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● CJI ANALYSIS ·by Yves Le Marquand ·July 21, 2026 ·10:17Z

NBAA appoints Emily Deaton as SVP product development and sales | Corporate Jet Investor | CJI news

Emily Deaton has been appointed senior vice president for product development and sales at the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA), departing from her role as CEO of jetAVIVA. In her new position, Deaton will lead the creation of new member offerings, forge strategic partnerships across the industry, and accelerate the association's growth during a period of rapid change in business aviation. During her four years leading jetAVIVA, she grew annual revenue, expanded into new aircraft categories, and established sales partnerships across five continents.
Detailed analysis

The National Business Aviation Association has named Emily Deaton to a newly created senior vice president role overseeing product development and sales, marking a notable executive move within an industry association that has traditionally organized its leadership around advocacy, regulatory affairs, and event management rather than commercial growth functions. Deaton departs jetAVIVA, the aircraft sales and brokerage firm she led as CEO for the past four years, where she expanded the company's footprint into new aircraft categories and built sales partnerships spanning five continents. Her background also includes a stint at Embraer Executive Jets in business development, giving her a blend of OEM-side and brokerage-side commercial experience that NBAA leadership is betting will translate into new member offerings, strategic partnerships, and revenue growth for the association itself.

The creation of this position signals a shift in how NBAA is positioning itself amid what CEO Ed Bolen describes as "a moment of rapid change" for business aviation. That change encompasses emerging aircraft categories such as advanced air mobility and eVTOL platforms, evolving ownership and fractional/charter business models, a generational turnover among both customers and workforce, and expanding international markets. For an association historically built around its flagship convention (NBAA-BACE), advocacy on tax and airspace issues, and safety programming, hiring a growth-oriented executive with a sales and product background suggests NBAA intends to diversify its member value proposition beyond traditional lobbying and networking events. This matters to operators and flight departments because associations like NBAA increasingly shape access to training resources, safety data-sharing programs, and industry standards that affect day-to-day operations — a more commercially aggressive NBAA could mean new services, but also potential shifts in dues structures or partnership-driven offerings that operators will want to watch.

For working pilots and flight departments, executive-level moves at NBAA are typically downstream of their daily operations, but they carry indirect relevance. NBAA's advocacy arm influences FAA rulemaking on issues ranging from Part 91K fractional ownership rules to international operations and slot access, and a well-resourced, growth-focused association is often better positioned to fund research, safety initiatives, and government affairs work that benefits flight crews directly. Additionally, Deaton's dual experience in brokerage (jetAVIVA) and OEM sales (Embraer) suggests NBAA may lean into deeper engagement with the transaction side of business aviation — aircraft sales, fractional programs, and emerging mobility products — areas that intersect with how flight departments plan fleet upgrades and how charter/fractional pilots see their operating environments evolve.

The transition also reflects broader consolidation and leadership churn trends within business aviation's brokerage sector, as jetAVIVA turns to CFO Kathy Oberbroeckling as interim CEO while searching for a permanent replacement. jetAVIVA's recent M&A activity, including acquisitions of Kansas Aircraft Corporation and Jet Quest, indicates the brokerage sector continues to consolidate amid strong demand for pre-owned and new business jets. Deaton's move from a growth-stage private company to a legacy trade association also illustrates a broader pattern across aviation: associations and manufacturers alike are recruiting commercially-minded executives from adjacent sectors to navigate a period of technological disruption, new entrants (eVTOL, supersonic, advanced air mobility), and shifting customer demographics, rather than relying solely on traditional aviation-insider leadership pipelines.

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