About AOPA
Meet the AOPA Management Team
Craig Fuller, President
AOPA President Craig Fuller has assembled a team of top executives to oversee all of the association’s core areas, from advocacy to communications and from finance to safety. They are highly experienced in their respective fields and are fully committed to preserving and protecting all aspects of general aviation.
Karen Gebhart, Executive Vice President, Communications
As an active private pilot and busy executive, Karen Gebhart knows firsthand the value and efficiency of general aviation for personal and business transportation.
As executive vice president for communications, Gebhart leads a division with responsibility for bringing AOPA’s message to members, the media, and the public through AOPA Pilot and AOPA Flight Training magazines, AOPA Online and five other websites, numerous electronic newsletters, media relations efforts, and major public relations campaigns, including General Aviation Serves America and Let’s Go Flying.
Gebhart joined AOPA in 1994 as vice president of membership marketing, where she oversaw extensive membership growth, earning a promotion to senior vice president in 1996. In 1999 she added AOPA’s member products, technical assistance hotline, and Internet department to her areas of responsibility before being named executive vice president of non-dues revenue. She took over the communications role for AOPA in 2007 and today uses her experience as a pilot to help shape messages that are meaningful both within the aviation community and outside of it.
Gebhart’s passion for flying is evident in the types of programs she has championed while at AOPA, including numerous student-pilot outreach and support efforts that have involved working with a general aviation industry coalition after product liability reform to grow the pilot population, partnerships with aviation universities and other organizations including Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA), National Air Transport Association (NATA), Women in Aviation International (WAI), and leading AOPA’s General Aviation Serves America advocacy campaign.
Before coming to AOPA, in 1991 Gebhart was vice president of Barry Blau & Partners in Baltimore, Maryland—AOPA’s marketing agency at that time. Her previous agency experience included more than nine years in financial products marketing, managing client relationships with Citibank, Commercial Credit and First Chicago, among others.
Gebhart holds a business degree from Iowa State University.
Roger Myers, Executive Vice President, Finance and Administration
Roger Myers, Jr. is responsible for the financial, human resource, membership marketing, and information technology activities of the association. His financial oversight includes financial reporting, budgeting, planning, auditing, regulatory, and tax reporting. Myers is also responsible for risk management, contract management, internal services, and for managing AOPA’s real estate investment property.
Myers manages all aspects of human resources including employee relations, benefit programs, wellness, training and development, compensation, incentive systems, recruiting, and retention. He is also responsible for the Membership Marketing department, which develops marketing channels from direct marketing to e-commerce to maintaining and growing the association’s membership base. The Information Technology group, which Myers oversees, supports AOPA’s initiatives through technology and maintains all member, pilot, and airport data.
An AOPA employee since 1982, Myers began his career in AOPA’s accounting department. Prior to that he was an accountant with Fedders Corporation in Walkersville, Maryland, responsible for financial reporting.
Myers graduated from Mt. St. Mary’s College in Emmitsburg, Maryland, with a degree in accounting and received his MBA from Mt. St. Mary’s College. He is a certified public accountant in the state of Maryland.
Bruce Landsberg, President, AOPA Air Safety Foundation
Bruce Landsberg became the president of the AOPA Air Safety Foundation in March 2009. He is responsible for all foundation activities including program development, safety seminars, publications, the Online Safety Center, special educational and research projects, and donor cultivation. During his tenure, ASF has been nationally recognized with numerous awards on aviation safety leadership and educational program excellence. He writes the monthly “Safety Pilot” column in AOPA Pilot magazine and is a regular contributor to AOPA Flight Training magazine. He serves on many committees to represent general aviation safety interests in the FAA, NASA, NTSB, National Weather Service, and various industry groups. ASF has become the leading general aviation safety organization conducting more than 200 free educational seminars annually, recertifying more flight instructors, and averaging more than 20,000 online course completions monthly.
Prior to selection as ASF’s executive director, Landsberg was product marketing manager for FlightSafety International in Wichita, Kan., specializing in transition and instrument proficiency training programs for high-performance singles, light twins, and turboprops, and for airline pilot recruitment programs. Prior to that, he was manager for Cessna Aircraft Company’s Air Age education department involved in fleet sales of aircraft to colleges and universities.
A former U.S. Air Force missile launch officer at Grand Forks Air Force Base, N.D., Landsberg holds a B.A. in Psychology and a master’s degree in industrial technology from the University of Maryland.
Landsberg has logged more than 6,000 hours and holds airline transport pilot (ATP), single-engine, multiengine, and instrument flight instructor certificates. He has been an AOPA member for more than 35 years.
Harvey W. Cohen, Executive Vice President, Philanthropy
Harvey Cohen joined AOPA as the senior vice president in 2002. Philanthropy has had unprecedented growth over the past six years. Cohen oversees all aspects of leadership development, staff management, and program design associated with the ongoing growth in charitable giving.
Before joining AOPA, Cohen was the chief development officer of The Foundation Fighting Blindness in Owings Mills, Md. Under his watch, philanthropy rose from $5 million to nearly $18 million. Over his career, he spent several years in higher education fundraising, including positions at Carnegie Mellon, MIT, and the Weizmann Institute of Science.
After college Cohen focused his career administering manpower training centers for the unemployed and then people with intellectual disabilities. Cohen transitioned to fundraising with the State of Israel Bond organization, progressing as a field representative in the Pittsburgh region and then Miami. He went on to direct the Rhode Island/southern Massachusetts office.
A Pittsburgh native, he is a graduate of Duquesne University with a bachelor of science degree in education. He also earned a master’s in human development from Saint Mary’s University in Winona, Minn. Cohen was selected for and completed the Johns Hopkins Program in Change Management.
February 11, 2009
