Expand your Own
Meet our Team
George Franz
Chief Executive Officer
Strategic Leadership • Flight Test Safety
George Franz is the Chief Executive Officer of Avian Holdings, Inc., the parent company to Sapphire Solutions.
Franz joined AVIAN in 2013 and has served in several key leadership roles across the organization. He previously led the Test & Evaluation | Flight Support sector, was appointed Chief Operating Officer in 2022, and later became President of AVIAN, LLC. In these roles, he strengthened operational performance, advanced culture‑driven initiatives, and guided long‑term growth across the company’s employee‑owner community.
Before entering private industry, Franz served as a Naval Flight Officer in the U.S. Navy. A graduate of the United States Naval Test Pilot School, he deployed with multiple operational squadrons and supported NAVAIR for more than a decade in leadership and technical roles spanning flight test, systems engineering oversight, and major acquisition program management.
Tony Cifone
General Manager
Strategic Leadership • Engineering • Safety
Tony Cifone has over 45 years’ experience supporting Navy and Marine Corps aviation, 17 of those years serving as a Senior Executive.
In 2021 Mr. Cifone retired from government service as the NAVAIR Vice Commander, leading an organization of over 25,000 people at 8 locations across the United States. A few of his main roles focused on current fleet preparedness, aircraft quality issues and organizational design/affordability.
Mr. Cifone began his career with the U. S. Government in 1974 as a Project Engineer at the Naval Air Propulsion Test Center, Trenton, NJ. He was responsible for conducting tests on gas turbine engines for United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) aircraft. In 1980, he was assigned as the Program Manager for Navy Propulsion Exploratory Development.
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1989, he became Supervisor of the Engineering Division, Naval Air Propulsion Center in support of Cruise Missile and Unmanned Air Vehicles Propulsion Research, Development, Test and Evaluation (RDT&E) and Lead Technical Evaluator for Industry Independent Research and Development, managing systems that included both Air Force and Navy expendable gas turbine engines, aerial subscale targets, and developmental Unmanned Air Vehicle programs. In 1994, he was assigned as the Head of the Propulsion and Power Planning and Operations Office, NAVAIR, Patuxent River, MD; he was responsible for the planning and management of all Propulsion RDT&E efforts, totaling over $100M per year. In 2000, he became the Director of Research and Engineering, Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division. As the Navy’s lead for safety and airworthiness, he was responsible for the performance of 4,000 scientists and engineers (military, civilian and contractor) with an annual budget authority of over $350M.
In 2004, Mr. Cifone was appointed to the Senior Executive Service as Director of the Propulsion and Power Department, NAVAIR. His management authority, which included leadership of 600 scientists and engineers, as well as over $1.8 billion in total annual budget authority, spanned all aspects of USN and USMC air vehicle propulsion and power systems. He held this position until May 2013, when he assumed the role of NAVAIR Chief Engineer, leading a 10,000-person organization across eight major sites. His duties encompassed research, development, acquisition, operations, safety, production, MRO and in-service support for all Navy and Marine Corps air vehicles and weapons.
Kevin Switick
Chairman of the Board • Founder
Strategic Leadership • Flight Test Safety
Kevin Switick is a resident of Calvert County, Maryland. He is the founder and Chairman of the Board of AVIAN Holdings Inc., a Delaware Holdings Corporation that is comprised of AVIAN LLC, located in Lexington Park, Maryland with 300+ employees that serves over 50 Department of Defense clients in 13 States with annual revenues exceeding $60M, and Level Up LLC, a Virginia Small Business located in Reston, Virginia with 60+ employees that serves the United States Intelligence Community with annual revenues exceeding $15M. He is also co-owner of Sapphire Solutions LLC, a Delaware Small Business engineering consulting firm and Primer Gray LLC, a Maryland Small Business commercial real estate firm.
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A graduate of Villanova University, the University of Tennessee Space Institute, the U.S. Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College and the U.S. Navy’s Test Pilot School, Switick served as an officer in the U.S. Navy, as a member of the Department of Defense’s Acquisition Professional Community, the U.S. Navy’s Space Cadre, and the U.S. Navy’s Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer Corp from 1986 to 2006. Switick, a Desert Storm veteran, has supported the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River, Maryland for more than 30 years. His professional experience at NAVAIR includes serving as a test pilot, an instructor for the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School, a product team lead for the U.S. Navy’s $11B MH-60R Program and the chief operational test director for Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) ONE during the infancy of U.S. Navy unmanned systems testing. His operational Fleet tours included HSL-42 and HSL-37 flying SH-60B attack helicopters from U.S. Navy small combatant warships.
In 2006, Switick co-founded a defense aerospace services company that has consistently grown over the past 17 years and recognized by Inc Magazine as one of the top 5,000 fastest growing companies in the Nation for ten straight years, as well as one of the top 100 workplaces in the Nation three times.
