Reckitt Benckiser CEO Joins ICON's Board of Directors

LOS ANGELES, June 28, 2011 /PRNewswire/ --

ICON Aircraft announced that Bart Becht, CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, will join ICON's board as a non-executive director.  Becht also participated in ICON's recently closed series C round of financing as a key investor, bringing international perspective and nearly 25 years of business experience to ICON.

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In September, Bart Becht is retiring from his position as CEO of Reckitt Benckiser, the U.K.-based consumer goods company whose pounds Sterling 8.5 billion annual revenue would place it at number 176 in the Fortune 500 if it were traded in the United States.  Becht holds an MBA from The University of Chicago and worked at Procter & Gamble before joining Benckiser in 1988.  Becht has been CEO of Benckiser since 1995 and oversaw the firm's 1999 merger with Reckitt & Coleman to form Reckitt Benckiser.  During Becht's tenure, the firm has experienced tremendous growth, and he has been recognized in the Harvard Business Review as one of the world's top 20 shareholder value-creating CEOs.

"We are thrilled to have Bart Becht join our board of directors," said Kirk Hawkins, ICON's CEO and founder. "His global business expertise is truly world class, and his experience will prove invaluable as we bring the ICON A5 to market.  Having him participate as an investor also represents a significant vote of confidence in ICON's team and the ICON A5 sport aircraft."

Bart Becht joins a distinguished board of directors including Mastercraft Boats CEO John Dorton, Asurion founder and former chairman Jim Ellis, founder and former CEO of Eclipse Aviation Vern Raburn, and the former head of Nike in Asia, Satyen Patel.

For more information, visit http://www.iconaircraft.com.

ABOUT ICON AIRCRAFT:

ICON Aircraft is a consumer sport plane manufacturer founded by Kirk Hawkins and Steen Strand while at Stanford University shortly after the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) enacted regulation changes in 2004 that created the new sport flying category.  Kirk is an engineer, former U.S. Air Force F-16 fighter pilot, and graduate of Stanford Business School. Steen, a former investment banker and Harvard graduate, holds a Masters in Engineering from Stanford in Product Design and is a serial entrepreneur. A privately funded company, ICON Aircraft's base of operations is in Southern California, which is a hotbed for automotive design and aerospace engineering.

ABOUT FAA LIGHT SPORT AIRCRAFT & SPORT PILOT CLASSIFICATIONS:

In 2004, the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) created a new classification of easy-to-fly and affordable two-person planes called Light Sport Aircraft that enable a new classification of Sport Pilots to fly in uncontrolled airspace during the daytime and in good weather. The Sport Pilot License focuses on the fundamentals of flying and requires a minimum of 20 hours of in-flight training, which is half the time and cost of a traditional Private Pilot License. The Experimental Aircraft Association (EAA) described the new rules as "the biggest change in aviation in 50 years."

SOURCE ICON Aircraft