Company

John Calcagno was named Chief Executive Officer of Piper Aircraft, Inc in 2021. Calcagno is a seasoned and successful executive with extensive experience in the finance, operations, distribution, and sales areas.  He has served as the long tenured Chief Financial Officer of Piper, having been on the Piper team for the past 11 years.  He has also had roles of increasing responsibility throughout his career at The Acerra Consortium, Alltel (Supply) Communications Products, Coca-Cola, and C.R. Bard.  Calcagno began his career in the audit practice of PriceWaterhouseCoopers.  Calcagno holds a Bachelor of Science in Accountancy, with minor emphasis in Political Science from Southern Illinois University, and is a Certified Public Accountant.  Additionally, he is an honorably discharged veteran of the United States Air Force.

Danny joined Piper Aircraft in 1998, and has held positions of increasing responsibility within Finance during his tenure. He was most recently appointed Vice President and Chief Financial Officer in 2022. Danny is responsible for leading the Finance, Information Technology, and Project Management departments.  In his position, he supervises all financial reporting, treasury, budgeting, payroll, and cost accounting functions. He is extensively involved in product pricing, contractual activities, employee benefit matters, and other administrative functions.

Danny entered public accounting in 1996, where worked with O’Haire, Kmetz and Company (currently Kmetz, Elwell, Graham & Associates). During his time in public accounting, he worked in both tax and assurance services within a variety of industries, including manufacturers, governments, and nonprofits.

Danny attended the University of Central Florida where he received a Bachelor of Science in Accounting. He went on to obtain his Florida fifth year education requirement from Rollins College.

Buddy Sessoms Vice President of Product & Government Affairs at Piper Aircraft. 

Buddy joined Piper Aircraft in 1998 and has held product development positions of increasing responsibility in design, flight sciences, test operations, and certification. As Senior Director and Chief Engineer he was responsible for leading the conceptual design, flight sciences, and test operations for the M600.  He is currently responsible for our NTSB and FAA relationship as well as the product development strategy and innovation throughout Piper’s business. The application of technology in a manner that improves safety, manufacturability, ease of operation, and customer centered product development is his highest goal. In addition, he continues to provide guidance throughout the engineering process and is an active pilot of Piper’s complete product line.

Prior product development history includes contributions to Pratt & Whitney, Sensenich Propeller, and Eclipse Aviation.

Buddy holds a Master of Science in Mechanical Engineering from the Georgia Institute of Technology and a Bachelor of Science in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Central Florida.

He is a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics in addition to the Society of Experimental Test Pilots.  He is also a former FAA Designated Engineering Representative and Piper Aircraft ODA Designee.

Ron Gunnarson is the Vice President of Sales, Marketing, and Customer Support at Piper Aircraft. Appointed to this position in January 2017, Gunnarson is responsible for developing and executing global sales and marketing strategies to continue Piper Aircraft’s growth, as well as contributing to Piper’s overall product and business strategic development. Ron also leads Piper’s global customer support team.

Ron brings 30 years of General Aviation Marketing experience to Piper Aircraft. Prior to joining the Piper team, Ron served as the Vice President of Marketing at Textron Aviation where he was responsible for strategic brand development, product positioning and tactical execution for all global marketing efforts. Ron also previously served as Vice President of Marketing for Beechcraft Corp. and Vice President of Marketing and Communications for Hawker Beechcraft Corp.

Ron is a former demonstration captain with over 2800 hours of flight time and type ratings in the Hawker 400XP and the Beechcraft King Air 350. Ron holds a bachelor’s degree in Aeronautical Studies as well as a bachelor’s degree in Communications/Public Relations from the University of North Dakota.

Greg Spadaro joined Piper Aircraft as Director of Materials in April 2010, responsible for Scheduling/Planning, Production Control, Purchasing, and Sourcing.  He was appointed Senior Director of Materials in 2011 expanding his responsibilities to include the implementation of a new ERP platform (Infor LN).  He brings over 24 years of Supply Chain management with a background in Lean Manufacturing and Six Sigma experience to Piper’s senior leadership team.  Before joining Piper Aircraft, Greg was a Materials Director for fourteen years in the marine industry working for Pursuit Boats. Prior to that, he worked in an electronics manufacturing company with responsibilities in both scheduling and procurement.

Spadaro holds a Bachelor’s degree in International Management with a Minor in Computer Science from Central Connecticut State University in Bridgeport, CT.  He also attended a training program in Trust Administration and Estate Planning at Williams College in Williamstown, MA.  He has also taken numerous courses in Lean manufacturing, visited best practices companies in lean manufacturing for benchmarking, has completed his Green Belt in Six Sigma, and has certifications in APICS.

Marc Ouellet was appointed Vice President of Engineering in September 2022 but he has been part of the executive team since September 2019. In his new role, Ouellet leads the Engineering and the Service Publications Teams. In addition, Ouellet is responsible for identifying and implementing best practices as well as ensuring that the correct engineering skill sets, processes and tools are in place for designing, integrating, building, testing, certifying, delivering and supporting Piper airplane products.

Ouellet brings over 30 years of General Aviation Engineering experience and has been with Piper since 1998. Ouellet started at Piper as a Systems Engineers working on the Meridian Fuel System design and has gradually increased his level of responsibility in Engineering up to his current role of Vice President.

Prior to joining the Piper Team, Ouellet worked as a Powerplant engineer for Bombardier in Montreal working on the CL-415 and for Boeing in Seattle working on the 747 Rolls-Royce engine certification.

Marc holds a Bachelor degree in Mechanical Engineering from the University Laval in Quebec City, Canada.

Joshua Gang joined the Piper legal team in 2021 and was appointed as its General Counsel and Corporate Secretary in July 2022. Josh has over 15 years of experience as a corporate counsel with a broad legal background. As General Counsel for Piper, he is responsible for all legal matters including litigation, corporate governance, labor and employment, contracts and records management, and manages its risk and insurance programs. Prior to joining Piper, Josh was the Director of Regulatory Affairs for the Fort Pierce Utilities Authority, serving as in-house counsel and a member of its senior leadership. Prior to that role, he held positions as Associate General Counsel for Pinnacle Entertainment, a hotel-casino company in Las Vegas, NV, and VP & Corporate Counsel for Quadrant Information Services, a software and data analytics company in San Francisco. Josh received his Juris Doctorate from Willamette University College of Law in Salem, Oregon, and a Bachelor’s degree in Business Administration from the University of Colorado, Boulder.

Kathleen Pagani joined Piper Aircraft in May of 2022.  She is responsible for leading the human resources department, with a focus on developing and executing recruiting, talent acquisition and employee relations strategies that represent the organization’s culture and values. Kathleen is a seasoned HR Leader with extensive background in human resources. She joined Piper Aircraft from Garnet Health, where she was the Administrator of Employee & Labor Relations.

Kathleen is a certified HR professional holding a SHRM-CP from the Society in Human Resource Management and PHR from the HR Certification Institute.  Kathleen brings a wealth of knowledge and experience in human resource management, including employee relations, employee talent development and strategic planning.

Kathleen holds a Bachelor of Science in Human Resource Administration from Empire State College and a Masters of Legal Studies from Trinity Law School.