Mike Nichols is the founder of Flieger Strategies, a consulting company serving non-profit organizations, private/business aviation companies, and aircraft owners/operators. Flieger's primary client is the Piper M-Class Owners & Pilots Association (PMOPA) where Mike serves as their Chief Executive Officer. He also serves on the board of directors of Volato Group - as lead independent director, chair of the Compensation Committee, and member of the Nominating & Governance Committee - and on the National Business Aviation Association (NBAA) Certified Aviation Manager Governing Board. Nichols is a results-oriented executive with a consistent record of success leading staff and volunteer teams, creating strategy, inspiring innovation and managing complex budgets with a proven capability to turn around under-performing lines of business.Prior to forming Flieger Strategies, Nichols was a senior executive at NBAA where he worked for 18 years. During his tenure at NBAA, Nichols advocated for the business aviation industry on Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) rule making committees, effectively preventing the implementation of onerous regulations while facilitating those that enhance safety and operations; directed federal and state aviation tax policy and education initiatives; successfully lobbied state revenue agencies, IRS, Department of Treasury and the U.S. Congress for fair taxation treatment of ownership/operation of business aircraft; generated significant growth in NBAA’s conferences and seminars and regional forums lines of business; and led the team that produced ABACE - the Asian Business Aviation Conference & Exhibition - an annual business aviation trade show in Shanghai, China. Along with other forward-thinking initiatives, he created and was the principal author of the NBAA Sustainable Flight Department Accreditation Program which was designed to lead business aviation operations towards environmental sustainability objectives.A life-long learner, Nichols earned the Certified Aviation Manager (CAM), Certified Association Executive (CAE) and Institute for Organizational Management (IOM) credentials. He is an active instrument-rated private pilot and owns a Grumman Tiger aircraft.