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Wing Aviation Founder, Retired OSU President Named to Embry-Riddle Board of Trustees

Daytona Beach, Fla. , July 2, 2007

Karen Holbrook, recently retired president of Ohio State University, and John Wing, founder and chairman of Wing Aviation, have been named to the Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University Board of Trustees. The appointments came at the Board’s June 8 meeting.

Wing is a former vice chairman of Embry-Riddle’s Board of Trustees. Holbrook recently served as a member of the Board of Trustees and the President’s Advisory Board. She was the guest speaker at the university’s May 2007 commencement ceremony in Daytona Beach, at which she was awarded the Eagle of Aviation Award for her significant contributions to aviation.

“We’re pleased to welcome back Karen and John as highly valued trustees,” said Jim Henderson, chairman of the Board. “Both are well-versed in Embry-Riddle topics and bring to the table an impressive history of expertise and leadership in their individual sectors.”

Karen Holbrook was the president of Ohio State, the largest university in the nation, from 2002 to June 2007. Ohio State is ranked by U.S. News & World Report as one of the country’s top 20 public universities, with a reputation for excellence in both academics and athletics.

At Ohio State, Holbrook made cutting-edge research a priority and an integral part of the educational process at all levels of the university. As a result, Ohio State’s sponsored research funding topped $652 million, an all-time high, with $100 million earmarked for 10 high-impact research projects such as climate change and public health preparedness. In the category of research expenditures, the National Science Foundation now ranks Ohio State eighth in the nation among public universities.

Before joining Ohio State, Holbrook held executive-level positions at the University of Georgia and the University of Florida. She spent the majority of her academic career as a professor of biological structure and medicine at the University of Washington, School of Medicine.

Holbrook is the recipient of many awards and honors, including most recently the President’s Award for Leadership in Technology Development from TechColumbus in 2007, the Empowered Woman Award from the Women Presidents’ Organization in 2006, and the YWCA Woman of Achievement Award in 2006.

She earned B.S. and M.S. degrees in zoology at the University of Wisconsin in Madison and a Ph.D. in biological structure from the University of Washington, School of Medicine, where she pursued postdoctoral training in the Department of Medicine, Division of Dermatology.

John Wing is the founder and chairman of Wing Aviation, a full-service aviation company that supports principally the corporate jet and airline markets. The company provides maintenance, avionics, and paint and interior services for civilian and military customers worldwide and operates its own fleet of Gulfstream jets. Wing Aviation is headquartered at Lone Star Executive Airport in Conroe, Texas.

Since the 1980s, Wing has been recognized as a world leader in the creation of the independent power industry. He founded and led The Wing Group, a developer of multibillion-dollar power projects worldwide. These projects included Teesside in the United Kingdom, the largest global energy project of the 1990s, as well as a $700-million project in Turkey, the first-ever privatized power project in the Middle East. The Wing Group is known for its innovation and successes, as well as its use of personnel with military backgrounds in most key positions.

Wing is a founding owner of Boston Brewing Co., which produces Samuel Adams beer. In addition, he is the owner of several corporations, mainly in the areas of real estate and oil and gas investments.

He is a former board member of The Rocky Mountain Institute, which advises on energy and resource efficiency, and has served on various governmental commissions and committees throughout his career.

Wing holds a B.S. from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point and an M.B.A. from Harvard University, where he graduated with high distinction and a Baker Scholar designation. He served as an Army pilot and is a Vietnam veteran.

Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, is a nonprofit, independent institution offering more than 40 baccalaureate, master's and Ph.D. degree programs in its colleges of Arts and Sciences, Aviation, Business and Engineering. Embry-Riddle educates students at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., and through the Worldwide Campus with more than 150 locations in the United States, Europe, Asia, and the Middle East. The university is a major research center, seeking solutions to real-world problems in partnership with the aerospace industry, other universities and government agencies. For more information, visit http://www.embryriddle.edu, follow us on Twitter (@EmbryRiddle) and facebook.com/EmbryRiddleUniversity, and find expert videos at YouTube.com/EmbryRiddleUniv.