Bruce Goldsmith Design

Parapentes com personalidade

Fundadores da Bruce Goldsmith Design

Começou como uma pequena empresa trabalhando em uma garagem, mas a Bruce Goldsmith Design é hoje um dos principais fabricantes de parapentes de qualidade e equipamentos relacionados com parapente. Inspirado e dirigido por Bruce, o departamento de P&D é baseado no sul da França, onde o sol sempre brilha; a distribuição é na Áustria, e a fábrica está no Sri Lanka.

A família BGD é forte e estamos todos ligados pelo nosso amor ao parapente. Nossa missão é compartilhar nosso esporte com amigos e familiares. Nós amamos a sensação de estar conectado ao ar e nossos produtos são projetados com isso em mente. Produzimos produtos seguros, divertidos e modernos, que sempre são entregues com a pilotagem refinada e as qualidades inovadoras pelas quais os projetos do Bruce se tornaram renomados.

Fundadores da Bruce Goldsmith Design

Diretores

Bruce

Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento

bruce@flybgd.com
Bruce GOLDSMITH

BGD leva o nome do Bruce, Diretor Geral e chefe da equipe de desenvolvimento. Voar está no DNA de Bruce. Ele aprendeu a voar de asa delta como estudante de engenharia no Imperial College de Londres nos anos 80 e rapidamente saltou para o topo da asa delta britânica, vencendo a Superliga em 1991. Ele foi da equipe de asa-delta inglesa por uma década, desde 1986, e foi duas vezes campeão britânico de asa-delta. A partir de 1989, ele também participou da equipe britânica de parapente, tornando-se três vezes campeão britânico de parapente e classificou-se como piloto WPRS # 1 e campeão mundial em 2007.

Nascido em Londres, Bruce vive no sul da França com sua esposa Arna e três filhos. Membro fundador da Airwave Paragliders e Ozone, ele projetou para a Advance por dois anos antes de fundar a BGD em 2012. Escritor, palestrante e educador, Bruce tem uma coluna regular na revista Cross Country e é presidente da APPI (Associação de Pilotos de Parapente e Instrutores).

Bruce

Arna

Marketing

arna@flybgd.com
Arna GOLDSMITH

Arna foi a primeira mulher islandesa a voar de asa-delta, quando começou aos 17 anos, seduzida pelo pára-quedismo do pai, piloto de asa-delta. Ele comprou para ela um Wills Wing Harrier e foi amor à primeira vista! Arna competiu em várias Copas Celtas na Irlanda e no País de Gales, saindo com as estrelas da Liga Britânica, mas ela não conhecia Bruce até um encontro casual em um estacionamento no sul da França em 1997.

Quando o piloto de teste de Bruce caiu e destruiu sua nova Airwave Magic de competição, ele emprestou o parapente que iniciou sua carreira de parapente. Arna e Bruce se casaram em 1997 e Arna voou muito, acompanhando Bruce por até 14 competições por ano. O voo ficou no banco de trás por alguns anos, enquanto se concentrava na família, mas agora as crianças crescem e ela está de volta aos céus, onde ela pertence, em uma Magic.

Arna

Christoph

Finanças

christoph@flybgd.com
Christoph SCHEER

A carreira de piloto de Christoph foi motivada em parte por sua namorada da época, em 2002. Ele aprendeu a praticar parapente perto de sua casa em Wolfsberg, Áustria, e instantaneamente se apaixonou pelo esporte, pilotando seu parapente Airwave em alguns grandes voos XCs e quebrando o barreira de 100km por uma grande margem. Ele passou a competir na liga principal da Áustria. Engenheiro de profissão, sua vida profissional o envolveu em grandes projetos de construção, incluindo a construção de pontes entre a Áustria e a Sérvia para a PORR, uma das maiores empresas de construção da Áustria.

Em 2012, rolou uma atração por uma vida diferente e ele deixou o mundo da construção, uniu forças com Bruce e Arna para um novo projeto excitante - fundar a BGD. Christoph ainda vive em Wolfsberg, com sua esposa Mila e seu filho Maximillian, onde gerencia a distribuição européia da BGD a partir do escritório e centro de distribuição da Áustria.

Christoph

Tom

Pesquisa & Desenvolvimento

tom@flybgd.com
Tom LOLIES

Tom started paragliding at the age of 14 in Saint Hilaire du Touvet. At 15 he bought a sewing machine and started designing his first kites and paragliders in his bedroom. His enthusiasm for paraglider aerodynamics and structures grew even more when he entered one of the top aerospace engineering schools in France, ISAE-Supaero in Toulouse. He started working for BGD in 2017, when he was entrusted with the development of a new simulation software that became operational in 2018.

