November 14, 2024
Greg Greeley, a longtime exec at Amazon and president of Airbnb Homes until this past August, is chairman, marketplace at Wheels Up.
In a press release earlier today, Wheels Up said Greeley “will provide strategic direction for the fully integrated team responsible for building and managing the world’s largest marketplace of safety-vetted and verified private aircraft.”
“Greg has tremendous experience building consumer marketplaces. His amazing track record, including building and scaling the Amazon Prime paid subscription program, and overseeing the growth of Airbnb’s leading global accommodation marketplace, make him the perfect person to accelerate the growth of our innovative digital marketplace for our customers,” said Kenny Dichter, Wheels Up’s founder and CEO. “We are thrilled to have his expertise and shared vision as we further democratize and disrupt the private aviation industry with our marketplace.
“Wheels Up has been a leading pioneer in private aviation since 2013, and I’m excited to have this opportunity to help contribute to the ongoing evolution of their robust digital marketplace,” said Greeley. “With its unique positioning and an unparalleled fleet of owned, managed, and partner aircraft on their platform, Wheels Up removes several traditional barriers to private aviation, which will allow many more customers to experience the convenience, safety, and enjoyment that only Wheels Up can provide. It’s also a thrill for me to revisit my aviation roots.”
Greeley spent nearly 19 years at Amazon, where he served in various leadership positions across Amazon’s consumer, product, marketing, technology, and finance functions. This included over four years leading Amazon’s Global Prime program, which grew to over 100 million paid members during his tenure. Greeley then served as President at Airbnb, where he helped build and grow their global marketplace platform to over seven million hosted listings.
Before his time at Amazon and Sun Microsystems, Greeley worked for over a decade in the aviation sector, including at United Airlines in fleet planning, operations research, inflight entertainment, and at Boeing and McDonnell Douglas across a range of engineering and airline support functions. Greeley received a BS in Engineering from the University of Washington, an MS in Systems Management from the University of Southern California Viterbi School of Engineering, and an MBA from the University of California, Berkeley, Haas School of Business.
The New Year’s Eve appointment of Greeley culminates a year of acquisitions of both companies and people. In January, Wheels Up closed on its acquisition of Delta Private Jets making Delta Air Lines its largest shareholder. In March, it added Gama Aviation Signature, the large Part 135 operator flying Wheels Up’s branded fleet.
After that, Dichter added Gail Grimmett, a former Delta executive as chief experience officer, Stephanie Chung, the former president of JetSuite as chief growth officer, and Thomas Fry as director, growth marketing & PR.
In August, it launched Wheels Up Aircraft Sales recruiting a trio of top executives from NetJets’ QS Partners and Jetcraft. Chris Brenner, John Odegard, and Seth Zlotkin brought over 50 years of market experience and more than $1 billion in transactions. In September, it leveraged its DPJ and Gama acquisitions to form Wheels Up Aircraft Management Group.
Earlier this month Wheels Up named former Grey Goose marketing boss Lee Applbaum as chief marketing officer.
Speaking at Corporate Jet Investor in November, Dichter said Wheels Up is targeting both the billion-dollar revenue mark and profitability for 2021. Delta Air Lines said it values its 24% stake in the private aviation membership company at $890 billion in its latest filings.
Dichter has long used Amazon as a model for how he plans to expand his private aviation company into new areas.
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