Jim Mathews, Editor-in-Chief, Aviation Daily

Jim Mathews is Editor-in-Chief of Aviation Week’s 66-year-old Aviation Daily, the worldwide business daily of the airline industry. Mathews was named to the post in 2002 following a three-year stint developing and managing the news staff of the Aviation Week Group's private-online and open web portals. In August, 2004 he added the duties of Editorial Director for the news operation of the Aviation Week Group, with overall responsibility for all newsletters, online news services and websites.

An 18-year McGraw-Hill veteran, Mathews has been a reporter and editor for nearly 25 years, working in local and network radio, magazines and daily trade journalism. The upstate N.Y. native started his career in radio news in Syracuse, covering local politics and business before joining ABC Network Radio News in 1983. There, Mathews helped produce live coverage of the major political conventions, the Palestinian hijacking of TWA Flight 517 and the explosion of the Space Shuttle Challenger.

Named Financial Editor of Aviation Week's Aerospace Daily in 1987, Mathews went on to hold a series of progressively responsible news management posts, including Executive Editor of the Spotlight on Finance quarterly review, and Chief Editor of two biweeklies -- Aero Safety & Maintenance and Aviation Week's Aerospace Propulsion, which he developed and launched in 1991. In 1999, Mathews helped to lead the group's efforts to consolidate a 16-year presence in the online world, heading the editorial teams that produced and launched AviationNow.com and the Aviation Week Intelligence Network.

Married, with four boys, Mathews studied at New York University and New York's School of Visual Arts. He has also spent a lifetime around airplanes, from early childhood visits with his Reno Air Race pilot-uncle to his early teen years in the Civil Air Patrol and an entire McGraw-Hill career spent at the Aviation Week Group. In addition, Mathews volunteers 60 hours per month with the Fairfax County (Va.) Fire & Rescue Dept. as a Firefighter/Paramedic, assigned to Engine Co. #5 and nationally qualified in fire suppression, emergency paramedicine and hazardous materials response. Apart from aviation, hobbies and interests include weightlifting, men's gymnastics, reading, politics, emergency medicine and command and control on the fireground.