Leadership Team

John Owen brings nearly 20 years of experience in management and financial consulting to the leadership team. John joined Airshare as CFO in 2016 and became President and CEO in March 2018. He originally fine-tuned his consultative skills and financial acumen working in progressively higher roles at State Street, Accenture, and KPMG. He previously was CFO for a supply-chain management company and most recently served as Vice President for a national executive search firm leading their private equity practice. John received a bachelor’s degree in business administration from the University of Kansas and a master’s degree in accounting from the University of Missouri-Kansas City.

Alex Franz has over 20 years of experience in aviation. Alex has been with Airshare since 2003 and held a number of positions including Line Captain, Base Manager, Check Airman, and Chief Pilot. Earlier in his career, Alex served as a captain for a freight airline, and Flight Instructor for a flight school. He also spent some time as a Civil Engineer. Alex holds a bachelor’s degree in Civil Engineering from the University of Kansas. Alex is type rated in the Phenom 100 and 300 and has logged over 6,000 hours of flight time.

Andy Tretiak has over 23 years of experience in leading marketing, strategic planning and brand development for consumer and business-to-business brands. As CMO for Airshare, Andy leads all strategic marketing and communications efforts for the company. Prior to joining Airshare, Andy was managing partner and co-founder of digital marketing agency Brand Propulsion. He previously was CMO of Major League Soccer club Sporting Kansas City, where he was the architect of the team’s highly successful rebrand in 2010. Earlier in his career, Andy spent several years in sports marketing, brand activation and advertising. He holds a bachelor of arts degree from the University of Missouri.

Josh Johnson has nearly 20 years’ experience in accounting, financial reporting, research and enterprise risk services. He joins Airshare from NIC, Inc., where he served as vice president and corporate controller. Johnson currently serves on the supervisory committee of CommunityAmerica Credit Union and the Accounting Advisory Board of the University of Kansas. He holds an undergraduate degree and a master’s degree in Accounting & Information Systems from the University of Kansas.

Lori Harlow joined Airshare in 2009 as Accounting Manager and was promoted to Controller in 2011. In 2015, Lori was promoted to Vice President of Accounting and Controller. Prior to joining Airshare, she served as an inventory accounting supervisor at Embarq and as a senior financial analyst at Sprint. She holds designations both as a CPA and as a Chartered Global Management Accountant (CGMA). Lori holds a bachelor’s degree in accounting from Baker University.

Gary P. Veer has over 40 years working as an mechanic, inspector and manager in aircraft maintenance. The last 14 years have been with Airshare as the Director of Maintenance. Prior to coming to Airshare, he spent 18 years as DOM for several different Air Ambulance operators maintaining both rotor and fix wing aircraft. He has also spent time working in General Aviation as a manager of a 145 Repair Station.

Ben Petersen has over 13 years of experience in private aviation, on-demand and scheduled Part 135 operations. As Director of Operations Ben leads the Scheduling and Flight departments. Ben joined Airshare in 2007 and has held many roles since, including being an Assistant Chief Pilot for over four years where he developed the current crewmember hiring process and eventually moving on to Chief Pilot. Previous to Airshare, Ben flew scheduled Part 135 freight and also taught private, instrument, and commercial flight training as an FAA certified flight instructor for over two years. He attended Kansas State University where he earned a Bachelor of Science Professional Pilot degree.