Safety
Tony Kern Raises Black Flag for Aviation Safety
Urges aviation professionals to live by a code
Dr. Tony Kern, CEO, Convergent Performance
Dr. Tony Kern, CEO, Convergent Performance © Still from Safety Standdown 2025 webcast

Dressed as a pirate, Tony Kern opened Bombardier Safety Standdown 2025 on Tuesday with a hearty “Good morning! How arrre ye?” and launching into a presentation that linked 17th-century pirate culture to modern aviation safety and leadership, with almost no pirate dialect.

In his keynote, “Under the Black Flag: Lessons on Performance and Culture from Men Without a Country,” Kern—founding partner and CEO of Convergent Performance and a standing fixture of annual Safety Standdown events—explored how the discipline, teamwork, and shared accountability of seafaring crews mirror the foundations of high-reliability flight operations. “What can we learn from pirates?” he asked. “Turns out, quite a lot.”

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