President
National Air Traffic Controller Association
“STEM camps are so important and aviation groups because it becomes natural when you think about principles of flight or the mathematics behind separating two airplanes five or three miles apart and the speed they are going. STEM and education are so important.
The future is so bright in aviation with commercial space really becoming the normal thing that people are talking about and someday we will be living on the moon and that, someday, we will actually live on Mars.”
Paul Rinaldi became NATCA’s sixth president in October 2009. He was re-elected by acclamation in March 2012 and March 2015. In July 2018, Rinaldi won re-election to serve an unprecedented fourth, three-year term as NATCA president. Rinaldi is the first in NATCA’s history to serve more than two terms as president.
Prior to being elected NATCA President, Rinaldi served three years as NATCA’s Executive Vice President, after 16 years as an air traffic controller at Washington-Dulles Tower (IAD). Rinaldi currently holds positions on the NextGen Advisory Committee (NAC), the FAA Management Advisory Council (MAC), the AFL-CIO’s Executive Council, and RTCA Policy Board.
In May 2016, Rinaldi received the prestigious Humanitarian Award from the Sons of Italy Foundation (SIF) at its National Education & Leadership Gala in Washington, D.C. In October of the same year, he was honored with the Air Traffic Control Association’s Glen A. Gilbert Memorial Award.
Rinaldi has dedicated his presidency to building a collaborative relationship between the Union, the Federal Aviation Administration, and the entire aviation industry.