Though few know his name, Kenn Ricci sits at the helm of arguably the largest private aviation empire ever built, one who operates 150 aircraft, employs more than 2,200 people worldwide and has more than $2.5 billion in revenue!
Who is Kenn Ricci?
Kenneth C. Ricci, known as “Kenn” to his friends, was born on September 3 1956 and grew up in a suburb of Cleveland, Ohio.
A mathematically gifted student, Kenn decided he wanted to become an accountant and enrolled at the University of Notre Dame to help make this happen.
Following the advice of “Use your time in college to find your passion” given to him by his father, as well as help him pay his tuition, Kenn got involved with the US Air Force’s Reserve Officer Training Corps (ROTC) and learned to fly.
Later, he graduated the Cleveland-Marshall College of Law. Interestingly, years later (in 2016), the school named him as their distinguished alumni of the year.
Like so many others before and after him, Kenn had been bitten by the aviation bug whilst a ROTC cadet and decided to change his career plans. Instead of becoming an accountant, he would become a pilot.
After getting certified to fly Dassault Falcon, Cessna Citation and Gulfstream jets, Kenn found work as a pilot. However, the life of a private jet pilot wasn’t as glamorous as Kenn had imagined.
Yes, the people he flew were rich and lived the high life, but Kenn, and his fellow pilots, worked long hours and were constantly away from home and on the road. To make matters worse, their employment was almost entirely cyclical: when the economy was good, they were good, when it wasn’t, neither were they.
And in 1980, the economy wasn’t doing too well… and a young Kenn Ricci found himself laid off. Deciding enough was enough, he chose to go out on his own and make the lives of pilots like him much easier in doing so.
Directional Aviation
Today, most of Kenn Ricci’s holdings are through Directional Aviation, a company he founded in 1981 when he started his first company…
Corporate Wings
SIMCOM Aviation Training (1989)
OneSky
Flexjet & FX Air
SkyJet & PrivateFly
Sentient Jet & Sirio
Constant Aviation
Nextant Aerospace
Sojourn Aviation (2010)
Through his connections in Nextant Aerospace, Kenn met several of Hawker Beechcraft’s salesmen, including VP of Sales, Bradd Hatt, and .