Management
Sadegh Kavoussi - President
Mr. Sadegh Kavoussi is the founder, President and Chief Executive Officer of AvMet Applications, Inc., a leading provider of aviation weather consulting and engineering services for the public and private sectors. He has more than 30 years of aviation and air traffic control system development experience with in-depth knowledge of aviation weather system engineering, strategic planning, system analysis and technical management.
Under his leadership, AvMet has evolved from a six-person company in 2000 to a thriving small business that serves as the primary contract support to the FAA Aviation Weather Group.
Prior to establishing AvMet, Mr. Kavoussi worked at CygnaCom Solutions, Inc. where he was the Vice President responsible for CygnaCom’s FAA aviation weather and information security work programs. He supported the FAA in developing aviation weather system’s research and development needs, system requirements, operational requirements, architecture, economic policy, and standards. Mr. Kavoussi started his career at MITRE Corporation, where he spent 17 years as a member of the technical staff and later as a group leader. While at MITRE, he developed radar processing algorithms for the FAA’s Central Weather Processor (CWP) and assisted in the development of concepts for CIP weather programs (e.g. Integrated Terminal Weather System [ITWS] and Aviation Weather Product Generator [AWPG]). Mr. Kavoussi spent his last few years at MITRE managing the Center for Advanced Aviation System Development (CAASD) aviation weather program, which was engaged in proof-of-concept prototyping activities related to future aviation weather concepts such as NEXRAD-Display System Replacement (DSR) interface.
Mr. Kavoussi earned his B.S. in Industrial Engineering from Texas A&M University and received an M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford University.
Richard Klein - Vice President
Mr. Richard Klein is the Vice President of the Systems Engineering Division at AvMet Applications, Inc., a leading provider of aviation weather consulting and engineering services for the public and private sectors. Mr. Klein has 30 years of experience as a technical aviation professional with in-depth engineering and integration knowledge of the National Airspace System’s (NAS) weather systems.
While at AvMet, Mr. Klein has been the technical lead for three NextGen weather programs including Reduce Weather Impact (RWI), NextGen Network Enabled Weather (NNEW), and the Aviation Weather Research Program (AWRP). He has also managed both system engineering and program management services for the FAA’s three major FAA aviation weather processing programs including ITWS, CIWS, and CIWS-WARP Integration.
Prior to joining AvMet, Mr. Klein worked at MARCONI Electronics, where he supported the FAA’s ITWS product team, and led the definition of requirements for the weather system architecture. Mr. Klein spent nine years working for Martin Marietta Corporation as the program manager for weather and communications engineering support to the FAA’s aviation weather System Engineering and Integration Contract (SEIC). In this position, he also led a trade study that provided the FAA a strategy for deployment of wind shear detection systems. Prior to that he worked for SYSCON Corp where he supported the Naval Air Systems Command in developing requirements, interface design documents and system integration requirements for the integration of radar, communications and command and control elements. Mr. Klein earned his B.A. in Chemistry from Syracuse University and an MBA from Chapman College.
Mark Phaneuf - Vice President
Mr. Phaneuf is the co-founder and minority owner of AvMet Applications, Inc., a leading provider of aviation weather consulting and engineering services for the public and private sectors. In addition to his role as part owner, Mr. Phaneuf is also Vice President of the Research and Development Division at AvMet. He has more than 25 years of experience as an aviation industry professional with extensive knowledge of NAS weather systems, airline operations, international aviation operations and technical program management. As a commercial pilot with more than 5000 hours of military and civilian flight time, Mr. Phaneuf has in-depth knowledge of the air traffic system. He has participated in analysis of Collaborative Convective Forecast Product (CCFP), NextGen convective weather products, criteria standards for the Terminal Aerodrome Forecast (TAF) and the collaborative decision-making (CDM) process.
Prior to joining AvMet, Mr. Phaneuf was the technical lead at CygnaCom Solutions, Inc. where he led the support of FAA aviation weather programs, including ICAO and RTCA working groups. He spent six years working for the Aircraft Owners & Pilots Association (AOPA) as a supervisor and prior to that as an administrator to the AOPA website. Mr. Phaneuf earned his B.A. in Aviation Management from Ohio State University.