History
NetJets Inc., formerly Executive Jet Aviation, was founded in 1964 as one of the first private business jet charter and aircraft management companies. The founding members of the board of directors of Executive Jet Aviation Corporation (EJA) included Air Force generals Curtis E. LeMay and Paul Tibbetts, Washington lawyer and former military pilot Bruce Sundlun, and entertainers James Stewart and Arthur Godfrey among others, with retired Air Force Brigadier General Olbert F. ("Dick") Lassiter as president and chairman of the board. EJA initially began operations in 1964 with a fleet of ten Learjet 23 aircraft. Bruce Sundlun became EJA president in 1970, and Paul Tibbetts became president in 1976. By the late 1970s, EJA was doing business with approximately 250 contract flying customers and logging more than three million miles per year.
Executive Jet Aviation Corporation was purchased in 1984 by former Goldman Sachs executive Richard Santulli and he became chairman and CEO of the corporation. In 1986 the NetJets program was created by Santulli as the first fractional aircraft ownership program. In 1998, after being a NetJets customer for three years, Warren Buffett, Chairman & CEO of the Berkshire Hathaway company, acquired NetJets Inc.
In early August 2009 Santulli resigned as CEO and was replaced by David Sokol. NetJets Inc. has moved its corporate headquarters from New Jersey back to its original home in Columbus, Ohio, following the departure of the company's founder, Richard Santulli.
On March 30, 2011, Sokol resigned unexpectedly and was replaced with then-President Jordan Hansell.
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