AAR announced that John M. Holmes, president and chief executive officer of AAR, has been named chairman of the board of directors following the retirement of David P. Storch, the company’s chairman for 18 years. Holmes will continue as president and chief executive officer of the company.
Holmes joined AAR in 2001 as director of mergers and acquisitions. In 2003, Holmes moved into operations, becoming general manager of AAR’s parts supply business and progressively assuming responsibility of other businesses before being appointed as president and chief operating officer in 2017. In 2018, he was named president and chief executive officer of AAR, the third since the company’s founding in 1955.
Under Holmes’s leadership, AAR has achieved growth in sales and profitability, while navigating the company through the COVID-19 pandemic, the company says. As chairman, Holmes will focus on strategies to drive continued growth.
Storch, the second of the company’s only three CEOs, has served as a member of the board since 1989 and as chairman of the board of AAR since 2005. He retired as chief executive officer in 2018. Under Storch’s leadership, the company grew to the leading independent provider of aviation services globally.