Management shakeup at Piper

Piper Aircraft has appointed a new President and Chief Executive Officer and is embarking upon a review of the Altaire bizjet program.

Former Vice President Operations Simon Caldecott has been appointed the new interim President and CEO effective immediately. Caldecott joined Piper in 2009 and replaces Geoff Berger, who joined as the previous interim CEO in mid-2010.

“I would like to thank Geoff Berger for his outstanding service to Piper throughout his time here. His hard work and contributions have seen us through many important changes that have helped continue a great tradition of precision manufacturing and delivering best-in-class airplanes," Caldecott said on the Piper website.

Former Executive Vice President Randy Groom has also left the company. “I would also like to thank Randy Groom for many contributions to our globalization efforts and his excellent leadership of our customer-facing functions,” Caldicott said.

One of Caldecott’s first actions was to order a review of the Altaire bizjet program.

"While the company continues to achieve internal financial and delivery targets for the existing turboprop and piston product lines,” Caldecott said, “we have initiated a review of the Altaire business jet development program. This is being undertaken to ensure the company is properly aligning business goals and light jet market forecasts with investment strategies and economic forecasts."

With more than 37 years in aviation, Caldecott is a seasoned and successful aerospace executive with international experience at the senior level in European and North American operations. Prior to Piper, Caldecott was Vice President Assembly Integration and Testing with Raytheon Aircraft and more recently Vice President Assembly Operations with that company’s successor Hawker Beechcraft.