AV AirFinance Limited (“AV AirFinance”), a global commercial aviation loan servicer, announced the appointment of Stephen Murphy as Chief Executive Officer. Based in Dublin, Ireland, Mr. Murphy succeeds Siggi Kristinsson who sadly passed away in December 2021 after a short illness. Mr. Murphy will oversee AV AirFinance’s continued growth and lead a team of veteran finance executives in building a leading aviation lending platform to support the financing needs of airlines, lessors, manufacturers, and investors.
Mr. Murphy has longstanding asset financing experience in both aircraft leasing and banking, most recently working at Goshawk Aviation Limited in a number of executive positions including Head of Corporate Finance and Head of Airline Marketing, with responsibility for all Capital Markets and Structured Finance activities, including the development of Goshawk’s Asset Management platform. Prior to that, Mr. Murphy was a Director at HSBC Bank with responsibility for investing the bank’s balance sheet in the aviation sector and developing the bank’s coverage in the aircraft leasing space.
“We are deeply saddened by the loss of Siggi and our thoughts are with his family. AV AirFinance has achieved significant momentum as a result of his veteran leadership and the great team he helped build,” said Patrick Clancy, Director at KKR and a leader of the firm’s investment in AV AirFinance. “We are delighted to welcome Stephen to lead the AV AirFinance team. His extensive experience across many diverse areas of aviation finance will be extremely valuable as we continue to scale the AV AirFinance platform and look for new and innovative ways to serve our clients.”
AV AirFinance is a global commercial aviation loan servicer established by a team of experienced industry professionals and KKR in June 2021. The secured loan servicing platform combines stable, long-term capital with decades of experience structuring commercial aircraft loan transactions to offer creative and innovative financing solutions to commercial aviation customers around the world.
