Drew Steketee, President and Chief Executive Officer of the BE A PILOT Foundation in Washington D.C. Prior to this position, Steketee had been Senior Vice-president for Communications since 1991, at the 360,000-member Aircraft Owners and Pilots Association. He received national notice and industry acclaim as General Aviation’s leading spokesperson following the tragic John Kennedy, Jr. accident in 1999. The effort won a coveted Aviation Week and Space Technology Laurel Award for the proactive AOPA team responding to the tragedy.
Previously, he was the first Executive Director of the Partnership for Improved Air Travel, founded earlier by the airlines, Boeing and other manufacturers, and the travel industry. Enlisting a quarter-million frequent fliers, the coalition sought public consensus for better airports and air traffic control. He was Director of Corporate Communications for Beech Aircraft Corporation in Wichita in the late 1980s during development and certification of the Beech Starship. Previously, he was Director of Communications for the General Aviation Manufacturers Association and for the Airport Operators Council International, both in Washington, DC.
Steketee, a 2,600-hour Commercial pilot, earned his early flight training by mowing the grass runway at a New Jersey airfield. He is also the founder and volunteer Executive Director of the Civil Air Patrol Historical Foundation. A 1971 graduate of Brown University, he resides in Ashburn, Virginia with wife Carol, an employee of the Air Line Pilots Association. You can find out more about BE A PILOT at their website.