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Mr. Kavoussi is the founder and Chairman of the Board of Directors of AvMet Applications, Inc., a leading provider of aviation weather consulting and engineering services for the public and private sectors. He has more than 40 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 his M.S. in Operations Research from Stanford University.
Mr. Klopfenstein has a passion for problem solving, brainstorming, and process/system improvement. With over 28 years of experience in management, engineering, analysis, and human factors, he provides program and technical leadership, strategic planning, concept development, aviation research, system engineering, facilitation of stakeholder engagement, and operational and investment analysis focused on the Air Traffic Management (ATM) domain. As President, Mr. Klopfenstein is responsible for day to day operations, technical management, strategic planning, and business development activities.
Prior to joining AvMet, Mr. Klopfenstein worked at Metron Aviation where he was the Vice President of their Advanced Research and Concept and Engineering department, His responsibilities included the overall program management of the majority of Metron Aviation’s Concept Engineering activities, which ranged from initial mission analysis, through concept exploration and development, and into prototype development and user testing. Through these activities new concepts were matured from initial ideas into deployable solutions. He was also involved in the original FAA Airline Data Exchange (FADE) efforts, which was the precursor of the Collaborative Decision Making (CDM) initiative when he was a member of the research staff at the CNA Corporation in addition to being responsible for developing graphical user interface (GUI) standards for ATM tools to insure the incorporation of sound human factors into ATM software.
Mr. Klopfenstein earned his M.S. in Mechanical & Aerospace Engineering and his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Virginia.
Dr. Klein has over 25 years of experience in advanced visualization, simulation, decision support, and air traffic analysis systems development. In the mid-1980’s, Dr. Klein worked at the Computing & Automation Institute of the Hungarian Academy of Science in Budapest where he conducted internationally recognized research in computer graphics and robotics. In 1988, he joined Preston Aviation Solutions in Melbourne, Australia, where he led the development of simulation modeling and decision support tools for the aviation industry. He was the principal designer of TAAM, a sophisticated fast-time gate-to-gate air traffic simulation model that became a de-facto world standard in its field. Since Preston’s acquisition by Boeing in 1999, Dr. Klein worked on a number of Boeing’s ATM, airline operational support, and homeland security related projects.
In 2004, after a 16-year career at Preston where he advanced from Software Engineer to Senior Vice-President, Dr. Klein joined George Mason University in Virginia as a Research Professor. He conducted FAA-sponsored research in NAS analysis and airspace design that focused mainly on the development of the Weather Impacted Traffic Index (WITI) which has become a standard system performance metric used by the FAA on a regular basis.
In 2006, as a result of transitioning successful academic research activities to commercial environment, Dr. Klein started his own business, Air Traffic Analysis, Inc. The company’s activities included the development of sophisticated methodologies and models supporting government programs in the areas of NAS performance analysis, weather impacts on the NAS, simulation, NextGen benefit analysis, and future-NAS concept exploration. The FAA, NASA, MITRE CAASD, and the National Weather Service were among the company’s customers. In 2010, Dr. Klein started development of a new superfast-time NAS/ATM simulation model, Dynamic Airspace Routing Tool (DART), which today is at the leading edge of research in the aviation community.
Over the years, Dr. Klein has worked closely with AvMet on a range of NAS analysis studies and methodologies. In October 2013 the two companies merged and Dr. Klein became a member of AvMet’s executive team.
Dr. Klein earned both his B.S. and his PhD in Theoretical Mechanics from Moscow State University, Russia.
Mr. Lee has been involved in several NASA, FAA, and other research projects in the last 20+ years. Mr. Lee brings a diverse set of skills to AvMet ranging from aviation and marine weather forecasting to business intelligence and data mining in his 20+ years of professional experience. Mr. Lee is a primary contributor and leader on multiple weather impact analysis studies that quantified the weather’s impact on the National Airspace System for the FAA, NWS, and NASA. He has conducted multiple evaluations as a lead analyst and field trainer/evaluator at numerous FAA Air Routing Traffic Control Centers, the FAA System Control Command Center, Airline Operational Centers, and NASA SBIRs. As Vice President, Mr. Lee is responsible for staff management, technical management, near-term planning/outlooks, and business development activities.
Mr. Lee manages, conducts research, and develops methodologies for completing historical analyses on meteorological data and developed applications and data analysis techniques under the Weather Metrics program including: the development of similar weather/impact event algorithms and applications; the Weather Impacted Traffic Index model; and analyzed various weather factors as it applies to air traffic management. Mr. Lee supports the FAA’s System Operations Program Office by constructing innovative solutions using multiple programming languages, data management expertise, project management skills, and operational aviation experience.
Mr. Lee earned his B.S. in Meteorology from Texas A&M University and his MBA from Oklahoma City University. Mr. Lee also earned his Project Management Professional (PMP) certificate in 2009.