Mark Gibson
WBB Vertical Lift Consultancy

Mark Gibson joined WBB in April 2007 as a senior consultant specializing in rotorcraft advanced concept development, roadmapping, and requirements/capabilities generation.

Since joining WBB, Mr. Gibson has been instrumental in developing the Vertical Lift consultancy, gathering key expertise from all aspects of rotorcraft development, acquisition, requirements, program management, and life cycle support. He has worked on various acquisition and JCIDS projects for industry and government customers requiring support in aviation, sea, and ground matters.

Prior to working at WBB, Mr. Gibson served for 7.5 years as Vice President, Director and Manager of Advanced Concept Development with Bell Helicopter Textron, also serving as an IPT Lead for the MV-22 Osprey program. He is a retired Marine Corps attack helicopter pilot with combat experience in Operation Desert Storm. He is also a certified Six Sigma Green Belt.

Mr. Gibson has been responsible for developing a 20-year future rotorcraft roadmap (commercial and military) and working with numerous US Government agencies (DARPA, US Army Aviation Applied Technology Directorate, Office of Naval Research, and more). In 2003, he conceived, named and executed creation of XworX – Bell's advanced prototyping organization. As lead of a joint industry/government team, he helped develop a Future (All-VTOL) Force roadmap for the US Marine Corps.

Mr. Gibson is a career Marine Corps officer, serving as an AH-1W and AH-64A pilot in operations, maintenance, tactics, and administrative positions. He is a US Marine Corps Weapons and Tactics Instructor (WTI). He holds the distinction of being the first Marine to command a US Army aviation unit in the 1/6th CAV, 6th Cavalry Brigade (Air Combat) from 1984-1986.

As a Joint Service Officer (J-8, Joint Staff) from 1995-1999 he was responsible for briefing intricate subjects at the highest levels of the Department of Defense (DoD). Mr. Gibson served as lead for all efforts to positively impact medium and long range DoD rotorcraft acquisition strategies and resource requirements.

He conceived and led the Overarching Rotorcraft Commonality Assessment (ORCA), which is the capstone effort to capture the benefits of commonality in rotorcraft requirements harmonization, technology development, and joint rotorcraft production. Mr. Gibson is also an Acquisition Professional (PMA-276, Naval Air Systems Command), serving as Deputy PM for the H-1 Upgrade Program from 1991-1994.

Mr. Gibson holds a Bachelor’s Degree from the University of Notre Dame, a Masters Degree from Marine Corps University, and is a graduate of the Defense Systems Management College Program Management Course.