IBAC is proud to recognise Max Motschmann with the François Chavatte Award, which honours the former CEO of International Jet Management Asia and founder of the Philippines chapter of the Asia Business Aviation Association (AsBAA) for his passion for and leadership in expanding business aviation over his more than 50 year aviation career.

Director general Kurt Edwards says: “We were excited to surprise Max with the François Chavatte Award at our international dinner, hosted by the NBAA at BACE last week. His international aviation journey has traversed Europe, the Middle East and southeast Asia. Max has truly raised the profile of business aviation in Asia and particularly in the Philippines, where he and his family reside. We are grateful for his leadership in educating key stakeholders about the value of our industry and congratulate him on a successful and admirable career.”

As a native German, Motschmann began his career in the German Air Force in the 1970s and then worked in management positions at Munich Riem and Frankfort airports before joining an airline. In the early 1980s, he was flying a Gulfstream II for a Saudi Arabian company and then transferred to the Philippines where he began aviation consulting projects throughout southeast Asia. In 2011 he founded a flight support services company named YourJet Flight Services, now known as NavFix Flight Services, which was sold to International Jet Management. In 2012, he was tasked with leading the new entity for IJM in Asia and was named CEO. In 2020, during the height of the pandemic, he opened IJM Asia Singapore and became its CEO.

Motschmann was instrumental in establishing and co-chairing the Philippines chapter of the AsBAA in 2017 and has been a member of its board of directors since 2019. He launched the Philippines Aviation Safety and Pilots Day in 2018 and in 2019 the AsBAA Discovery Day. Recently, he led the coordination of the successful 2023 Aviation Summit in Manila, in which the country's chair of the Philippine Senate Committee on Public Services, Secretary of Transportation, Secretary of Tourism and Heads of the Civil Aviation Authority, Civil Aeronautics Board and the Manila International Airport Authority were in attendance.

François Chavatte was a pilot on the first transatlantic business aircraft flight to land at Le Bourget airport in 1961, sparking the growth of one of Europe's most prominent business aviation airports, where he served for decades as the director of a corporate flight department. Chavatte dedicated his career to advancing the European business aviation industry. In 1977 he co-founded the organisation that became known as EBAA and later served as its president and chairman of the board. He served also as EBAA's representative on the IBAC governing board. Chavatte passed away in 2021. In honour of his memory, IBAC established this award to recognise international business aviation leaders who, like Chavatte, have gone above and beyond to contribute to the industry's advancement and growth.