John Blankensop
Expert
Quality • Product Integrity
John Blankensop is an experienced quality management professional delivering proven consulting support services that educates, empowers, and inspires individuals and organizations to improve their context and achieve sustained success. John’s career, now spanning more than 40 years, is comprised of practical hands-on experiences with industry leading organizations resulting in a vast body of quality management knowledge and demonstrated value across a diverse mix of industries. His areas of quality management expertise include quality leadership development, employee training and engagement, strategic quality planning, quality management system (QMS) development, implementation and continuous improvement, advanced product quality planning, process effectiveness management, quality performance evaluation and improvement (customer quality, internal quality, supplier quality), internal QMS auditing, management review planning / execution and corrective action / continuous improvement management.
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John is a senior member of the American Society for Quality (ASQ) and a past ASQ Section Chair (Harrisburg, PA ASQ Section 0503). He is an ASQ Certified Manager of Quality & Organizational Excellence (CMQ/OE), Quality Engineer (CQE) and Quality Auditor (CQA). John actively shares his quality management knowledge and experiences within the quality community of practice through public speaking engagements at various professional conferences such as the Measurement Sciences Conference Training Symposium MAR 2023 – “Quality Basics for Success”, the ASQ World Conference on Quality and Improvement May 2023 – “Impactful Leadership for Quality”, and the ASQ Quality Innovations Summit SEP 2023 – “Essential Leadership for Quality Innovation.”
John has a BS degree in Aircraft Maintenance Engineering from Parks Aviation College of St. Louis University and an MBA degree in Gov’t Acquisition and Contract Management from the University of Dallas. He is a licensed FAA Aircraft Mechanic and an IAQG/Probitas authenticated aerospace QMS Lead 3rd party certification auditor (AIEA) for the aviation, space, and defense industry’s AS9100, AS9110 & AS9120 QMS requirements standards.
John Sliger
Expert
Digital Engineering
John Sliger currently serves as AVIAN’s Principal Digital Engineer who specializes in Digital Acquisition, Model Based Systems Engineering (MBSE), and Agile Systems Development. In his 15 years of supporting the United States Navy (USN) and United States Marine Corps (USMC) aviation, Sliger spent the last four transforming acquisition and system lifecycle development in an acquisition program office that has fully embraced digital engineering and the agile mentality. His successes allow him to actively collaborate and advise various USN, USMC, United States Air Force, United States Army, and NASA groups such as Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR), Army Futures Command, Army PEO Aviation, Air Force Air Armament, and Jet Propulsion Laboratory on principles, processes, and solutions for these digital practices.
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Additionally, Sliger is the creator and director of AVIAN’s Digital Engineering Center of Excellence, whose mission is to establish sound digital engineering practices and continuously push the bounds of current digital capabilities. He believes that a digital mindset is one of the keys to enable faster deployment of desired capabilities to the end user.
Sliger received a BS in Electrical Engineering from the University of Tennessee and a MS in Systems Engineering from The Johns Hopkins University. He is a Certified Systems Engineering Professional through INCOSE and has various certifications in DoD Acquisition and SysML modeling.
Shane Gahagan
Expert
Strategic Leadership
Retired Rear Admiral Shane Gahagan is a seasoned leader in naval aviation and defense acquisition, bringing over 36 years of experience to his role as a Senior Expert at Sapphire Solutions, a subsidiary of AVIAN. Since joining the team in July 2024, he has provided high-level strategic guidance to NAVAIR Program Managers, supporting the successful development and execution of complex Department of Defense Live/Virtual/Constructive training and tactics programs as well as guiding development of Acquisition Performance-to-Plan and Driver Tree methodologies.
At Sapphire Solutions, Admiral Gahagan continues to leverage his extensive experience to drive innovation and mission success, ensuring that the next generation of naval aviation and training solutions align with fleet priorities and national security objectives.
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Prior to his role at Sapphire Solutions, Admiral Gahagan served in several key leadership positions within the U.S. Navy. As Program Executive Officer for Tactical Aircraft Programs (PEO(T)), he oversaw critical aviation platforms, including the F/A-18 Super Hornet, EA-18G Growler, and E-2D Advanced Hawkeye, playing a pivotal role in fleet modernization efforts. Earlier in his career, he commanded the Naval Air Warfare Center Aircraft Division (NAWCAD), leading cutting-edge research, development, test, and evaluation initiatives in support of naval aviation.
A native of North Carolina, Admiral Gahagan earned his commission in 1986 and was designated a Naval Flight Officer in 1987. He is a 1991 graduate of the U.S. Naval Test Pilot School and holds a Master of Science in Aeronautical Engineering from the Naval Postgraduate School. His expertise spans aviation acquisition, program management, and fleet integration, making him a highly respected figure in the defense industry.
His personal decorations include the Legion of Merit (three awards), Meritorious Service Medal (four awards), the Navy and Marine Corps Commendation Medal, and the Navy and Marine Corps Achievement Medal (two awards). He is also a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College Advanced Program Management Course and the U.S. Naval War College.