Ex-AFLR director a wanted CEO

Ricky Peters has been a wanted man since he announced his retirement earlier this year as executive director of the Air Force Research Laboratory at Wright-Patterson Air Force Base.

The Perduco Group, a data analytics firm in Beavercreek, quickly announced Peters was going to be its executive director before he even left Wright-Patterson.

And most recently, Peters was named chief executive officer of Ascend Innovations, the for-profit group created this year in a partnership between Kaleidoscope, a product design firm, and the Greater Dayton Area Hospital Association.

Bryan Bucklew, president and CEO of the local hospital association, said the goal is to combine human-centered design with state-of-the-art technology to produce commercially viable solutions in human health and performance. That’s where Peters’ experience at Wright-Patt comes in.

Bucklew said Peters will give Ascend a strong leadership team representing expertise in medicine, business, and the armed services.

The Perduco Group also is making waves in the Miami Valley for such a young, upstart defense consulting firm that was originally started 2011 in part to provide data analytics for fantasy sports websites.

Officials with Ascend Innovations announced as part of Peters’ hiring that they formed an agreement with Perduco Group to support initiatives by Ascend. That comes on the heels of the Dayton Development Coalition signing Perduco Group to a one-year deal in November to create business models for companies looking to commercialize new technology-based products and services in the Dayton region.

That is part of the coalition’s and hospital association’s goal of turning Wright-Patt technology into products that Dayton companies can produce.

Amazon in Wilmington?

The news of Amazon possibly operating out of the Wilmington airport to expand its cargo operations is getting hotter and would be great news for the struggling Clinton County city.

Several cargo-industry executives were cited saying the company was negotiating to lease 20 Boeing 767 jets for its own air-delivery service.

We reported last month that two subsidiary airlines of the Air Transport Services Group were running regular flights with five airplanes through Wilmington Air Park, but company officials would not say who the client was and would only say it was a trial network.

Experts have been cited saying the Wilmington trial is with online giant Amazon.

Amazon has declined to talk to us about the operation, but sources have said the company expects to go beyond the trial and start a larger air-cargo operation in January at the Wilmington airport.

When DHL’s U.S. Air Express left Wilmington in 2008, it cost the city some 7,000 jobs. In 2010, DHL donated the air park to the Clinton County Port Authority, and slowly companies have increased work there.

An operation by Amazon in Wilmington would be a big boost to the economy there.