San Francisco-based developer of a cloud-based aviation operating systems Portside has recently extended its leadership team by appointing Fred Powell as VP of product. The arrival of the aviation industry technology veteran will help drive Portside's continued growth as the company looks to expand its product suite to address critical pain points facing business and government aircraft operators.

CEO Alek Vernitsky says: “Fred has over 20 years of experience in this industry and has contributed significantly to the innovation in business aviation. We look forward to working with him and leveraging his experience as we continue to better serve our global customer base.”

Portside has experienced triple digit growth since it was founded in 2017. Today, its platform serves hundreds of customers in over 30 countries with a secure suite of cloud-based products such as the Owner Portal, ExpensePulse, Optimiser and others. Some notable operators on the Portside platform include Jet Aviation, Airshare, Wing Aviation, Albinati and Metrojet.

Powell says: “The Portside team is impressive and forward-thinking. I am excited to be working with a company whose customers are enthusiastic about what we have built, and I look forward to helping Portside further support its customer needs.”

Powell's success in aviation technology was inspired by his father, Fred Powell Sr, who founded aviation software company Computing Technologies for Aviation (CTA) in 1981 and became the architect of the Flight Operation System (FOS). After graduating from college, Powell joined the family business and rebuilt the DOS-based FOS system for Windows. At the time, flight schedules were written on whiteboards and airline operators were skeptical that a software programme could be as customisable as a wipeable marker.

The legendary Neil Armstrong served as chairman and CEO for CTA, actively supporting the family business for over 15 years. Under Powell's leadership, FOS became the dominant solution for corporate, charter and OEM-operations, serving over 500 customers and capturing 80 per cent market share for charter operators. FOS evolved to enable industry-leading end-to-end paperless processes for customers, including native mobile technology for flight departments to enter logbook information, duty times and expenses.

CTA/FOS was sold to Rockwell Collins, now Collins Aerospace, in 2011 and Powell worked on integrating FOS with other Collins acquisitions, including Air Routing and ARINC. Joining Stellar Labs in 2015 as VP of customer and product, he managed products that enabled customers to generate an automated quote, a long sought-after goal in the charter industry.