From C-5As to Business Jets, Bob Marinace Built an Aviation Career

By Paul Seidenman

Key Air CEO Bob Marinace

A native of Islip, New York, Bob Marinace has been involved in aviation since he was a 19-year old flight mechanic on the C5A transport out of Dover Air Force Base, Delaware.

“I joined the Air Force after high school in 1979 with the idea that I could work my way into flight training,” he said. But, by the mid 1980s, Marinace decided to transition his mechanical skills from military to civilian transports with an airline job. Unfortunately, at the time, the airlines were not in a hiring mode. He then turned to general aviation as the next career step, as a mechanic at a small flight school in Brookhaven, New York.

“I went from working on the world’s largest airplane to maintaining some of the world’s smallest — Cessna 172s and Cessna 150s,” explained Marinace. “But it was good because it afforded me the opportunity to learn how to fly.” It wasn’t long afterward that another opportunity surfaced to get involved with private jets.

“Getting hired as a mechanic in 1986 for World Jet at Islip was my entry into business jets,” he said. “They managed and chartered Lockheed JetStars, Gulfstream IIs, King Airs, and Challenger 600s. That was a real turning point for me, because I was lucky to have sound guidance from industry professionals within the company, who helped me to focus on a career direction within aviation.”

“That advice in my early days in business aviation,” said Marinace, “led me to recognize my career possibilities as following one of three possible tracks. I could pursue a flying career and get the training necessary to go into the right seat of a Beech King Air, or I could continue to build my career with the company as a mechanic; but I was also shown a pathway into aviation management, which is what I decided to do.”

As Marinace pointed out, he had always found the “organization aspect” of business aviation interesting. “While I was at World Jet,” he said. “I volunteered for staff positions within the organization, and worked up to safety manager, then chief inspector.” That experience ultimately led to the maintenance director slot for Executive Jet Aviation’s New York operation, which purchased World Jet’s certificate.

When Executive Jet Aviation sold its East Coast operations to KC Transportation Services — which was part of KC Aviation— Marinace met and worked with NetJets’ founders Richard Santulli and Jim Jacobs, as well as KC Aviation’s Dick Van Gemert and Jim Christensen.

KC Transportation Services evolved into New World Jet Corp where Marinace was a senior vice president. In 2006, he joined Atlantic Flight Services at Teterboro as chief operating officer, working with Tom Davis, the company’s CEO. Atlantic Flight Services evolved into other companies and joined the Sentient – TAG transition; and two years later Marinace joined Key Air.

“I consider guys like Dick Van Gemert, Jim Christensen, Rich Santulli, Jim Jacobs and Tom Davis to all be great mentors and role models for my career,” said Marinace. “Each of these gentlemen had an influence on me from my early days as a mechanic to where I am today. These are the industry’s legacy people, who provided valuable lessons that I continue to apply. I try to pay that forward to my own organization every day.”

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