Brian Reid joins FlyExclusive as chief commercial officer, Guina moves to chief operating officer, and Lesmeister to president of maintenance.
For Wheels Up and FlyHouse, executive Brian Reid (pictured) is joining FlyExclusive as chief commercial officer.
The move triggered several top-management shifts at the company.
FlyExclusive moved its executive headquarters to Raleigh, North Carolina, earlier this year.
It retains its operations and maintenance hub in Kinston, where it recently sealed a $30 million state grant to expand its facilities.
The announcement was made internally late last week by Chairman and CEO Jim Segrave.
Longtime lieutenant Mike Guina switches back to his previous post as chief operating officer.
Current COO Matt Lesmeister moves to Kinston, where he will take a new position as president of maintenance.
Also, Casey Rutkey joins as director of human resources from Cornerstone Building Brands.
As commercial head, Reid will oversee the company’s Jet Club jet card, fractional ownership programs, retail charter, marketing, fleet development, and member services.
Reid was executive vice president at Wheels Up from 2014 through June 2022 before moving to Thomas James Homes as chief sales and marketing officer.
Earlier this year, he joined FlyHouse as chief revenue officer.
At Wheels Up, Reid established partnerships with Inspirato, Morgan Stanley, Goldman Sachs, RBC, UBS, Costco, Denison Yachting, Montage Residences, and Discovery Land, among others.
Per his LinkedIn profile, he also created destination experiences that generated an incremental $4 million in flight revenue.
In his memo, Segrave wrote, “Brian’s commercial leadership, industry experience, and strong relationships will be instrumental as we enter our next phase of growth.”
Longtime Segrave lieutenant Guina (below) returns to his previous position as chief operating officer.
As COO, Guina will head flight operations, the Operations Control Center, and the compliance team.
He will also oversee wholesale charter.
Guina has over 35 years of aviation experience.
That includes over two decades alongside Segrave at Segrave Aviation, Delta Private Jets, and now FlyExclusive.
Jet Club and charter revenue accounted for $178.6 million, up 15% year-over-year in the first half of 2026.
Fractional sales were up 29% at $21.9 million.
Lesmeister (below) is now charged with expanding the company’s MRO business, $6.4 million in sales through the first half of the year.
Segrave said, “Over the past two years as COO, Matt has helped transform our operations infrastructure, driving process improvements and efficiencies that have resulted in improving dispatch availability by nearly 2,000 basis points while increasing aircraft utilization and driving multiple record peaks in flight hours on a smaller fleet.”
Lesmeister is also charged with increasing maintenance dispatch availability and reducing hourly maintenance costs across our fleet.
FlyExclusive has been expanding its remote maintenance units that service jets with mechanical issues away from base.
FlyExclusive has improved its bottom line with stronger EBITDA, including three consecutive positive quarters, while also cutting net losses.
Last year, it ranked as the 5th-largest private jet operator in the U.S. based on charter and fractional flight hours.
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