The top executive at NetJets has abruptly stepped down and the company has replaced him with a senior leader who left the company a month ago.

Columbus-based NetJets announced the changes this morning, which are effective immediately.

Jordan Hansell, 44, who has been chairman and CEO since 2011, has made a sudden exit. Neither Hansell nor the company gave a reason for his departure.

Taking his place is Adam Johnson, also 44, who has about 20 years of experience with NetJets, starting as an entry level manager. He rose to president in charge of marketing and held the job for five years before he resigned on May 1. NetJets asked him to come back before he had started his next job at an undisclosed company.

“For his hard work and his success in leading NetJets through a very tumultuous economic period, Jordan has earned our sincerest thanks and best wishes for his next endeavors,” Johnson said in a news release from the company.

Hansell joined NetJets in 2009 as general counsel and was promoted to president in 2010 and then to chairman and CEO in 2011.

“Over the past six years, the NetJets team has performed exceptionally well,” Hansell said in the release. “NetJets is very well positioned for future success and to grab hold of the opportunities before it. I wish my colleagues across the company every future success; they are a remarkable group of people who operate an extraordinary company.”

Another familiar face is also returning. Bill Noe, 50, a former pilot and NetJets veteran, is coming back to the same title he had when he left the company in April, president and chief operating officer. Although the title is the same, he will have a greater role than before, the company said.

In essence, the company is going from three senior executives to two. The shift is not a cost-cutting measure, a company spokesperson said.

“The focus of Bill and my return is really very simple,” Johnson said in an interview. “It’s about re-energizing and re-engaging all of the employees.”

Noe’s presence as a former pilot may help in a long-running dispute with the company’s pilots’ union.

The company is in negotiations with all four of its unions. Some of those talks have gone on for years without resolution, leading to heightened tension among some employees.

Meanwhile, NetJets is going through a major expansion and upgrade, including a $17.6 billion investment in new aircraft announced two years ago.

All three people involved in today’s events – Hansell, Johnson and Noe – were promoted to the company’s top ranks by David Sokol, who led NetJets from 2009 to 2011. Sokol led a financial turnaround following the recession, but then resigned amid ethics concerns related to his personal stock purchases of a company that he then encouraged NetJets’ parent company to buy.

NetJets developed the “fractional ownership” business model, in which customers buy shares to use private aircraft as needed, and planes are available for use on short notice. It has 6,000 employees worldwide and about 1,750 in central Ohio.

Since 1998, the company has been part of Berkshire Hathaway of Omaha, Neb., a conglomerate led by Warren Buffett. NetJets is a relatively small part of the parent company, comprising about 5 percent of its head count.

Johnson is an Ohio native who was raised in Tipp City, just north of Dayton, and in North Carolina. He has lived in central Ohio since 1989 when he enrolled as an undergraduate at Ohio State University.

He said he left NetJets because of an offer to become an executive at another company. He came back to NetJets so quickly that he was never announced at the other company, which he declined to name.

Most NetJets employees are learning of the leadership change this morning.

“I intend to spend all my day walking around and talking to people and seeing what’s on their mind,” Johnson said.

 

Congrats to my former QS peeps. It appears that Omaha was a success.

 

Great news.

 

I just hope that Hansell is really gone and not just gone to work behind the curtain.

Yeah....I'm suspicious by nature.

 

I just saw a news article that said he was going over to QuickInsured, a Columbus insurance startup, as their CEO.

 

QuickInsured appoints Jordan Hansell as Executive Chairman -- COLUMBUS, Ohio, June 1, 2015 /PRNewswire/ --

 

So was he fired or did he quit?

 

Resigermated maybe?

 

Golden parachute, most likely.

 

That makes sense.

They couldn't fire him without giving ammo to the pilot and 3 other labor groups at QS. He was "eased out", finding him a nice new job to keep his mouth shut.

Don't know the guy. Maybe some of you do. Here's hoping he doesn't throw his old buddies/fellow pilots under the contractual bus, but it can't come as a surprise if he does. One thing is for sure...he's not getting paid to make pilots rich on Buffet's dime.