Icarus Society

Icarus, a Greek mythological aviator, failed to heed his father Daedalus' sage advice about climbing too near the sun and died when his fledgling wings melted.

Northwestern University's Transportation Center's new ad-hoc aviation think tank, The Icarus Society, will provide a public platform to industry strategists to share knowledge and ideas about all things relevant to aviation today with the widest possible audience.

The Icarus Society plans to sponsor in-depth dialoguing about the airlines, aircraft manufacturing, aviation services, technology, government oversight, and significant elements of business aviation such as fractional ownership and Very Light Jets.

Background

Over the last several years, the Transportation Center has sponsored a highly successful rail interest group known as the Hagestad Sandhouse Gang. This group, formerly overseen and organized by our friend and later, Associate Director of the Center, Doug Hagestad, has grown significantly in both membership size and prominence among the local transportation scene since its inception in 2001.

The success of this group has prompted us to consider establishing a sister group to accommodate the interests and participation of our large number of friends and alumni in the airline/aviation industry. Early discussions with some alums and TC faculty revealed great enthusiasm for the idea. In addition to exploring topics of interest to this group, the networking among possible members would be a significant benefit and attraction for participation and would showcase the fact that Northwestern and the Transportation Center is very much involved in this area of transportation. We believe that though such a group, the TC can provide an unbiased forum for discussion on a wide range of national and international issues impacting the aviation industry. We also hope that this would be of great interest to our current NU students interested in this industry who would benefit greatly from exposure to professionals working in this field.

Happily - the Icarus Society is now a reality. And we welcome your involvement. We anticipate the Icarus Society will hold regular monthly meetings featuring a broad range of topics and speakers. Presentations will be made available on the Center's web site.

Inaugural Meeting of the Icarus Society

We are pleased to announce the creation of the Northwestern University
Transportation Center's newest "industry-focused" discussion group...

The Icarus Society

which hosted its first meeting on Friday, Dec. 1st, 2006

The State of the Aviation Industry

Featured speakers:

Aaron J. Gellman, Professor, Northwestern University & Noted Aviation Expert
Joseph Schwieterman (MST '83), Director, DePaul Chaddick Institute
Matthew G. Andersson, Senior Aviation Consultant Aerospace, Defense and Transportation,
CRA International, Inc.

Moderator:

Vicki Bretthauer, Aviation Consultant, DLS Associates

Location: NU Transportation Center, Chambers Hall, 600 Foster, Evanston

Icarus Society Steering Committee

Rob Mark (Medill '95)
CEO, CommAvia

Vicki Bretthauer (KSM '82)
DLS Associates

Ed Rafacz (KSM '98)
Chairman, Delta MEC Airport and Ground Environment Committee; Pilot, Delta Airlines

Mark Ahasic (KSM '08)

Laurence Audenaerd (CE PhD Candidate)

Reed Tanger (KSM '07)
Booz Allen Hamilton

Aaron Gellman
NU Transportation Center

Diana Marek
NU Transportation Center

Subscribe to the Icarus Society Mailing List

If you are interested in being a part of the group, we invite you to subscribe to Icarus Society Listserve - so you will be sure to receive info about upcoming events and be able to share in the group's discussions.

Use this link to send the proper e-mail to the Northwestern listserv. Leave the body of the e-mail blank.

If you have problems subscribing, e-mail the list owner, Rob Mark.