Biz- jet fractions firm takes off in turbulence
For as little as $ 800,000, it’s possible to buy into ownership of three different aircraft models through Aurora Jet Partners
BUY AND FLY: The corporate climate must be warming when experienced and seemingly prudent folk launch an enterprise to sell business jets, albeit in aircraft fractions as little as one- eighth for around $ 800,000.
One principal of Aurora Jet Partners is Don Wheaton, Jr., whose father founded an Edmonton- based General Motors dealership chain in 1950 that, with 19 units, is now Canada’s largest. Wheaton Sr. also co- founded a Cessna aircraft dealership and leasingc hartering firm. Two decades ago, he sold a half- interest to Kim Ward to be restructured as Morningstar Partners. That firm sells biz- jet fractions and operates Federal Express Canada’s cargo- jet fleet. Ward is a former pilot who incorporated the Interward Asset Management investment firm in 1990 to specialize in mid- cap oilandgas and mining ventures.
Aurora Jet Partners is composed of Morningstar and another Edmonton- sparked outfit. That’s the Ledcor Group, which Bill Lede founded as Leduc Construction in 1947 to build roads into the then- booming oilpatch. After his accidental death in 1980, sons Dave and Cliff steered the now- Vancouverhead quartered firm to become a 5,000- employee conglomerate. The link to Aurora is its Opus Aviation division, which reverted to full Ledcor ownership in 2010 after investors like Harbour Air principal Greg Mcdougall deplaned.
Opus sales- and- marketing chief Darryl Saunders, a pilot who once managed the marketing of Microsoft’s Flight Simulator game, is Aurora’s VP. He has pitched charter clients on Opus’s VLJ ( Very Light Jet) Cessna Citation Mustangs that cost around $ 3 million and can round- trip four passengers to Edmonton for $ 1,900 each. But the VLJ in Aurora’s sales catalogue is the Brazil- built Embraer Phenom 100. ( It also offers the larger Phenom 300 and Canadian archrival Bombardier’s eightto13- seat Challenger 300 and 605). Saunders must figure that even fractional buyers would prefer the $ 4- millionrange Phenom 100’ s 390- vs340- knot speed and 59- vs- 54inch headroom advantage on the Mustang. Also, although each aircraft’s lift- up fifth seat reveals a toilet, the Phenom’s has a privacy door.
There was no biffy for the three passengers who jammed the spartan de Havilland Fox Moth biplane Ward’s father Max flew to and from Yellowknife, N. W. T. at 79 knots in 1946.
Twenty years later, though, Ward Sr. acquired a 109- seat Boeing 727 to handle transatlantic charters ( nervy with three engines then) non- stop for a money- making 16.85hours a day. A 189- seat Boeing 707 followed, and Ward returned to Renton, Wash. in 1973 to accept his Wardair firm’s 456- seat 747A. That jumbo jet was a monument to Canadian bush- flying entrepreneurism. But by 1989, having switched to scheduled operations, ordered an unsustainable 38 aircraft and been plagued by computer- booking glitches, Wardair was folded into Canadian Airlines International, which was itself absorbed by Air Canada in 2000.
Only the brave, bonkers or Arab- state- rich smile on airline prospects today. But don’t say that to Richard Branson, who’ll address the Vancouver Board of Trade Friday, officially inaugurate his 1984- founded Virgin Atlantic Airways’ VancouverLondon non- stop service, then party until late at the Commodore Ballroom. Branson may not put it as Ward Sr. did in 1973. But he’d likely understand the now- 90- year- old pioneer’s attitude to aviation- industry rules — or anybody else’s: “We didn’t break any more than we had to to survive.”
• AFTER EMPIRE: Military strategists and election- hungry politicians might give their souls to supervise Iran’s discrete internal communications. But University of B. C. professors John Macdonald and Vern Dettwiler did that for consulting fees, not sacrifices, more than 40 years ago. That’s when they helped then- Burnabybased telecommunications manufacturer Lenkurt Electric design and furnish a computerized supervisory system to oversee 400 sites in the Iran National Telecommunications Network’s 14,000- kilometre grid.
Accustomed to the era’s large computers, other engineers were astonished when the two specified then- revolutionary but still- rack- mounted Data General Supernova minicomputers that likely had less processing jam than today’s smartphones.
Among other enormous capital projects, the system contributed to Mohammad Reza Shah Pahlavi celebrating what he called the Persian empire’s 2,500th anniversary in 1971. The shah was exiled in 1979, by which time Macdonald Dettwiler and Associates Ltd. ( a. k. a. MDA) was becoming the now- Richmond- headquartered advanced- technology firm whose 3,000 employees provide surveillance, intelligence and communications solutions globally and into space — with a keen eye on Iran, no doubt.
• HOT TO TROT AGAIN: Growing up in a Saskatchewan bloodstock- breeding family, fashion designer- agent Nicole La Greca soon learned what the “Go big or go home” slogan meant. “I was five, and would have liked a pony,” she said. “But my Dad believed that, if you’re going to ride, you ride a horse. So he gave me a 15- hand palomino instead.”
Dad was the late Richard La Greca, whose construction firm erected many buildings in Fort Mcmurray as that Alberta oilsands community’s population tripled to 31,000 in the 1970s.
He also gave Nicole and sisters Michelle, Sarah and Nadine “the Gretzky lesson” about a boss’s working hours: “First on the ice and last off.”
Late grandfather Leonard imparted a horse- rearing skill also useful with humans. “With 75 quarter horses and thoroughbreds on the farm, there were plenty of foals,” La Greca recalled. “But grandfather believed we were all family, so we stayed close to them every day. When they came to be broken, they didn’t buck. They didn’t know what to do.”
University of Saskatchewan fine- arts grad Nicole knew what to do following two years as a professional dancer in Montreal. Moving to Vancouver in 1996, she asked if Robson Street’s True Value Vintage store carried the reconstructed garments she’d adapted as performing costumes. Manager Dane Smith, now a Hollywood visual- effects producer, called owner Robert Haddad, who promptly made her creative director of the Beyond Retro label that morphed into his New York- based Zachary’s Smile design company. La Greca then became lead designer at Honeydrop Clothing, whose owner, Jeff Clark, went on to found the Source the Globe apparel manufacturing supply- chain intelligence firm in Shanghai. She then succeeded Flosport chief designer Danny Hogg who, with wife Carla, founded Family Business Distribution Ltd. and its international Gentle Fawn and Left on Houston brands. Finally, managing the U. K.- based Bench brand with Michel Menard’s firm gave La Greca agency know- how.
When father Richard’s death passed the entrepreneurial baton, she incorporated La Greca Design Group Inc. Last year, its Premium Collective Showroom division became the western Canadian agency for Japan’s One Green Elephant line of double- dyed, organicdenim and other apparel. Its entire first- season stock sold in three weeks, with Howard Colton racking some beside Balenciaga, Gucci, Pucci, Hermes and like merchandise in his ultra- ritzy Richmond penthouse store.
Now, La Greca’s design bell is ringing again.
“The thing I miss most is riding every day,” the longtime quarter horse competitor said. “I can’t just say, ‘ Daddy can I have the black one?’ any more.” Will that reflect in the stillunnamed contemporary line of dresses, tops, skirts and such like she’s working up? “Remember that [ famed designer] Coco Chanel designed trousers as a keen rider herself,” she said. “And I love the esthetic of English riding.”