TODD SIMMONS

Director

Aviation is in Todd’s DNA. His father was a U.S. Army flight surgeon; one grandfather a B-26 pilot during WWII, the other a crop duster. An uncle flew A-4’s in Vietnam; another uncle hunted enemy submarines in a Sea King for the Navy; yet another served as Beechcraft’s chief structures engineer for the Starship, the first all-composite business airplane. Flying is as much a part of Todd’s life now as it was for family and friends before him.


By day Todd is responsible for leading all Customer Experience and customer-facing activities at Cirrus Aircraft including sales, marketing, personalization, delivery, service and support, flight training; and flight operations at the Cirrus “Vision Center” in Knoxville, Tennessee.


Todd joined Cirrus in early 2008 as vice president of marketing and has led a number of innovative growth initiatives aimed at both the current aircraft owner community and developing new market segments. During his tenure, the SR22 has continued to be the best-selling airplane in its class, and worldwide market share has reached an all-time high. The latest addition to the Cirrus product line – the SF50 Vision Jet – arrives as the world’s first and only single engine personal jet and has been met with global acclaim.

For more than 25 years, Todd has held positions in marketing and business leadership, marketing development, international marketing communications, revenue management and sales team leadership at a range of companies from boutique businesses to Fortune 500 firms. His recent aviation experience includes work at Delta Air Lines and at CubCrafters where he led sales and marketing efforts and later presided over the company.

Todd holds a Bachelor of Industrial and Systems Engineering from Georgia Institute of Technology (Georgia Tech) and a Master of Business Administration from University of Chicago Booth School of Business.

Outside of work, Todd’s passion is recreational flying, primarily in his SuperCub, with his wife Melissa, son Clay, and daughters Anna and Cameron. The family also enjoys outdoor activities in Eastern Tennessee, having had a variety of life experiences from living in the Pacific Northwest and Upper Midwest prior to returning to the Southeast.

218-721-2194
tsimmons@theraf.org

Posted in Director

Recent Posts

IF WE COULD . . .

By Kodi Myhre • December 23, 2025
At about this time, every year, we have this conversation at the RAF about what our year end letter (code for asking for your financial support) should say to you, and about the RAF and the accomplishments of the past year.

WORTH THE READ: STEF GOZA GUEST EDITORIAL

By Taylin Trafton • December 23, 2025
Our many RAF supporters have such vast and varied experience, and we’re capturing some of their words of wisdom to share with you. This guest editorial is by Stef Goza, a pilot and an RAF Alaska liaison.

BILL DUGAN IS NEW NEBRASKA LIAISON

By lellington • December 21, 2025
Bill credits aviation for much of his success in business and the ability to serve his companies and family. What began in a Champ, and a Tri-Pacer owned by five people, turned into what Bill calls, “a key business tool” in which he accumulated 9,000 hours – in a Cheyenne, a Pilatus, and a TBM, where ninety-five percent of his flying was for business. “My retirement enabled me to recall ‘Why I Learned to Fly’, a slogan from an old RAF video.” Bill’s son, Patrick, purchased the C185 they now share. “While attending a business function, some associates arrived in corporate jets. As they joined up on the tarmac, the jet pilots gathered around Patrick’s 185, and one of the passengers asked, ‘What’s special about this?’ No explanation needed for this RAF audience,” Bill says. “My involvement in the RAF is, in a partial way, repaying the rewards aviation has endowed me with. Having been involved in many worthwhile nonprofits, this is one where financial support is only part of the picture. Physically participating in great projects that have a lasting effect, with good people, returns a great personal benefit,” he says. “My only regret is that I wasn’t there at the start.” Bill and his wife Jane are privileged to be able to split time between their long-time home in eastern Nebraska and Scottsdale, Arizona. While still serving on several boards, he enjoys golf “about every third shot,” biking, cars, and reading, but always looks forward to the time he can be involved in the RAF. “It’s flying with a purpose,” he adds. Bill can be reached at bdugan@theraf.org

Jake Hampton

December 15, 2025
AR Ambassador

RAF ADDS MICHIGAN LIAISON SCOTT ANTTILA

By Taylin Trafton • December 11, 2025
A Christmas gift of flight lessons from his parents started Scott Anttila’s aviation journey in 1985. “I learned at Johnson Field, a small grass strip tucked into the woods in Michigan’s Upper Peninsula, and that early exposure to simple backcountry flying stuck with me,” Scott says. Growing up in the U.P., he spent a lot of time outdoors and found that flying was another way to get to the places he liked to explore—especially the ones most people never saw. As he earned more ratings and eventually moved to the Detroit area for work, Scott realized he needed a way to stay connected to northern Michigan. He bought an airplane and used it to get back to the smaller airstrips and lake country he enjoyed. Along the way, he also flew gliders out of Frankfort, soaring along the Sleeping Bear Dunes and towing sailplanes over the Great Lakes. “Those flights gave me a different appreciation for the landscape and made me even more interested in the small, out-of-the-way airports scattered around the state,” he says. Visiting those kinds of places, Scott first came across the Recreational Aviation Foundation. He started using RAF-supported airstrips both inside and outside Michigan. “I noticed how well-kept they were and how much access they opened up,” he says, adding, ”Over the years, I’ve watched a number of grass strips close, which made the RAF’s mission feel especially important to me. Maintaining these airstrips keeps aviation connected to the outdoors and makes it possible for more people to reach the quiet, remote areas that inspired me to fly in the first place.” Scott joins the other two RAF Michigan Liaisons, General Grant and Tanmoy Ganguly. He can be reached at santtila@theraf.org . Submitted December 11, 2025.