Blue Peak Aviation Expands Senior Team With CEO And NED Appointments
Blue Peak Aviation, which specialises in the acquisition and leasing of aviation assets, including commercial aircraft and engines, has appointed Angus Clarke as Chief Executive Officer and Enrique Dupuy de Lome Chavarri as Non-Executive Director.
Following Blue Peak Aviation’s recent hires of Harry Nourse as Chief Financial Officer and Tony Kozlowski as Chief Investment Officer, Clarke and Dupuy de Lome Chavarri bring combined industry experience of more than 55 years and will play crucial roles in driving the firm’s presence in the aviation leasing market. These appointments come at a time when Blue Peak Aviation is looking to accelerate its capital deployment up to $500m and increase its leasing portfolio over the next 18 months.
Prior to joining Blue Peak Aviation, Clarke was Executive Vice President of Strategy of Air France-KLM, with a seat on the Executive Committee and was appointed to the dual role of Chief Commercial Officer at Air France in May 2020. In addition to being responsible for overall Group strategy and M&A strategy, Clarke’s role at Air France included fleet planning, network planning and customer experience. Clarke also served as special advisor to Air Canada’s President and Chief Operating Officer, where he played a key role in supporting the company’s operational and economic performance. Clarke brings extensive experience in the lessor sector, having spent nine years as Managing Director of an aircraft and engine leasing and finance business focusing on mid-life narrow-bodied and wide-bodied aircraft.
Dupuy de Lome Chavarri joins Blue Peak Aviation having spent nearly nine years at International Airlines Group (“IAG”), where he most recently held the position of Chief Financial Officer. He joined Spain’s national carrier, IBERIA, in 1990 as Financial Director and was instrumental in the IBERIA - British Airways merger in 2011 resulting in the creation of IAG, where he held the position of CFO until his retirement in June 2019. During his time at IAG, he led the financial strengthening and expansion of the Group, driving a significant improvement in its market capitalisation, profitability and returns. He also has extensive experience in M&A, having played critical roles in IAG’s acquisitions of BMI, Vueling, Aer Lingus, and the creation of Level. Dupuy de Lome Chavarri has been a NED at Wizz since November 2020 and was nominated as Chairman of AuditCo in January 2022.
Formed in 2020 by special situations manager Warwick Capital, Blue Peak Aviation is a commercial aircraft and engine lessor, specialising in mid-life assets. The business has established a fleet of narrowbody assets and will also be seeking opportunities in the widebody segment, to include cargo and freight aircraft.
Angus Clarke, CEO at Blue Peak Aviation, said: “The aviation industry has been one of the sectors most severely impacted by Covid-19, and the slow recovery has put enormous pressure on asset values, consequently forcing sales by over-levered lessors and airlines looking for cash. Blue Peak Aviation is uniquely positioned to support and benefit from the sector’s recovery, and I am looking forward to driving the business onto the next stage of its growth journey.”
Enrique Dupuy de Lome Chavarri, NED, said; “Blue Peak Aviation’s quality leadership team and unrivalled experience in the sector makes joining the team an exciting prospect. With our extensive network and dynamic asset optimisation model, we can retain the flexibility to look beyond straight lease opportunities and seek out a blended airline lessee credit quality mix, to optimise returns.”
Ian Burgess, Co-CIO and Founding Partner at Warwick Capital commented: “During the pandemic, Warwick Capital experienced an uptick of special situations in the aviation sector given the severe impact on air travel. We saw an opportunity to acquire assets and put them on long-term leases to support airline’s liquidity and capitalise on the sector’s recovery, which led to the formation of Blue Peak Aviation. Bringing Angus and Enrique on board will give us extensive experience in mid-life aviation asset space, as well as significant management and board level nous from some of the largest companies in the industry.”
Warwick Capital currently manages $2.5 billion of capital, and Blue Peak Aviation is one of the deals in Warwick Capital’s European Opportunities Fund III, which closed last month.
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