DS Aviation Consulting - History
Aviation in the blood
DS Aviation Consulting rests on the Life-Long experiences of the Founder & CEO, David Settergren.
At the age of 5, when Dave's oldest brother started taking flying lessons, aviation has been in his blood.
After saving money through all sorts of odd jobs, Dave started flight lessons at the age of 13. Soloing at 16 and becoming a private pilot for single engine and sailplane at the age of 17, Dave dreamed of being a fighter pilot.
Attending Southern Illinois University @ Carbondale, Dave studied Aviation Maintenance and Aviation Management while in Reserve Officer Training Corps on a path to fulfil that dream. Unfortunately, it was not to be. After being given one of 16 slots with 16,000 applicants, his childhood nemesis, Allergies, took the opportunity away. Not many cats at 30,000 feet!
While at the university while doing quite well at the aviation studies, found time to work full time while also being president of the Flying Sky Dogs (RC flying club) and as the Chairman of the Rotor & Wing Association Airshow '88. These activities set the stage to being selected by GE Aircraft Engines as a Field Service Engineer right out of university.
Dave spent the next 13 years with GE Aircraft engines supporting both Military and commercial engines in Germany, Israel, China and Malaysia in various capacities (Tech Rep, Flight test engineer, Program Manager, Sales Engineer, Sales & Marketing).
After 13 years overseas, GE AE HQ asked Dave to come back to Cincinnati. Unfortunately, not only aviation was in the blood, Asia was too. Luckily, GE Capital Aviation Services had an opening and he quickly transferred to his new position in Singapore. Dave spent 13 years with GECAS in Singapore and became very successful making deals, expanding his network and learning how to be successful in Asia.
Dave was offered a good opportunity to join AerSale as their VP of Leasing and Trading for the Asia Pacific Region. After 2 years and some market decline, Dave joined Global Jet Capital, a company that had bought much of GE's Business Jet fleet and was primarily ex-GE staff. His job was to identify leasing and financing opportunities in the Southeast Asia/Oceania region. Despite identifying many opportunities, the credit appetite was not quite right, so Dave left to set out on his own.
That's how DS Aviation Consulting was born.