Hank Gibson | Regional One

Aviation entrepreneur Alok Anand explores what makes leasing businesses tick. In this episode of Flightpath with Alok, we hear from Hank Gibson, president of Regional One, a purchaser, lessor, and seller of aircraft, aircraft parts, engines, and engine parts, worldwide. Hank has been with Regional One since 2012 and has been prominent in the industry for over 30 years, holding multiple executive management positions in global sales and marketing, business development, and strategic planning. Hank has a background in finance having worked for financial services companies in New York and holds a BS in Finance from Florida Southern College, as well as a plethora of postgraduate management education programs. Hank speaks with Alok about why he left Wall Street for the world of aviation, he shares some of the successes and insights he has picked up through the course of his varied and interesting career and why those just starting out on their career paths may benefit from giving aviation a look.

Transcript:

Hank: There's an old saying on Wall Street, you can't fight the tape, right? And this goes back to the old analogy of a ticker tape. Details matter. One of the things that I've learned, having the opportunity to live in Singapore is that there is life and opportunity outside of the US. There's a distinct difference between, typically between the i-stat appraiser, and appraisers that are looking at aircraft versus parts. There's this saying, you know, do something you love and you'll never work a day in your life. And I have that luxury, right? I love aviation. It's a challenge for all of us to get young people to understand that there's more to aviation than being a pilot or an engineer.

Alok: Welcome to the Flightpath with me, Alok. I am gonna start with a small story, you know, to introduce Hank, and I know Hank, you're gonna laugh on this, but this is a story I always remember when we first met, 2013, in India. And this is, you know, it's not every day we go through our career, our life, we get inspired, but something which happened, that eventful day for me, we were in Alliance share offices in India. Alliance was owned by Air India, at that time. Now Air India is sold, they have been in news for, good and bad reasons lately, and Alliance is still owned by the Government of India. I'm sure Hank remembers Air India very well. And, what I saw that day, we were trying to negotiate lease of some airplanes. And two gentlemen who had come in all the way from Miami. It was my actually very first time being in their presence, meeting them, being in the same room, and seeing a lease negotiation happening. It went on for the whole day. And you know, I thought sometimes maybe it's difficult deal, it won't work through, it won't happen. But I saw firsthand what a good negotiation is, a good salesmanship it, and how to get deals across. For me, as being an aviation entrepreneur, it was a great learning experience. And if I have to just capture it in one line, my favorite line from that day, which I will say is that if the door is closed, open the window and if the window is closed, make a hole in the wall. And if that is closed, come through the ceiling.  And it gives me great pleasure to, you know, welcome, for this very first episode of the Flight Path with Mr. Alok, my dear friend, Mr. Hank Gibson, the president of Regional One who was there with me that day. Hank, I'm sure you remember this story well. Welcome to the show.

Hank: Yes, of course. Thank you, Alok. Appreciate that memory and certainly, that is a,  you know, the start of our long personal and professional relationship. So I remember that story vividly um, always enjoy going to India, but I certainly remember that negotiation and meeting you like yesterday. Yea, it was fun.

Alok: I still laugh about it, man. It was fun. If you can maybe tell me a little bit about your early career. I know that you were in Wall Street earlier, then you moved on to Volvo Air Services and then now you are in Regional One for last many years. If you can tell us a little bit, you know, about your career, a bit about your career growth, where you started, what was your early days like and what got you into aviation from Wall Street? You know, that is, I think a very interesting bit. 

Hank: Yeah. Thank you, Alok. Yeah, it's an interesting story and you know, I've had the opportunity to meet a lot of young people as we started an initiative at Regional one called Regional One University, and trying to get young people to keep an open mind. A lot of young people think they wanna be a doctor or a lawyer or do certain things, and in some cases that holds true. But I think I'm living proof of keeping an open mind and letting, you know, life's journey take you down a path of opportunity. My dre