The board of directors of flight guidance and cockpit display systems developer Innovative Solutions & Support has appointed Dr Shahram Askarpour, the company's president, to the role of chief executive officer. Askarpour's appointment follows the untimely passing of former IS&S chairman and CEO Geoffrey S M Hedrick.

“We are deeply saddened by the sudden loss of Geoff Hedrick, who has been a friend and colleague of mine for more than 18 years," says Askarpour. "Since founding IS&S in 1988, Geoff built up a strong and reliable management team to solidify our company for the future.”

Askarpour joined IS&S in 2003 as vice president of engineering. In March 2012 he was promoted to president. Since 2003 he has been a key contributor to the company's leadership, strategy and technology.

Askarpour has more than 40 years of aerospace industry experience in increasingly responsible technical and managerial positions. Prior to joining IS&S he was employed by Smiths Aerospace, Instrumentation Technology and Marconi Avionics. He holds a number of key patents in the aviation field.

Askarpour was awarded an undergraduate degree in Electrical Engineering from Middlesex University, a post graduate certificate in Systems Engineering and a PhD in Automatic Control from Brunel University London. He was an associate research fellow for three years at Brunel and has published numerous papers in leading international peer reviewed journals. He has also completed management courses at Carnegie Mellon University and finance courses at the Wharton School.

The company issued a statement saying the entire IS&S family mourns the tragic loss of Geoffrey Hedrick; he will be sorely missed. Vice chairman of the board Glen Bressner adds: We will miss the creativity, keen intellect and leadership Geoff has shown over the past several decades.”

Hedrick spent his entire professional career in the avionics industry. Following his electrical engineering education at Cornell he worked briefly in the aviation instrument subsidiary of Bulova. In 1971 he founded Harowe Systems as a joint venture with an aerospace hardware company, which was acquired in 1978 by Smiths Industries. He continued to run Harowe and later served as president and CEO of Smiths Industries North American Aerospace Companies. In 1988 he founded IS&S.

During the course of his career in avionics, Hedrick held nearly 100 patents in the electronics, optoelectric, electromagnetic, aerospace and contamination-control fields.