Gediminas Žiemelis


Gediminas Ziemelis is a Lithuanian businessman, entrepreneur, philanthropist and business consultant, selected twice among the top 40 most talented young industry leaders by Aviation Week & Space Technology. He is currently the Chairman of the Board at Avia Solutions Group and Vertas Management.

Biography

In 1999, Gediminas Ziemelis graduated from Vilnius Gediminas Technical University with a Bachelor degree in business management. In 2004, after completing studies at Mykolas Romeris University, he received master's degree in Law.
Gediminas Ziemelis is an internationally well-known aviation expert, twice awarded as one of the most talented young leaders in the global aerospace industry under age of 40. Gediminas Ziemelis was acknowledged by the European Business Awards and received national champion award in the entrepreneurship category for his visionary inspiration and innovative approach to business development while leading Avia Solutions Group.
During his career he led three companies to IPO, supported and consulted Chinese Banks: total value of transactions in the CIS region – more than USD 2 billion, led a team of experts in a successful working session of the establishment of a joint venture with the Henan Province and China Aviation Agency: deal worth USD 900 million, more than 10 successful startups like: Locatory.com, Laserpas.com, :lt:Skycop|Skycop.com, AviationCV.com, etc.
Gediminas Ziemelis is also a guest lecturer at Vilnius University, Vilnius Gediminas Technical University as well as business conferences in Lithuania and worldwide.
He is also a sponsor of various sports, educational, voluntary and charitable organizations projects.

Career

Gediminas Ziemelis is engaged in aviation business, real estate management, duty-free retail, pharmacy, hospitality, aircraft finance, IT, etc.
During the period of 2010–2013 Gediminas Ziemelis, as a chairman of the board at all companies, conducted IPO of three enterprises – Avia Solutions Group, AviaAM Leasing and Agrowill Group. Although the initial public offering of Avia Solutions Group's shares was planned in 2010, the offering was postponed due to unsatisfying share prices. Avia Solutions Group finally went public a year later. The company was elected one of the best debutants of the Warsaw Stock Exchange in 2011, while in 2013 it was awarded with Polish Business Award in category "Increase of share price of Lithuanian company on the Warsaw Stock Exchange" IPO of AviaAM Leasing – an aircraft leasing, acquisition and sales company was conducted in 2013. However, according to some experts, the offering wasn't very successful, as the company managed to attract twice less money than planned.
Aviation
During the period of 2014–2016, as the chairman of the board, Gediminas Ziemelis led Avia Solutions Group in completing several major projects – construction and development of the 4th Moscow airport – Zhukovsky International, opening of the aviation professional training base in Singapore together with its subsidiary BAA Training, construction of the modern 8500 sq m aircraft maintenance hangar in Kaunas, establishment of tour operator KIDY Tour and UAV service provider Laserpas.
In 2015, cooperating with BAA Training and Kazimieras Simonavicius University, Avia Solutions Group engaged in a project of establishment and development of AeroTraining cluster near Vilnius International Airport. The cluster will include aviation specialists training facility as well as hotel located in the near proximity of the airport for pilots and other industry professionals.
In 2016, Avia Solutions Group subsidiary FL Technics opened its third MRO hangar in Soekarno-Hatta International Airport, Jakarta, Indonesia, while Helisota launched maintenance works on Airbus Helicopters including HC120, HC135, HC145 and BGS has become a strategic partner of The International Air Transport Association.
Furthermore, In 2016, under the leadership of Gediminas Ziemelis, the Group and its subsidiaries continued growing as AviationCV.com has become the most visited aviation job search platform in the world, KlasJet added 3rd aircraft – Hawker 800XP to its fleet, Kidy Tour its operations to Estonia.
In 2017, Gediminas Ziemelis led BGS to an expansion to a new market – Czech Republic, while KlasJet added first narrow-body business jet to its fleet – Boeing 737, as well as Storm Aviation introduced Base Maintenance services at Diamond Hangar at London Stansted airport.
Avia Solutions Group currently has over 42 subsidiaries including these companies: Baltic Ground Services, Baltic Ground Services Sp.z.o.o, Locatory.com, BAA Training, AviationCV.com, KlasJet, Helisota, Kidy Tour, Jet Maintenance Solutions, Loop, FL Technics and its units : FL Technics Line, FL Technics Engineering, FL Technics Training, Storm Aviation.
In June 2019 Avia Solutions Group entered into agreement to acquire UK-based Chapman Freeborn Group and in July the Group has signed a $60 million worth Joint Venture agreement to establish a new training center in Zhengzhou city, Henan province in partnership with Henan Civil Aviation Development and Investment Company.
Real estate
As chairman of the board at Vertas Management, Gediminas has led company through numerous investment, acquisition and development projects including Zverynas lofts, Smolensko business centre, Zveryno verslo fabrikas. In addition to that, Vertas Management also manages over 20 000 sq m of leased land via VA Reals.
Duty free
In 2014, ZIA Valda and Gediminas Ziemelis engaged in the business of duty free by establishing international duty free operator Globus Distribution. The company operates a wide network of retail shops located in various air, road and rail border crossings across Russia, Ukraine and Lithuania.
Pharmacy
In 2012, Gediminas Ziemelis engaged in pharmaceutical business together with ZIA Valda and actively participated in the creation of NatiVita – international research and manufacturing company that develops and produces innovative medications for cancer treatment.
In 2017 established pharmaceutical holding "Pharnasanta Group". At the moment, the pharmacy group consists of "NatiVita", an international research and manufacturing company that produces innovative generic medicine, "Ilsanta", a pharmaceutical company distributing medical devices and equipment, and a logistics company "NTV Logistics".
IT
In 2017, Gediminas Ziemelis actively participated in the creation of an international flight claim management platform Skycop.com. SKYCOP was launched in the beginning of summer 2017.

Philanthropy

Gediminas Ziemelis supported the Prienai-Birštonas basketball club ‘Vytautas‘ and basketball players Ball brothers. This support helped to attract USA basketball players, brothers LiAngelo and LaMelo Ball to the team.
Gediminas Ziemelis is one of the general sponsors of the oldest Lithuanian basketball club ‘Zalgiris‘. G. Ziemelis not only supports the club financially but he also supported ‘Zalgiris‘ by providing a business class ‘Boeing 737’ aircraft which allows the players to travel to the competitions. The exclusive 56 seats business class aircraft is specially designed for the tall basketball players to make their travels more comfortable and less exhausting.
He is one of the main sponsors of the Extend your hand to kindness 2015 charity event as well as one of the major supporters of Rimantas Kaukenas charity group. In 2012 Rimantas Kaukenas, the defender of the national Lithuanian basketball team, established the charity and support group ‘Rimantas Kaukenas‘ support group‘. The main objective of the group is to help children with oncological diseases by providing moral and financial support for the children and their families.