Lindbergh Foundation
Chairman of the Board/ President & CEO

Larry Williams is Chief Executive Officer, President and a member of the board of directors at Ballistic Recovery Systems, Inc., in South St. Paul, Minnesota. BRS develops, engineers and manufactures whole-aircraft recovery parachute systems for use with defense, general aviation and recreational aircraft. The emergency parachute systems are designed to bring down the entire aircraft and its occupants in the event of an in-air emergency. Since its inception in 1980, BRS has delivered over 31,000 systems that have been installed on general aviation and recreational aircraft throughout the world, and the system has documented 250 lives saved through the deployment of its systems in actual in-air emergencies.

Beginning in 2000 and until he accepted the position with BRS, Mr. Williams served as Vice President of Business Development for AmSafe Aviation in Phoenix, Arizona - the worlds leading manufacturer of aviation restraint systems. Prior to that and since 1995, he was Group President at Rural/Metro Corporation a provider of emergency services. From 1985 to 1995, Mr. Williams was Executive Director of the Emergency Response Training Academy, a firm specializing in training of airport emergency responders.

Mr. Williams’s interest and experience in aviation dates back more than three decades. He serves on the board and was the past Chairman of the Safety Affairs and Training committee of the General Aviation Manufacturers Association. He also serves as chairman of the board of directors for the Charles A. and Anne Morrow Lindbergh Foundation and is active in Junior Achievement and other community activities.

Mr. Williams has a degree in Fire and Safety Engineering Technology from Eastern Kentucky University and is a graduate of the Aviation Safety program at the University of Southern California. He served in the U.S. Air Force as a Nuclear Weapons Technician and received the Air Force Commendation Medal in 1980. He has published a number of articles and previously served on two National Fire Protection Association Committees as well as the International Fire Service Instructors Association Aircraft Rescue and Fire Fighting committee.

He resides in Woodbury, Minnesota with his wife Mary and has two children, Jaclyn and Laura and four grandchildren.