3/12/2013

Cirrus Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer Pat Waddick has been named president of the Duluth-based aircraft manufacturing company. Waddick also will retain the COO title while co-founder and Chief Executive Officer Dale Klapmeier remains CEO.

"Now is the perfect time for me to hand over day-to-day responsibility of the business to Pat. There is no more qualified, capable or proven leader to take the enterprise to the next level. Pat has been with us since the beginning and has been an instrumental part of the leadership team at every stage from airplane development to these most recent operational improvements," Klapmeier said in the company's announcement.

Waddick will have responsibility for sales and service, manufacturing and supply chain, product development and administration.

"This new role is quite an honor considering Cirrus' strong leadership position in general aviation," Waddick said.

After joining Cirrus in 1988, Waddick became chief engineer of the company's original aircraft, the VK30, and subsequently headed up development of the ST50 turboprop aircraft as director of engineering. Waddick was named vice president of Engineering in 1997 and led the SR20 and SR22 program teams through the design, certification and production launch phases. As senior vice president of engineering, he shepherded multiple generations of innovation on the SR-line and is facilitating the advanced design and production startup of the Vision SF50 Jet program.

• Value of mining challenged, defended - 6/19/2013
• Minnesota Power to fully restore flood-damaged hydro system - 6/19/2013
• Twin Metals sets open house to celebrate building completion - 6/18/2013
• U.S.-flag vessels have strong month - 6/17/2013
• Ascena reports higher sales, lower net - 6/17/2013