Cirrus taps co-founder Klapmeier as its CEO

The new Chinese owner of Cirrus Aircraft has wasted little time making a change at the top, reaching back to the Duluth company's roots to name one of its co-founders as CEO.

Dale Klapmeier, who started Cirrus 25 years ago and helped build it into the industry's largest maker of single-engine, piston-powered airplanes, has taken over the top job from Brent Wouters.

Klapmeier, 50, founded the company in a Wisconsin barn with his brother Alan and most recently served as executive vice president, product development for Cirrus. They moved the company to Duluth in 1994, where it employs about 400 people. Facilities in Grand Forks, N.D., have another 100 workers.

Alan Klapmeier currently is CEO of Kestrel Aircraft Co. in Brunswick, Maine. He had been Cirrus' CEO until he was replaced by Wouters in 2008.

Wouters could not be reached for comment Monday. Cirrus Executive Vice President Todd Simmons declined to discuss reasons for Wouters' departure last week, saying they were "a personnel matter."

The change comes less than three months after Cirrus was sold to China Aviation Industry General Aircraft Co. Ltd. (CAIGA) in a deal motivated largely by Cirrus' need for funding to develop its first jet for the personal aircraft market. At the time the CAIGA deal was announced, privately held Cirrus said its stockholders, including major stockholder Arcapita Inc., had financed much of the more than $60 million spent to date on the new aircraft. It estimated total development costs at $140 million.

Cirrus did not make Klapmeier available for interviews Monday, but Simmons said the new CEO has played a prominent role in developing the new single-engine jet. Owners of Cirrus' piston-engine planes are expected to account for a large part of the business for the new single-engine jet, which is scheduled to be on the market in 2014.

"Dale is a natural choice for the job," said Stephen Pope, a senior editor of Flying Magazine. "He's been a major part of what the vision is for the company. He's on the same page as the Chinese ownership."

Pope said he didn't know why Wouters left, but said his tenure at Cirrus coincided with a major downturn in the aircraft industry. Shipments by U.S. aircraft manufacturers plummeted 48 percent in 2009 and fell another 16 percent last year, according to the General Aviation Manufacturers Association (GAMA). Shipments of piston-engine planes, like those made by Cirrus, fell 7 percent last year after tumbling 55 percent in 2009, GAMA said.

Cirrus' shipments fell nearly 51 percent in 2009, but dropped less than 2 percent last year, and the company finished 2010 with about 30 percent of the piston-engine airplane market, GAMA said. The company increased sales last year, narrowly missing its target of $200 million, Simmons said. It posted its third consecutive loss, although the loss was smaller than the previous two years, he said.