Louis H. Knotts
President
Board Chairman

Lou holds the position of President and CEO at Calspan. A former Navy and New York Air National Guard pilot, Lou has worked at Calspan as an engineering test pilot, aeronautical engineer, program manager, and Aeronautics Vice President since 1981. He was instrumental in acquiring the Western New York aeronautical and transportation testing businesses from General Dynamics in 2005 to re-form Calspan. Lou is a graduate of the US Naval Academy and of the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.

Thomas Pleban
Executive Vice President
Board Secretary

Tom is Executive Vice President of Calspan and was instrumental in acquiring the Western New York aeronautical and transportation testing business from General Dynamics. Tom has 30 years of experience working for companies that provide a wide variety of services to the US Government. For the last 20 years Tom has worked at Calspan as a Manager, Director and Vice President, overseeing the business operation activities of the organization. Tom is a graduate of Niagara University and currently sits on the board of ECLIPSE, LLC which is a University at Buffalo not-for-profit involved in "extreme event" testing and research.

John Yurtchuk
Senior Vice President
Board Treasurer

As one of the Calspan owners, Mr. Yurtchuk was primarily responsible for financing the acquisition of Calspan in 2005 and remains actively involved in strategic business decisions and in corporate finance. John founded Matrix Development Corporation in 1990 and has successfully developed, financed and constructed several million square feet of space worth over $200M in western New York, the New York metropolitan area, and in Florida. Mr. Yurtchuk holds a B.A. (1977), M.A. (1980) and Ph.D. (ABD) all in economics from the State University of New York at Buffalo. Prior to entering real estate development, he was a loan officer on Wall Street, a corporate economist and a university instructor at SUNY Buffalo, Medaille College and SUNY Fredonia.

Honorable John E. Krings
Board Member

Jack Krings has been on all sides of defense acquisition process. He has over 12 years experience as an Air Force and Air National Guard operational fighter pilot, a graduate of the Naval Test Pilot School, nearly 30 years with McDonnell as an experimental test pilot, flew the first flight of the F-18 Hornet, Director of Flight Operations, and Director of Navy Programs before retiring in 1985. President Reagan appointed Jack the first Director of Operational Test and Evaluation for the DoD, working for both the Secretary of Defense and the Congressional Armed Services Committees. Jack has been involved with Calspan for nearly 50 years. His first experiences with Calspan came in 1961 at the Naval Test Pilot School, then as a test pilot when Calspan assisted McDonnell during the development of the F-18 Hornet. Jack has been involved with the current management when the company was divested from General Dynamics and reformed again as Calspan.