The software is now an integral part of BGD’s R&D tools, and Tom and Bruce work closely together on the new designs. Alongside this work, Tom is pursuing academical work to better understand the physics of our flying machines. His PHD is the first to be dedicated to paragliding: “Fluid-structure interaction simulations of highly deformable sails.”

Tom

Agentes de vendas

Blaise Brogan

Blaise Brogan

Sales Team Leader

blaise@flybgd.com

A father, pilot, windsurfer, and tree surgeon, Blaise was born with adventure in his blood and started flying in 2009. He works for Miniplane Paramotors, Rise Paragliding, FlySpain and Freeflight Academy and now heads up BGD's sales team and looks after our UK sales

Anna Darchenkova

International sales

ANNA@FLYBGD.COM

Anna was born and raised in the Caucasus mountains. She started paragliding in 2007 and was instantly hooked. She is an interior designer by trade but has put her artistic life aside for now and made paragliding her work. Anna is a professional tandem pilot, working and traveling all over the world. She is in charge of BGD international sales.

Anna Darchenkova
Masta (Francesco Delpiano)

Masta (Francesco Delpiano)

Sales Italy

MASTA@FLYBGD.COM

Masta, born Francesco Delpiano, was infected with the paragliding virus in 2012 during a trip to Nepal. In 2018, thanks to his friend Malcom Deodati, he started flying under the colours of BGD. He lives with his partner Alessia and his son Theo in the north west of the Alps, works as a show technician and keeps an eye on sales for BGD. If he doesn't answer the phone he is probably smiling under the clouds or on a mountain take-off somewhere!

Navid Saleki

Sales International PPG

NAVID@FLYBGD.COM

Half Swedish, Half Iranian grew up in Sweden and lived in many places. Navid Saleki has a mechanical/business engineering background and has been passionate of extreme sports since he started learning riding a bicycle. After reaching the top in freestyle BMX riding he turned to the sky. After skydiving and paragliding he is all about paramotoring. Navid is rooted in the paramotor and paratrike world.

Navid Saleki
Timo Schumacher

Timo Schumacher

Sales Germany

TIMO@FLYBGD.COM

Born in the German flatland Timo has craved to fly since he was a little boy. After starting paragliding at the age of 14 he began to push the limits of Cross-Country flying in his region, along the way he fell in love with BGD and joined the team at first as a team pilot. Now he is supporting the German sales from the flatlands.

Val Tanniger

Sales Switzerland

valentin@flybgd.com

Valentin has been flying since the age of 21, first on planes, then moving to paragliders, drawn to it by the simplicity of an aircraft in a bag you can hike with. He loves flying vol-biv with friends, or combining it with skiing or biking – he is an avid cyclist. He studied geomorphology and is cares deeply about our environment.

Val Tanniger
Raphael Laghi

Raphael Laghi

Sales International PPG

raphael@flybgd.com

Coming from a family of pioneering pilots in Brazil, Flying is part of Raphael's DNA. He has been flying paragliders and paramotors since 2008 and works as an instructor and tandem pilot in Sri Lanka and Europe. He is passionate about XC across Brazil and paramotoring over the Amazon. Raphael knows our paramotor range well and is our international paramotor sales guy.

David CHAUMET

R & D

David@flybgd.com

David CHAUMET works with R&D, and runs a service center. He has been flying sailplanes, paragliders, hang gliders, and UL aircraft since 1989 and was part of the French hangliding and paragliding team from 2002 to 2008 winning several world championship podiums in class 5 hang gliders! He's specialized in composite materials and electrical engines for aeronautical applications. Check out his electric Swift and electric paraglider.

David CHAUMET
Mario Koller

Mario Koller

Sales Germany

Mario@flybgd.com

Mario lives, breaths, and dreams paragliding. He is always smiling and strives to share his passion with everyone. Mario lives and works mostly from home in Nesselwang, Germany.

Benedikt Bös

Sales Germany PPG

bene@flybgd.com

Another medical man, orthopaedic technician and prosthetics-maker Bene was infected with the flying bug at the age of 16. Powered paragliding is the bug that has bitten the hardest, and Bene is an international competitor in classic and endurance paramotoring. He is also a PPG test pilot and has headed up BGD’s motor division since 2013.

