Just joking

Between the picture of a Togolese pineapple growing in his backyard he sends out to friends via email, the Mickey Mouse satchel bag hanging from the door knob of his office closet and a confession that he will still clean the upholstery of a plane at 3:00 am if need be, Tom Ronell, CEO, Istithmar World Aviation Holdings, clearly does not take himself too seriously.

Tom Ronell, CEO, Istithmar World Aviation Holdings

In fact, the son of Swiss musician parents who grew up in both “Mafioso” Brooklyn and “Soprano Country” New Jersey tells the story of a very serious career as if it were a joke.

“I credit myself for making the worst career move in aviation history,” he proclaims, explaining how he left his position as Vice President of Sales with Airbus to set up a western- style business airline in Russia for Boris Yeltsin.

This was 1991, however, when Gorbachev sent troops into Latvia and Lithuania and started cracking down on entrepreneurial business activities.

“In four quick months, I went from being Vice President of Sales for Airbus to being an unemployed fugitive of the KGB,” he recalls.

Three days after the fall of the U.S.S.R, however, Ronell returned to Russia to help start the airline Transaero. “We had the first western aircraft in the Soviet Union,” he says proudly.

Ronell can also be proud of making some of the smartest moves in aviation history.

The Wharton Business School graduate had earned his position at Airbus by the time he was 30, after all, he convinced the European company to market planes to the US.

At first, Airbus thought he was joking.

“Everybody said, ‘You’re crazy! That’s like selling refrigerators to Eskimos. Nobody in the US is going to buy a European aircraft.’”

But within months after Ronell started in 1984, his team had sold 12 white tailed A-300s; and, by the time he left the company, sales in North America had reached US$50 billion.

“That was really the coming-of-age of Airbus in North America,” he says.

After his Transaero stint, Ronell made it a habit to start or restructure carriers, setting up a carrier in Turkmenistan, as well as Trans International Express in New York and Leisure Air, a charter for European fans to and around the US for the 1994 World Cup. He also helped privatise Air Aruba and Puna, the national airway of Uruguay and restructure Panama’s Copa Airlines.

Now, he is in charge of Dubai World’s aviation and aerospace investments, grouped under Istithmar World Aviation Holdings, an entity worth at least US$1 billion. Assets include major stakes in Air Djibouti, Spice Jet, Dubai Aerospace Enterprise and SR Techniques, the Swiss Air maintenance centre in Zurich. He also manages Dubai World’s corporate jets and has turned its executive jet operations commercial. “We want to make Istithmar the premier executive jet operations in the Middle East,” he says.

But Ronell wants to take this new organisation even farther – as far as outer space. “My goal is to move into space operations and turn the Maktoum Airport into the Maktoum Airport and Spaceport,” he proclaims. “I would like to make Dubai the world centre for commercial space activities.” And something tells me he’s not joking.

Tom Ronell entertains Kathryn Semcow at his office in Emirates Towers, Dubai