Editors’ Note

Prior to founding Marquis Jet in 2001, Ken Dichter cofounded Alphabet City, a sports marketing and music production and distribution company, that was acquired by SFX Entertainment in 1998. In 2003, Dichter founded, and remains the Chairman of, Tour GCX Partners, Inc., a premium offering in the private golf space. In 2006, Dichter along with some of his partners, founded the MGX Lab, a brand innovation think tank. Dichter’s entrepreneurial journey first began while he was a student at the University of Wisconsin, Madison, where he started an on-campus retail specialty store called Bucky’s and also worked to create “Late Night with the Badgers,” a pep rally hosted by the well-known sports personality Dick Vitale. He was awarded a BA in sociology from the University of Wisconsin, Madison, and is a member of the executive committee of the Jack Martin Fund at Mount Sinai Hospital and a board member of the Turn the Corner Foundation.

Company Brief

Founded in 2001 and based in New York, Marquis Jet Partners, Inc. (www.marquisjet.com), offers corporate and private individual aviation customers prepaid, short-term sub-leases of fractional interest in private aircraft in 25-hour increments (costing $125,900 to $349,900, depending on the aircraft type). The company’s Marquis Jet CardSM caters to those individuals and companies whose annual flight requirements are typically less than the 50-hour annual minimum or who do not wish to make the longer-term commitment required of traditional fractional ownership programs, but who still demand access to the premium private air transportation that fractional ownership programs provide. Through its exclusive alliance with NetJets®, a Berkshire Hathaway company, Marquis Jet Card gives owners access to an extensive fleet of aircraft, world-class convenience, and a top level of service and safety.

When you look back to the creation of Marquis Jet, what did you see in the market that made you feel there was an opportunity to be successful in this area? Has it developed to the level that you thought it would?

When my partner, Jesse Itzler, and I conceived of the Marquis Jet business in the summer of 2000 and began to talk to NetJets, we definitely thought that the potential marketplace, which was not being addressed, was big. We only found out how big two to three years into the business. We then saw a multibillion-dollar market. Today, we’re a $750 million firm and we see the original billion-dollar target we had set for ourselves coming into our sights.

How critical was the NetJets relationship to the creation and success of Marquis Jet?

It was absolutely critical that we had NetJets and its Chairman and CEO, Richard Santulli, onboard. Having NetJets and its infrastructure behind us definitely put us in a position where we were able to grow the business in the healthy increments that we did. Without our sponsor NetJets, the business wouldn’t have achieved the size and scale that it has today. I don’t kid myself; the NetJets relationship is a big part of Marquis Jet’s success.

A number of players are now in your market area. What does Marquis Jet do to stand out?

The key to getting through to prospects is providing them with knowledge. Part of our responsibility is to make sure that prospects have knowledge of what is real and what’s behind the Marquis Jet Card, as opposed to other companies that just have slick ad campaigns but no real assets behind their product. This is a very asset-intensive, capital-intensive, and human-intensive business. Our partner, NetJets, which handles all Marquis Jet flight operations, employs more than 7,000 people worldwide, with experts covering all aspects of your flight including the most highly rated pilots, flight attendants, and maintenance professionals; meteorologists, dispatchers, and security personnel; owner services teams; and many others whose goal it is to make your travel experience as safe and as smooth as possible. A lot of the other jet card programs, or look-alikes, are just in the brokerage business, and they don’t own any assets. They don’t have any pilots. They basically do what we call “phone-book charter”: They look through the phone book to see whose assets are available at the lowest cost to them, and they put you on it.

At the end of the day, success is created by the talented people you have. Are you happy with the way you are continuing to attract and retain that talent?

We treat our employees and our staff at Marquis Jet very well. We think that translates into a rewarding work experience and a positive work environment. We have a lot of young people in the company, and we have to continue to create new opportunities for them to move up in the ranks. Taking care of our employees is just as important as taking care of our Marquis Jet Card owners. We know that our poitive employee culture translates to our Marquis Jet Card owners being treated well.

How have environmental issues such as carbon generation affected you, and how are you addressing those concerns?

Richard Santulli put his stake in the ground on this subject in 2007 as the industry leader with the announcement of the NetJets Climate Initiative. The NetJets Climate Initiative is a comprehensive effort aimed at reducing NetJets’ impact on the environment. This initiative represents a significant commitment across a number of different fronts, as well as an opportunity for NetJets and Marquis Jet Card owners to get personally involved by offsetting the emissions from their NetJets flights through an optional carbon offset program.

You are running a business, and things are happening day and night. How hard is it to get away from the business? Are you ever able to turn it off?

The Marquis Jet business is definitely a 24/7/365 business. Our business wouldn’t have scaled the way it did if not for e-mail, cell phones, and other advances in communication. All of the real-time information that we have has really been an enabler for growth in our business. In 2007, NetJets flew more than 370,000 flights to more than 150 countries. We have planes in the air every hour of every day of the year, with our busiest times being over the holidays. It’s often tough to put my BlackBerry down. I’ve had to teach myself how to achieve a work/life balance. I have a beautiful wife, without whom I would not have achieved the success that I’ve had. I have three incredible daughters that round-out the Dichter fleet. I’m a lucky man in that I roll with the two best fleets in the world.