Welcome to episode 84 of The Hangar Z Podcast Brought to you by Vertical Valor Magazine.

In this episode, we sit down with Brad Pedersen and Jack Harris from MD Helicopters. Brad Pedersen is the President & CEO at MD Helicopters and Jack is the Director of Public Safety Sales at MD Helicopters.

During the conversation, Brad and Jack talk about the positive changes that have come to MD Helicopters. They talk about the new leadership team and describe the company's focus and priorities as they move forward. 

Brad and Jack also talk about the path that led them to their current positions at MD.

Brad has more than 35 years of industry experience delivering accelerated growth and financial performance in leadership positions at Boeing Rotorcraft, Sikorsky Aircraft, Breeze-Eastern, and other aerospace and defense companies. 

Brad began his career at Hughes Helicopters and has almost 20 years of direct experience with the MD Helicopter product lines. 

Brad has led the turnaround of several private and publicly-owned companies in his career. He holds an MBA from the W.P. Carey School of Business at Arizona State University.

Jack is a decorated retired law enforcement veteran with more than 33 years of experience climbing the ranks of the Columbus, Ohio, Division of Police – the largest police department in the state of Ohio. 


Jack is a Commercially rated helicopter pilot and holds a Private pilot rating in single-engine airplanes. He flew MD 500E and 530F as a law enforcement officer and served as a Tactical Flight Officer while assigned to the Aviation Section where his last assignment was Unit Commander.


 Jack is responsible for sales, market expansion, and revenues for the Public Safety and Commercial segments of the MD business in North America. He holds both a BA and MBA degree from Mount Vernon Nazarene University.

I would like to thank our sponsors Metro Aviation SHOTOVER and CNC Technologies as well as our supporters on Patreon.