Ronald T. Le May

President & CEO

Ronald T. LeMay was named President and CEO of Aircell in July 2009, following three years serving as the company’s Chairman of the Board.  During his time as Chairman, Mr. LeMay worked closely with former President and CEO Jack Blumenstein on strategy and operational matters.  In addition, he worked with Mr. Blumenstein in the planning, construction and completion of the Aircell Air-To-Ground (ATG) Mobile Broadband Network.

Mr. LeMay is a 38-year veteran of the communications industry, having served as an officer of Southwestern Bell, AT&T and Sprint. His Sprint career spanned 18 years and included starting up Sprint PCS as its first employee and serving as its CEO.  Sprint PCS grew to $10B in annual revenues faster than any other company before or since. 

Mr. LeMay also served as President and COO of Sprint from 1996 until his retirement in 2003, when he became and continues to serve as Industrial Partner for Ripplewood Holdings, a private equity firm and one of Aircell’s investors.  He also served as CEO of Japan Telecom, a Ripplewood portfolio company.

Over the last six years, Mr. LeMay has also been extensively involved in the formation, startup, growth and financing of numerous technology, services and wireless companies. 

Mr. LeMay holds a Bachelor of Business Administration from Southern Arkansas University and a Juris Doctor from the University of Arkansas.  He has extensive knowledge of communications markets, technologies, strategies and operational matters. 

Jack W. Blumenstein

Chairman of the Board

Jack Blumenstein was named Chairman of the Board at Aircell in July 2009, following nearly seven years serving as the company’s President and CEO.  In his role as Chairman, Mr. Blumenstein works closely with President and CEO Ron LeMay on Aircell’s overall strategy and operations, providing unique insight, guidance and perspective, drawing from his time leading the company.

Mr. Blumenstein has been with Aircell for more than a decade. He joined the Aircell Board of Directors in 1997, he was named Chairman of the Board in 1999 and in August 2002 was appointed President and CEO. 

Prior to joining Aircell, Mr. Blumenstein served as President and CEO of Ardis, a joint venture of Motorola and IBM, and held various senior management positions in product development, sales and marketing for Rolm Corporation and IBM.

In addition to his responsibilities as Chairman of the Board, Mr. Blumenstein serves as co-President and co-Founder of Blumenstein/Thorne Information Partners, L.L.C., a private equity investment firm.  He is also a Director of AC Holdco, Datamark, Consolidated Communications Holdings and ShopperTrak.

Mr. Blumenstein is a graduate of Stanford University and holds a law degree from the University of California. He is a past Vice Chairman of the U.S. State Department Delegation to the United Nations World Administrative Telephone and Telegraph conference (WATTC) and has served on the U.S. State Department Advisory Committee on International Communications and Information Policy.

Mr. Blumenstein is an expert speaker on the subjects of business and commercial aircraft communications trends, inflight broadband communications, business management, new venture growth and private equity investing.

Joe Cruz 

Executive Vice President, Chief Technology Officer

Joe Cruz has been with the Aircell team since 2003. As Chief Technology Officer, Mr. Cruz is responsible for leading Aircell’s engineering and technology group, which has designed Aircell’s Broadband service. Mr. Cruz’s experience includes senior executive roles in the aviation, satellite and terrestrial communications industries with companies including Ameritech Cellular and LG Electronics.

Mr. Cruz co-founded several technology development companies including Airfone, Railfone, Personal Guardian, Med-Net and Intelli-Sens. He has contributed directly to the development of CDMA technology and CDMA 3G enhancements for broadband data communications and network capacity for mobile voice and data communications. In addition, he is one of the founding partners of the CDMA Development Group (CDG) and the CDPD Consortium of companies.

Mr. Cruz earned his degree in Electrical Engineering from the University of the Philippines.

Mr. Cruz has been a leading expert for the media in the following: inflight communications systems including, CDMA, satellite communications, air-to-ground communications (ATG), Wi-Fi and cellular communications.

John Happ

Executive Vice President, Airlines

John Happ joined Aircell in April 2008 as the company’s Executive Vice President, Airlines. In this role designed to accelerate and strengthen Aircell’s penetration into the commercial airline industry, Mr. Happ leads the group that serves as the company’s primary airline interface for sales and support, and is also responsible for Aircell’s corporate communications and public relations initiatives.

Mr. Happ has more than 20 years of airline industry experience, and has worked in executive capacities at Frontier, ATA, Hawaiian, Continental and Singapore Airlines. He has played key marketing, strategic planning and operations roles, and has developed a keen understanding of airline business models, strategic direction and needs. He has more than a decade of executive committee representation experience and adds additional senior-level customer insight to the company.

John Happ earned a Bachelor of Science degree from San Diego State University.

Mr. Happ has particular expertise in commercial and product strategy within the airline industry, with proven experience in creating a differentiated customer experience and new revenue streams.

Reid Simpson

Executive Vice President & Chief Financial Officer

Tom Weigman

Executive Vice President, Wireless Services

Tom Weigman has been with the Aircell team since just after the company’s 2006 FCC auction win. With a proven record of accelerating sales and profit growth for communication services and consumer products companies, Mr. Weigman’s role as Executive Vice President, Wireless Services is to drive the service design, customer experience, marketing programs and customer care capabilities for Aircell’s new commercial broadband service. 

Prior to joining Aircell, Mr. Weigman spent a decade with Sprint where he served as Chief Marketing Officer, President of Multimedia and Strategic Services and as the President of the Consumer Services Group. In earlier stages of his career, Mr. Weigman built a solid base of marketing experience in management and consulting roles at a host of consumer packaged goods (CPG), food and mass-market companies, such as Procter & Gamble and Mars, Inc.

