David M. Tait
David Martin Tait OBE (born September 29, 1947) is a Scottish-born commercial airline executive, brand/marketing consultant and syndicated travel columnist best known for his work as the architect of the Virgin Atlantic Airways business plan and the company’s first employee in North America. During his career, Tait has served in senior executive and advisory positions for a number of airlines and travel-related companies.
Biography
Tait was born in Glasgow, Scotland, the son of William Tait, a carpet industry executive and Margaret Tait. He was educated at the Carolside Primary School in Clarkston, East Renfrewshire until age twelve when, with his family, he moved to Yorkshire, England. In Halifax he attended The Crossley and Porter Boys Grammar School until the age of eighteen - holding the position of Deputy Head Boy in his senior year.
After a brief spell working with his father in the textile industry,Tait relocated to Spain and so began a lifelong career in the airline/travel industry. Starting out as a field sales advisor for the Thompson /Britannia Group in Mallorca, Spain, he graduated to destination manager in Spain, Moscow, Cyprus and Greece. In 1975 he immigrated to Toronto, Canada to work for WardAir, a Canadian Charter Airline, before being recruited by Sir Freddie Laker to serve as the General Manager for Laker Airways in Toronto. In 1979 Tait moved with the company to Miami, Florida as Vice President, Marketing for the fast-growing transatlantic carrier’s “SkyTrain” low cost scheduled air service to the UK. He stayed with Laker Airways until the company declared bankruptcy in early 1982.
Following the untimely demise of Laker Airways, Tait joined AM&M, a Miami-based aviation consulting firm, and it was here that he was asked to write the initial business plan for a start-up with the working title of British Atlantic Airways which would eventually become Virgin Atlantic Airways. In 1984, Tait moved to New York City to become the fledgling airline’s first US employee. Working out of a Greenwich Village townhouse and reporting directly to Chairman Richard Branson, Tait built and led all the airline's North American operations including sales, marketing, operations, customer service, finance, IT and HR as Executive Director and Executive Vice President North America from 1984–2002. On May 1, 2001 at Buckingham Palace, David’s achievements were recognized when he was awarded an OBE (Officer of the Order of The British Empire) by Queen Elizabeth II for “services to British aviation in the United States”.
Tait left Virgin Atlantic in 2002 and served as Chief Executive Officer for Avocet Aircraft and Spitfire Aviation Partners before returning to Canada to take the position of Senior Vice President, Customer Service, for Air Canada in Montreal. Tait left the company in 2007 to form CONSULTAIT a firm focusing on consulting in brand-building, integrated marketing and customer service for a wide variety of international clients in both aviation and other service-related industries.
Personal life
Tait has a son and a daughter by his first marriage with Ines Tait (née Hackenberg) and presently lives in New Canaan, Connecticut, with his wife Taylor and their three sons where, in addition to his consulting assignments he is a freelance editor speech writer and syndicated columnist for the online publication Travel Industry Today with the popular weekly column “Tait on Travel.” He is also a founding partner in the online luxury hotel booking site Discover Luxury.
References
- Branson, Richard. Losing My Virginity: How I've Survived, Had Fun, And Made a Fortune Doing Business My Way, 1999, Three Rivers Press. ISBN 0-8129-3229-3
- Branson, Richard. Losing My Virginity, Revised Edition First Published in Great Britain by Virgin Books Limited, London, 2002
- Branson, Sir Richard. Losing my virginity: The autobiography, 2005, ISBN 0-7535-1020-0
- Kanner, Bernice. “Flying High: Virgin Atlantic Arrives.” New York Magazine, 3 Aug 1992, pp. 14–16.