicated to me that Dale’s the “reinvigorate” type. Alan was the visionary, for better and worse. Dale is the pragmatist to a fault.
But all that will matter in the end will be how many friends he has on the AOPA Board.
Anyone else view drama as D. Klapmeier’s shadow?
To be fair, drama is more Alan’s thing, too, but it is kind of hard to look past Dale siding with Arcapita over his own brother in 2009. The pragmatic choice, perhaps, but it sure wasn’t loyal.
Dale also wanted to dump “The Jet,” but he changed his tune a few years later when Cirrus’s new Chinese owners said they wanted it. It’s sadly ironic that he later hoisted the Collier for the SF50, with Alan still persona non grata.
Too bad. I really thought Darren Pleasance would have made a difference.
The Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association Board fired Pleasance because coast to coast travel -presumably by aircraft- was not to their liking?
Pleasance recently gave an interview to a YouTuber (who I won’t dignify by naming) in which he talked about, among other things, the United flight he commuted on between DC and Oregon. Nothing wrong with that, of course, but it may have ruffled some diehard GA feathers?
What does the President of AOPA really do for a Million dollar salary?
They’re going to have to knock it down to something reasonable, like $981,000.
Well, maybe that’s cutting too deep. Ok, I’ll make a proxy motion to compromise: $987,000.
Hmm. I mean, yeah, I know there’s easier jobs, better pay, better hours, benefits and all that but I’m ok with giving back. I’ll take it. Definitely the man for the job right here. Even with that pay cut.
>> Major kudos to Russ for scooping those other guys (and AOPA itself) with this story. Even with a multi-timezone handicap. Bravo! <<
I have been an AOPA member for 40 years, and for a while I lived just down the road from them. At first I enjoyed reading their magazine articles but soon realized they were far more interested in stories for pilots much more affluent than I. They’ve had some outstanding leaders, and a couple of duds.
Every year I grapple with the choice to renew, and it always comes down to their proximity to federal power brokers. They were the second lobbyist organization I financially supported. (EAA didn’t have much of a presence in DC when I joined it over fifty years ago.) But it hasn’t always been easy to support AOPA when they’ve weighed-in on aviation issues that affected the low-n-slow crowd.
This is not confidence-inspiring behavior. My renewal is due next month. We’ll see.
I met Mr. pleasance last spring during a meeting at AOPA headquarters. From that and following his work with the organization since then, he seems like exactly the right person for the job. His departure is a loss for the membership, but understand his reluctance to move his family across the country.
I agree, he was the right guy for GA. When he was hired there was an agreement with the board that he would not move.
I was unclear as to whether he stepped down or was let go. I can’t say that I know much about him or his leadership quality. I only saw the rant on YouTube by Dan Gryder about a long commute and a high salary. The ultimate question I suppose would be whether he did the job he was given to do and was the price worth it?
There is a lot more to this story. I have been watching AOPA become less relevant to me every year and the ridiculous salary they started giving the CEO has been very disturbing. I have been a member since 1978, but am seriously considering not renewing. AOPA seems to be increasingly out of touch with its membership and their board now seems to be asleep at the wheel.
“AOPA seems to be increasingly out of touch with its membership and their board now seems to be asleep at the wheel.”
That’s not entirely precise. They are just becoming more in touch with their legitimately wealthy members.
RTO comes to Fredrick.
One year probably isn’t a coincidence, his contract would be up for review at this time. The board wanted the president in MD and close to the beltway it would seem.
Being president of AOPA appears to be a thankless job. Coming from a 35 year member it doesn’t feel like anyone has had a good tenure since Phil retired. Mark certainly lasted the longest out of the replacements.