Struggling Aviation Names New CEO

Aviation Distributors Inc. said Friday that it hired a new chief executive to anchor its management team and boost investor confidence as it works to recover from charges last fall that it falsified sales figures to get a bank loan.

The Lake Forest airplane parts reseller named Saleem S. Naber, an aerospace industry executive, as president and chief executive. It also hired Gary L. Joslin as vice president and chief financial officer.

Naber replaces company founder Osamah S. Bakhit, who resigned his management positions and his board seat as chairman in November.

Aviation has been struggling to regain its footing since August, when Arthur Andersen resigned as its auditor and withdrew its financial reviews for the last three years, saying the company had used phony sales figures on a loan application and tried to cover it up.

Nasdaq officials halted trading of the company’s stock in September and delisted the shares in October.

Amid the uproar, the company formed an executive committee to manage its operations, and Naber and Joslin will join it. The committee will continue operating until Aviation’s audit committee decides the new “management infrastructure has matured” enough to resume those duties, the company said Friday.

Naber will also serve on the board of directors.

The company is preparing financial reports, to be filed with the Securities and Exchange Commission, so it can try to get back on a stock exchange, said Kenneth Lipinski, the company’s chief operating officer.

“We’re going to get our shares relisted, whether it’s Nasdaq or not,” he said.

Aviation was formed in 1992 and went public in March 1997 by selling about 1.2 million shares at $5 each. Before the trading halt, the stock was at $12.13 per share, near its high of $13.38 a share.