Rob joined the South African military in 1991 and left 16 years later, having served as a naval diver and combat officer in the South African Navy, and as a senior operational helicopter pilot and instructor in the South African Air Force.
In the commercial sector of aviation, Rob flew for, and held various managerial positions in operations throughout Africa and the Middle East.
Rob has spent the majority of his military and commercial careers in some of the most remote and conflict-torn areas of Africa and the Middle East. This experience has lead him to specialise in operational risk management, emergency response planning and disaster control in hostile or ‘difficult’ theatres.
In 2009 Rob launched a company that designed and developed one of SA’s first aviation management software applications. He followed this with Cairn Aviation (http://www.cairnaviation.com), a company that, in partnership with international software innovators such as Avinet (http://avinet.com.au), seeks to revolutionise the management and execution of aviation operations, striving continually for more intelligent and sustainable practices.
