Bill Shira

Bill Shira is a Senior Consultant for The Hayes Group International. He retired from Gulfstream Aerospace Corporation, A General Dynamics Company, in July 2015 after 33 years of continuous service. Bill worked for 16 years in Engineering and for 17 years in the Sales & Marketing organization. He was Vice President in Marketing since 2002. Throughout his 33 year tenure he had key experiences in corporate leadership roles. He has a passion for aviation and leadership development.

As head of worldwide marketing for 12 years, Bill was responsible for comprehensive worldwide marketing leadership, strategy development and brand guidance. Bill led creation of a wholly internal marketing & sales support team over 12 years which included Interactive Marketing, Marketing Design, Premium Merchandising, Marketing Communications, Multi-Media Services, Advertising Services, Marketing Operations, Event Marketing, Sales Engineering, Technical Marketing, Sales & Design Center Operations, Business Development, Market Research and Gulfstream Customer Relationship Management. This award winning mid-size internal agency did all marketing and sales support work for Gulfstream with no outside agency of record.

Before moving to Sales & Marketing, Bill served in progressive roles within functional Aircraft Development Engineering which included leadership roles and support of sales worldwide in a technical consulting role. Bill started his career as an aerodynamics engineer for the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company in Seattle.

Bill served the community and industry in several capacities which included the Savannah Area Chamber of Commerce, acting as Chairman of the Board in 2012, and he also served on the Management Technical Committee for the American Institute of Aeronautics & Astronautics and the Mighty 8th Air Force Museum Board.

Within Gulfstream, Bill worked on several corporate teams including Leadership and Management Development Programs, Safety Management, IT Business Technology, Continuous Improvement Process, ERP Implementation and an Enterprise Wide Team on communications.

Bill graduated from Mississippi State University, receiving a Bachelor of Science degree in Aerospace Engineering. He is an FAA licensed commercial pilot and flight instructor. Bill is on his third aircraft, a 1963 Piper Twin Comanche, and regularly flies to the Bahamas and throughout the Southeast US.

He is married to Anne, who is a professional counselor and corporate trainer, and has two daughters and four grandchildren. His hobbies are flying, reading, nature sports and travel. Bill and his wife reside in Savannah, Georgia.