Mr. Weigman received a BS in Engineering from Lehigh University and an MBA with distinction from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania. 

Mr. Weigman has guest lectured at business schools and management consulting firms across the country. Mr. Weigman is a sought after speaker regarding consumer products and services design, the future of inflight communications and entertainment and the “converging” wireless, broadband, cable and content spaces.

John Wade

Senior Vice President and General Manager - Business Aviation Services

John Wade joined Aircell in November 2008 as Senior Vice President and General Manager - Business Aviation Services.  In this role, he is responsible for overseeing the success and overall direction of Aircell's rapidly growing Business Aviation Services division.  He also assists CEO Jack Blumenstein in developing and meeting the company's Business Aviation corporate and financial goals, with all functions of this unit reporting to him. 

Prior to Aircell, Mr. Wade served as Chief Technical Officer and General Manager at inflight mobile phone and Internet provider OnAir.  He was responsible for all of OnAir's Internet business, including sales, strategy, customer relationship management and product development. 

Mr. Wade has more than 20 years of experience in the avionics and inflight communications industries, having also held positions at inflight Internet and connectivity services provider Tenzing Communications, as well as PRIMEX Aerospace Company, GEC Marconi In-Flight Systems and others.

Mr. Wade received his education at the University of Brighton, U.K., where he earned a First Class B Engineering Honors Degree in Electronic Engineering and graduated at the top of his class. 

He is the co-author of two patents and throughout his career has been widely quoted across business publications, as well as chosen to speak at international conferences and conventions. 

Margee Elias  

Senior Vice President and General Counsel

Serving as Senior Vice President and General Counsel for Aircell, Ms. Elias is responsible for the company’s legal and regulatory affairs and manages its human resources function. Prior to joining Aircell, Ms. Elias served as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of eCollege.com, a publicly-traded company, where she represented the company in a number of significant matters including its recent acquisition by Pearson Education. Ms. Elias was previously employed as Senior Vice President and General Counsel of Centerprise Advisors, Inc. At both eCollege and Centerprise, she was responsible for all legal and compliance issues, managed the human resources function, and as a member of senior management, was a key participant in business and strategic planning decisions.

Ms. Elias was in private practice for more than a decade at Skadden, Arps, Slate, Meagher & Flom and Katten Muchin Rosenman, where she specialized in federal securities law, corporate finance, and mergers and acquisitions for clients across a broad spectrum of industries.

Ms. Elias received a Bachelor of Arts in Economics from Northwestern University and a Juris Doctor, Magna Cum Laude, from Loyola University of Chicago School of Law.

Ms. Elias has in-depth expertise in federal securities and general corporate law.

Andrew E. Geist

Senior Vice President, Business Aviation Solutions

Andrew E. Geist is Senior Vice President, Business Aviation Solutions, at Aircell. In this role, he is responsible for all aspects of sales, marketing and customer support in the company’s Business Aviation division, working to further its growth and success.

Mr. Geist has more than 20 years of experience in the airline and corporate aviation markets. In his decade-long career with Aircell, he has been instrumental in helping the company to attain industry leadership.

Prior to working at Aircell, Mr. Geist held roles in flight operations and management at People Express Airlines, Continental/GP Express Airlines, Jeppesen and USAIG. He was also co-founder and Vice President of an FAA-Certified Repair Station that pioneered a revolutionary ultrasonic aircraft inspection program used throughout the industry today.

Mr. Geist is a licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor with more than 2,500 hours of flight time in a variety of corporate aircraft. He holds a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Science and Business Management from the Metropolitan State College in Denver, Colorado.

He is an expert in the business and government aviation industries, with specific focus on ground- and satellite-based airborne communications.

Fran Phillips

Senior Vice President, Airline Solutions

Fran Phillips brings Aircell nearly 20 years of experience within the aviation and inflight entertainment industries. As Senior Vice President for Airline Solutions, Ms. Phillips leads airline sales, program management and airline relationship management. Prior to joining Aircell, Ms. Phillips served as a consultant with Connexion by Boeing, where she identified customer requirements and directed the development of the Connexion system, including web portals, content and web alliances. 

Ms. Phillips’ background includes serving as both an executive and consultant while developing the inflight customer experience for major commercial airlines. While with American Airlines, she successfully launched its first full aircraft, in-seat video system and also introduced the first generation of portable entertainment devices. In addition, she has been involved in the development of inflight products and programs with companies such as Rockwell Collins and Sony.  

Ms. Phillips holds an MBA from the University of Texas at Austin and a Bachelor’s degree in Journalism and Advertising from the University of Maryland.

Ms. Phillips is an expert on inflight entertainment and communications, airline revenue management, consumer research and the customer travel experience.

Robin Salem

Senior Vice President, Strategy & Business Development

As Senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, Mr. Salem is responsible for leading the company’s strategic partnership, alliance-building and business strategy functions. Mr. Salem has significant experience in Wi-Fi and wireless communications, built upon previous positions held in Silicon Valley. Mr. Salem’s most recent experience includes serving as Senior Vice President of Business Development at Nomadix, Inc., a leading Wi-Fi access gateway and web-content service provider. 

Earlier in his career, Mr. Salem served as Vice President of Business Development & Strategy for Motorola’s cellular service business, as well as Vice President of Sales and Marketing of CPDI, a leading telecom OSS/BSS and wireless data solution provider.  

Mr. Salem holds a Master’s degree in Economics from University of Essex, UK and is a Chartered Accountant from England & Wales.

Mr. Salem’s expertise is focused on business development and strategy as well as Wi-Fi and wireless communications.