Experience
The first twenty-eight years.
I founded my first company at 23. It became one of Europe’s leading specialist providers of airline pilot training: an Approved Training Organisation (ATO), regulated by both the UK CAA and EASA, with a reputation for quality built over nearly three decades.
Running a regulated business that long means doing all of it: finance, sales, operations, regulation, partnerships, through booms, downturns and everything in between.
1997–2025
Founder & Managing Director, VA Airline Training
2,000+
Airline pilots trained, now flying in Europe and worldwide
1st
APS MCC pilot training programme in Europe
CAA + EASA
Approved Training Organisation, UK & Europe
I learned most of what I know about running a business the hard way.
- 01
Grew the company into one of Europe's leading specialist providers of regulated airline pilot training, with its own Airbus and Boeing full-flight simulators.
- 02
Built Europe's first APS MCC programme, establishing market leadership.
- 03
Secured complex financing and bank leasing for multi-million-pound simulator assets.
- 04
Navigated major regulatory change, including the UK CAA's withdrawal from EASA, while expanding across the UK and Europe.
- 05
Built decades-long B2B relationships with airlines and industry decision-makers.
- 06
Weathered severe external shocks such as 9/11, Brexit and COVID, and kept delivering.