Company History
Mark Souster trained as an Army helicopter technician in 1977, and has been continually employed in the aviation industry ever since. Leaving the Army in 1986, he worked for short periods at McAlpine Helicopters in Hayes and Southernair in Shoreham, before being appointed Chief Engineer for a new maintenance Company at Goodood, Blades Helicopters. He also worked at March Helicopters Sywell before being appointed Chief Engineer at Sloane Helicopters, at what was then their new maintenance facility at Sywell.
During the 1991 recession, Mark and Theresa – who was Financial Controller in the flavour manufacturing industry – helped set up Thurston Helicopters (Engineering) which was to become London Helicopter Centres. LHC was the first ever company to gain JAR-145 approval, in February 1992, and Mark believes that makes him the longest standing Accountable Manager in JAR/EASA land.
He sold out to Sir Peter Rigby and his Patriot Aerospace Group in 2009 and was Group Managing Director until 2014. After 23 years at the helm, Mark and Theresa decided to hand over the reins to someone else and set up MSA.
