About Baxter Marine Group.
Bringing decades of software experience to the marine industry.
Our executive team is made up of people with actual business know-how, proven success, and decades of combined real-world leadership experience.
Rick Heine
Chairman
Rick has over 30 years of entrepreneurial and management experience. Baxter Marine Group is his third major business venture.
In 2003, Rick launched Flightdocs and led the company’s transformation from a small provider of maintenance management services for a dozen aircraft to a rapidly growing cloud-based software solutions company serving thousands of aircraft worldwide.
Previously Rick founded RTI, a successful financial statement processing company, which he grew and sold to SourceCorp (publicly traded at the time and now a portfolio company of private equity firm Apollo Global Management).
Rick subsequently served as President of SourceCorp Statement Solutions, until starting Flightdocs.
April Stercula
Chief Executive Officer
April has over three decades of experience in senior executive roles.
Prior to co-founding Baxter Marine Group, April served as the Chief of Staff for Flightdocs, a SaaS provider of maintenance management services for thousands of aircraft worldwide.
April managed the acquisition of Flightdocs by ATP and led the successful transition of the company to the new owner.
Her other leadership roles include CEO for a European lending institution backed by a large global private equity firm, Chief of Staff for Sallie Mae, as well as Head of Risk Management for MBNA.
Over her 30 year career, April has managed every aspect of business including product development, operations, compliance and risk management, finance, marketing, and sales.
Philip Mazza
Chief Operating Officer
Philip has over 25 years of leadership experience spanning operations, technology, information security, and risk management.
Most recently he served as the COO of Flightdocs, assisting in the company’s successful acquisition in June 2020.
Prior to Flightdocs Phil was the CEO of Financial Network, Inc., a leader in loan origination, underwriting, complex data aggregation, and credit scoring services for North American lenders.
Phil has particular expertise in merging technology, security, and compliance, to create profitable SaaS services.
Phil holds a degree in Computer Science from Penn State University.
Karl Fischer
President
Karl is a senior leader with more than 30 years of proven success in building world-class sales and marketing organizations. He is responsible for the Sales and Marketing success at Baxter Marine Group.
Prior to joining Baxter Marine Group, Fischer was Chief Revenue Officer at Flightdocs, a SaaS provider of maintenance management services for thousands of aircraft worldwide.
His leadership roles span marketing, sales, retention, product management, customer engagement, and customer service contact center operations and strategy, in both business-to-business and direct-to-consumer environments.
Karl has a proven track record of increasing sales effectiveness at several Fortune 100 companies. He has additional expertise in vendor management and event marketing.
Karl has an MA in Organizational Communications from the University at Buffalo.
Craig Parkhurst
Chief Strategy Officer
Craig has over 20 years of experience in the marine industry, covering service management, operations, and maintenance.
He started in the industry working on private yachts as well as a dockmaster where he received his 100T USCG Credentials.
Since joining WheelHouse over 10 years ago Craig has been involved in all aspects of the business from implementation and customer support to development and business management.
Previously, he ran a boat donation organization and marine service business.
Craig is a member of the Passenger Vessel Association Safety & Security Council along with the Associate Council.
Craig holds a degree in Marine Affairs with concentration in business management from The University of Rhode Island.