Mente Group, the expanding Dallas, Texas-based international aviation advisory firm and Richard Roseman Airborne Designs (RRAD), of Santa Fe, announced today a new partnership that heralds a paradigm shift in VVIP business jet completion management.

The two US companies are collaborating to roll out a new and advanced completions management service. E-First / White Glove is aimed at providing predictive de-risking and advanced program oversight for narrow and wide-body aircraft projects for VVIP and Head of State customers.

Under the E-First (Engineering First) portion of the offering, design and engineering will be brought together from the inception of a project. By conducting preliminary engineering reviews of the designer's early concepts, Mente and RRAD will address potentially challenging or 'difficult-to-regulate' designs before the aforementioned issues have the chance to negatively impact the project in terms of schedule or budget.

"E-First represents a dramatic change in the industry in that it fully embraces not only engineering, but certification and budget very early in the design phase. That is to say, all the main factors of a completions project are married up from the very earliest moments of a project," explains Vince Restivo, Mente Group's Vice President of Program Management. "Our focus is on creating stability in what is often a destabilized setting."

RRAD's Founder, Richard Roseman, added: "Our goal is to put an end to the out of control schedule and cost overruns that have sadly become all too common in today's green completions environment. We are setting out to accomplish this by carefully stewarding our customers' resources and utilizing a combination of historically proven and revolutionary new processes. The ultimate winner is the customer here. They have too often been short-changed in recent years and we're here to change that with our partner Mente. We're both very excited to be spearheading this initiative."

The White Glove component of the service will provide what Restivo describes as a "re-definition of customer care," by combining Mente's advanced technical offering with a customer interface and level of responsiveness that "hasn't been seen in years and that truly matches the expectations of the customer."

The announcement on the tie up follows Mente's news at EBACE in Geneva in May that it is widening its capabilities to include VVIP and Head of State level completion management services. "Demand for our expertise has been steadily increasing noted Restivo, who joined Mente Group in January this year.

Restivo came from Gulfstream and brings nearly 35 years of completions experience to Mente and E-First.

RRAD (formally RWR Designs) boasts over 25 years' experience in the design and completions sector and has conducted design and/or oversight of numerous VVIP or Head of State aircraft. Additionally RRAD has managed contracts on bizjets such as the Gulfstream G550, G650 and Bombardier Global Express, as well as a handful of yacht and villa projects, borne out of aircraft relationships.

Headed by CEO Brian Proctor, Mente Group also brings a rich history in top-tier business jet completions and is looking forward to bringing those assets to the green completions market. The company also offers strategic consulting services and asset management.

Contributed by Mente Group