Paul Mengert has been re-elected by the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority to chair that seven-member board for a second year in a row.
Mengert got the honor to head up the board that runs Piedmont Triad International Airport (PTIA) on a unanimous vote during a Zoom Airport Authority meeting on Tuesday afternoon, April 27.
People who chair the Airport Authority tend to do so more than once, so Mengert is now in good company. The late Steve Showfety, former president of Koury Corp., served as chairman of the important board six times straight before his death in 2019.
Prior to Showfety, well-known Greensboro attorney Henry Isaacson chaired that board for over a decade.
Mengert, the CEO of the property management company Association Management Group, knows a little about air travel since he has worked as a commercial pilot.
Mengert served as the treasurer of the Airport Authority before being named chairman. After the vote Tuesday to make him the chair, Mengert said he was honored to have the position for another year.
“I appreciate your confidence,” he told his fellow board members, adding that the past year had been a trying one for PTIA due to the COVID-19 pandemic.
The board elected Winston-Salem Mayor Allen Joines as vice-chair.
When Joines was first named to the Airport Authority, there were some who quietly criticized his being put into that position because it’s unusual for someone actively serving as mayor to serve on the board that’s meant to look out for the good of all three cities the airport serves – Greensboro, High Point and Winston-Salem. However, Joines’ fellow board members obviously had no trouble naming him the second most powerful member of that board for a second year.
Authority member Graham Bennett was elected Treasurer and Bill Bencini, former High Point mayor and former Guilford County commissioner, was elected secretary.
