Mark T. Jones

Mark obtained his college degree from Ohio University where he played football from 1968 to 1972. After graduation he fulfilled one of his lifelong ambitions and that was to work for the Department of Justice in Washington DC. After a period of time at the DOJ he made the decision to make a change in careers, and went into sales, selling life insurance. During the four years that Mark sold insurance he obtained the highest levels of achievement each year and that was to be a member of the Million Dollar Roundtable each year. His interest and desire continued in the area of sales but with the booming changes in electronics and computers he made a change to electronic sales. He spent 26 years in electronic sales with achievements as Sales Engineer, Sales Manager and Marketing Vice President. Also, during this period, Mark took the Dale Carnegie Course in Public Speaking and became enamored with the entire Carnegie concept. He went on and became a Graduate Assistant for several Carnegie instructors and then finally became a Carnegie instructor himself. Although this was an avocation position he excelled as an instructor in Tampa Florida. In 1991 – 1992 he was the instructor of the Year for Dale Carnegie in Tampa, Florida. Mark had always had the desire to become a pilot and in 1997 he fulfilled that dream. He did not realize at the time that that would be preparing him to start and build a large Air Ambulance company a few years later. As his electronics career continued to grow and gain momentum he continued to feed his hunger for aviation. Little did he know that September 11, 2001 would not only have an impact on our country but on his career directly. In June of 2002 as the US economy shrank Mark was laid off from his management position. At age 54 he found himself unemployed in the peak of his earning years. He had a family with a wife and two children finishing high school and getting ready for college. Little did he realize that everything that he had lived and worked through prepared him for the next chapter in his life. After taking 3 months off from work, he began the job search and he found a job with a company just three miles from his home by the name of Air Ambulance Network. When he was selected to be the Vice President of the company he dug in and learned the business quickly. The company was in financial distress and losing market share rapidly. In 18 months Mark turned the company around from slowly dying company to a well-respected and financially sound company. The entire organization became acknowledged and respected around the world. In February 2004 the owner of Air Ambulance Network was going to make changes that would be bad for the company and Mark made the decision to leave and start his own company. In March 2004 Air Ambulance Worldwide (AAW) was formed and he was stepping into a world of stiff competition with well-established companies recognized worldwide. Utilizing everything that he had learned over a lifetime of education, training and experience he was blessed to form and build a worldwide recognized premiere medical transportation company servicing literally the entire globe. Starting in 2004 AAW, in their first year, provided 99 flights to clients and in 2016 Mark sold a large portion of the company to an equity firm. By this time AAW had delivered nearly 5,000 patients safely to their home destination. The decision to start my own company from scratch, with 18 months of experience in a highly competitive industry was not my first choice of how to spend my senior years preparing for retirement. But due to my life experiences of sports and the lessons learned from playing sports along with my sales and sales management and personal development training I felt I could hit a home run. I wish that I would have had the rule book of life. It would have been so simple. Well I am not so sure! You see life’s lessons, and making wrong decisions, and taking risks, and failing and facing fear and pushing through is what builds character. These life lessons are what provide the education, experience and foundation to be successful.

Mark can be reached at: markjones4801@gmail.com