AvFinity's executive team is collaborating on developing exciting new solutions for the air transport industry. Together, they bring decades of aviation and technology experience and the knowledge necessary to solve today's aviation communication needs.
Steve Perkins, Chief Technology Officer
Steve D. Perkins is the Chief Technical Officer of AvFinity. His interest in aviation began 35 years ago when he first received his pilot's license. For the last 25 years, he has dedicated himself to improving how airlines communicate, internally and externally, in order to make flight possible. His communications innovations have resulted in four patent applications and multiple software technologies supporting hundreds of airlines worldwide.
Steve also serves as president of AvCentric Software Solutions, a software research and development company that he founded in 1996. Prior to founding AvCentric, Steve served as Principal Systems Engineer for a business-to-business computer company and was responsible for sales and marketing. Previously, Steve was Senior Systems Engineer for both Universal Weather and a Houston-based heat transfer company.
He studied mechanical engineering at both the University of Texas at Austin and the University of Houston.
Doug Perkins, Chief Executive Officer
Doug Perkins is the Managing Director and CEO of AvFinity. Since 2000, he has developed expertise in transferring technology from mind to market, solving unique problems.
Doug is also President and founder of TriTech Ventures LLC, a technology transfer company that has developed business models for many diverse innovations including a public company to monetize underutilized patents, an enzyme to heal burn wounds, a biochip for livestock disease diagnostics, and a botanical freshness monitor for foods and pharmaceuticals. Prior to launching TriTech, Doug served as a Vice President of the Texas Beef Council overseeing public relations/communications, export market development, beef quality research and nutrition. Previously, he spent 35 years as a magazine journalist and editor with more than 1,000 bylined articles to his credit.
Doug earned a BA in journalism and a MS in technology commercialization from the University of Texas at Austin.
Robert Cook, Chief Commercial Officer
Robert Cook is Chief Commercial Officer at AvFinity. With over 20 years experience in the aviation industry, Robert has been actively involved in new business development, consultancy and ancillary activities.
Prior to joining AvFinity, Robert has held key senior roles with global organizations such as GE, Westinghouse, AT&T, Northrop Grumman, SITA and BT Global Services. He founded and currently serves as Chairman of Blackstone Gates, a consultancy, focused on business transformation and customer-centered strategies. Projects range from customer experience management, revenue generation initiatives, ancillary airline revenues and airport retail.
He has worked with airlines such as American, Delta, Continental and Alaska Airlines in the Americas; Korean, Qantas, Singapore and Thai in Asia-Pacific; and Air France, Alitalia, Czech and Emirates in EAME. His airport assignments include Toronto, Manchester, London Luton, Amsterdam, Dubai, Sydney, Singapore, Budapest and abertis airports.
Robert has served on the board of the CDLC, Fittings Inc., and Symbols Interactive Media. He currently serves on several new venture advisory boards.
He earned a BS degree from Concordia University in Montreal, Canada.
Ben C. Newcomb, Senior Systems Engineer
Ben Newcomb is an IT professional with over 25 years experience in developing multiple information technology areas including real-time UNIX/C/C++ development, infrastructure design and maintenance, DR/BCP and IT personnel management.
Prior to joining AvFinity, Ben was employed at Wal-Mart as senior IT consultant, where he supported the retailer's supply chain management initiatives by porting and documenting its migration of applications to SUSE Linux 9 and 10 from other UNIX flavors. Previously, he worked for Universal Weather from 1986 to 2006 as a UNIX/C developer, and then, manager of Universal's infrastructure services where he managed a group of 11 IT professionals. In Universal's internal response to Hurricane Rita, Ben also served as a principal author of the company's disaster recovery plan and its first corporate business continuity plan. He also held a UNIX/C developer position with NOW Weather, Inc.
Ben received a BS in Computer Science from the University of Southern Mississippi.
John Q. Quintanilla, Senior Systems Analyst
John Quintanilla, AvFinity's Senior Systems Analyst, brings more than 20 years of engineering, aviation communications and software development experience in the aerospace and aviation industries.
Previous positions include Supervisor of Application Development at Universal Weather where he managed a team of six developers and was responsible for support of web applications and communication applications. During his 13 years at Universal, he also served as a Senior Software Developer focusing on ACARS aircraft communications, web development, communications application, C++ weather applications and WebSphere MQ application development. John also worked for UNISYS Space Systems for seven years as Software Engineer where he supported NASA's training division and was a developer on a flight planning system for mission operations.
John started his career as a Computer Scientist for Standard Oil's exploration division and as a Computer Programmer for Lockheed, responsible for launch vehicle database applications.
John holds a BA in Computer Science from the University of Texas at Austin.