Benedikt Bös

Equipe

Killian Kopczynski

Killian Kopczynski

Product designer

killian@flybgd.com

Killian is our in-house harness designer. He has been flying since the age of 15, encouraged by his father. He also has a younger brother who started flying at the age of 13 – you could say it's a family passion! He studied Industrial Engineering in Grenoble, specialising in materials strength and worked with the R&D team in the summer of 2022. He joined the R&D team full-time in 2023.

Lucas Bonin

R&D

lucas.bonin@flybgd.com

Lucas started paragliding when he was 15 years old. He is studying aerodynamics at ENAC, the Ecole Nationale de l'Aviation Civile (National Civil Aviation School) in Toulouse, to be an aerodynamic engineer or researcher. He's interested in all aircraft and how they fly, and works for BGD in research and development.

Lucas Bonin
Tyr Goldsmith

Tyr Goldsmith

Test Pilot / graphics

TYR@FLYBGD.COM

Bruce and Arna's eldest son, Tyr was born into paragliding and has flourished. He has already won numerous paragliding competitions (Us Nationals, Rio Cup, Weightless, etc.) and loves everything related to the air. He is a test pilot and works on glider graphic design for BGD.

Mila Scheer

Office Austria

Mila@flybgd.com

Mila lives in Wolfsberg, with her husband Christoph and son Maximillian, where she helps manage the Austrian office and distribution centre.

Mila Scheer
Maria Baumgartner

Maria Baumgartner

Accounts / Book-keeping

maria@flybgd.com

Maria works in the accounts department in the Austrian office. A mother of two, she loves to travel, and enjoys skiing, snowboarding and tennis in her spare time.

Irena Koler

Shipping Austria

Irena@flybgd.com

Irena lives in Slovenia, near the Austrian border, and looks after stock and shipping at BGD’s warehouse in Austria. Before moving to BGD she was a wood technology engineer for 25 years. She loves the great outdoors and beautiful landscapes, but she feels most connected to nature through her sports – paragliding, mountaineering, skiing, cycling and surfing.

Irena Koler
Nikola Dukleski

Nikola Dukleski

Software developer

nikola@flybgd.com

Nikola has a short history of flying, but a passion for writing long lines of code. An in-house developer, he is responsible for the enterprise resource planning (ERP) system, making sure every part of the process runs smoothly and error-free. He lives with his wife and his two lovely children next to the oldest lake in Europe, Ohrid. He loves playing guitar and traveling.

Kay Arianpour

IT guru

kay@flybgd.com

Kay is a paraglider pilot who is enthusiastic about hike & fly, and a kiteboarder who likes to go far in the sea. He has been a computer programmer since 1994. He lives in Fethiye close to the famous paragliding site of Ölüdeniz, and is here to boost the BGD IT infrastructure.

Kay Arianpour

Mídia

Anthony GREEN, Test Pilot/Social Media

Anthony GREEN

Graphic Design / Film

ant@flybgd.com

By age 16 Ant’s passion for adventure led him to paragliding. He has flown competitively since 2004 in acrobatics and cross country. Studying film, business and math he has been with BGD since the start bringing all the wild colors to the products. Ant is currently our graphic and in-house film guy and lives and works in Morzine, France.

Charlie King

Editor

Charlie@flybgd.com

Charlie’s first paragliding flight was back in 1994, a 21’st birthday gift that has lasted 25 years and counting. She now flies an Echo, a far cry from the parachute used on that first tow launch in rural England. She lives with her family in southern France and is a daytime desk jockey who works on BGD’s newsletters, manuals and brochures.

Charlie King

Pilotos de teste

Pasquale Biondo

Pasquale Biondo

Paramotor test pilot

Paramotor World Champion Pasquale Biondo has been passionate about flying since playing with his father's wing at the age of 13. He pursued a degree in aerospace engineering before starting out in paramotor competitions. He has been Italian Paramotor Champion multiple times, and in 2022 was crowned Paramotor World Champion. He is part of the R&D team, helping to develop and improve the PPG range.

Wingmen

Franck Largeault

Franck Largeault

Branding/marketing

Franck learnt to fly after a bet with his brother in 2019 and immediately fell in love with the sport. He is a trail runner, father, and general outdoor enthusiast. He has already flown several nice triangles around his home site of Aix-les-Bains and plans to break the site distance record. He is a specialist in outdoor sports marketing strategy and helps BGD with branding, social media, and marketing.