military life. I didn’t think anything of it, but I guess that was my first interview; they were feeling me out.”


Family Team


Where and how would he find such people to motivate after he was discharged? The overlooked answer came calling when Papillon’s CEO, Brenda Halvorson, began recruiting her clueless in-law. You see, Tomlin’s wife was called Katie Halvorson before she married. Lest you think Pilot Tomlin married for his career, this nugget may disabuse that notion: Jake and Katie began dating in high school. “We got married young and marrying her has been the hands-down greatest accomplishment of my life,” Tomlin says. “She is a force multiplier and there’s no way I could do what I do without her. She has brought stability to my life and been with me through life’s successes and failures.”


If you still think teen Tomlin was setting Future Jake up for life, you clearly don’t remember how short-sighted teens are! In fact, Katie was almost as surprised as her husband about the family business as she didn’t know the size and scope of her grandfather’s company. But Brenda knew what was up—Papillon’s flight hours—and she needed to find more help for the growth that was occurring.


Tomlin didn’t realize it at the time, but Brenda and her team really targeted him during his last couple of years in the military. “Looking back, she and her executive team had been assessing me in social and informal situations. Katie and I met them for dinner one time in Quantico, Virginia, and Brenda was bouncing our one-year-old daughter, Olivia, on her knee while her team talked to me about my


16 Mar/Apr 2026


Baby Olivia (who’s about to graduate from high school—time flies), must have passed that knee-bouncing, because Brenda and her team “happened” to next see Tomlin in San Diego. The CEO got more serious and directly asked him what he wanted to do in his fast-approaching civilian career. “I answered that I wanted to work in aviation on the business side.” He had just earned his MBA at the San Diego chapter of Phoenix University with the intent to take his new master’s back to Seattle to find a job in that city’s aerospace industry. (Hello Boeing!) Then, Ms. Halvorson addressed ball to glove and made her closing pitch: Papillon was growing and needed another manager; she offered the former Marine a business role at Papillon. Despite expecting to swing at a Boeing ball on the outside, Tomlin connected with this inside-family pitch. He says, “The Marine Corps. had taught me I could do anything for one year and I agreed to move to Vegas and start at Papillon.”


Papillon was a grand-slam homerun for Tomlin. “From Day One, I was hooked. I


loved the staging logistics, teamwork,


and excitement at Papillon. I first showed up in a suit and tie—way overdressed for helicopters! Brenda handed me a backpack and told me they were going to kick me around the company for a year to figure me out while I figured them out. They had a one-year management syllabus mapped out for me where I was transferred to a new department every six weeks. It was one the most rewarding and educational experiences of my life. The hooks got set deep in me and I got to love the people in this company.”


Tomlin entered Papillon as a product analyst in 2013 and diligently advanced through general management into the executive ranks,


flight and really made it into something.” Then he adds, “She can also be kind of sneaky, like in the way she brought me to Papillon.”


Resilience


Tomlin’s thankfulness for his fulfilling career doesn’t mean he and Papillon haven’t seen turbulent times: COVID decimated tourism— and then gutted it. “Surviving that was the most challenging, hardest professional thing I’ve ever had to do in my entire life,” he recalls. “Our company went from 650 employees down to 50 in 48 hours. I had to lay-off long-time loyal, passionate employees with no answer as to if and when they might come back. We had 75 aircraft on the ground. It was gut-wrenching. For every reason for me to stay and work through it, there were nine reasons for me to quit.”


How does one work through such grueling challenges? Tomlin answers, “The constant theme of my life seems to be resilience. I have the ability to adapt in times of conflict, but don’t rest in times of success. For me, it’s constantly never giving up…I’m also a person of faith and want to incorporate Christian values into how I lead. I try to be a servant-leader who is outwardly focused on taking care of the team, so they can take care of operations. When you achieve that, it’s awesome.”


Tomlin then preaches his life principle that got him through athletic competition, the Marines, and hard times: “Don’t give up; just don’t give up! There’s always a reason to stop what you’re doing, but don’t quit today.”


which ultimately resulted in him


replacing the savvy CEO who recruited him, when she moved up to become chairwoman of the board in 2024. Tomlin is most grateful to his long-time boss, “I can’t say enough about Brenda, my predecessor. She is one of the most humble people I’ve known who’s in a leadership role. She rose to CEO in what was an aviation man’s club and followed her father with strength, passion, and humility. She started out at Papillon to support her dad, but developed her own love for vertical


That fervor recently propelled Tomlin to his newest service role. He was just elected to the Vertical Aviation International (formerly HAI) board of directors. He says, “I feel compelled to give back. Elling was chairman two times and he didn’t do it for his benefit, but because he felt a rising tide lifts all ships.”


Tomlin fully knows helicopters don’t need tides to rise—they generate lift with resilient rotors that don’t give up.


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