A fighter pilot founded Afterburner 30 years ago. A fighter pilot who built the world’s largest amphibious airline now takes command.
CORAL GABLES, Fla., Aug. 24, 2026 /PRNewswire/ — Thirty years ago, U.S. Air Force fighter pilot James D. “Murph” Murphy founded Afterburner with a simple but powerful conviction: that the discipline, precision, and accountability of elite fighter aviation could transform how businesses plan, brief, execute, debrief, and win. Today, as the company celebrates three decades of accelerating the world’s leading organizations, Afterburner is proud to announce the next chapter of that mission: the appointment of Rob “Rocko” Ceravolo as Chief Executive Officer effective August 24th, 2026.
A former U.S. naval fighter aviator and TOPGUN graduate, he started Tropic Ocean Airways in 2009 with one aircraft and one employee. Today the Fort Lauderdale-based carrier is the world’s largest amphibious airline, flying routes globally. He built his company on military-grade training and execution discipline, the same philosophy Afterburner has taught for three decades. Now he takes command of the company that wrote the playbook.
“I built Afterburner to prove that flawless execution isn’t a talent you’re born with; it’s a discipline, and it can be taught,” says Founder James D. “Murph” Murphy. “Two million leaders later, the proof is in. Rob is the best evidence I’ve ever seen: a fighter pilot who took these principles into the open market and built the world’s largest amphibious airline with them. Thirty years in, we’re not throttling back. We just lit the afterburner.”
Murphy, who wrote Flawless Execution and built the methodology Afterburner still runs on, isn’t going anywhere. A longtime member of the company’s Board of Directors, he stays on the board and returns to the stage, once again delivering keynotes under the Afterburner brand.
The incoming CEO arrives with a command record of his own. A recognized leader in last-mile airlift, Ceravolo built a stellar safety record at Tropic Ocean Airways and earned Commuter Authority from the U.S. Department of Transportation, flying scheduled and charter passenger and cargo routes across Florida, the Bahamas, the Caribbean, Cuba, Puerto Rico, New York, Connecticut, and Massachusetts. In 2019, he was one of the few who received the prestigious Ernst & Young Entrepreneur of the Year award.
Ask him what made the airline work and he points to one thing: standardization. He designed Tropic Ocean’s pilot development program to mirror U.S. Naval flight procedures, convinced that elite-level training and standardization are what make growth sustainable, especially in the middle of a global pilot shortage. That conviction is Afterburner’s founding idea.
“I’ve spent my whole career betting that fighter-pilot discipline builds great companies,” says Rob “Rocko” Ceravolo. “I bet on it in the Navy, and I bet on it again when Tropic Ocean was one airplane and me. Murph made that same bet in 1996 and proved it for thirty years. Taking the lead at Afterburner isn’t a career move for me; it’s a homecoming to the ideas that built everything I have.”
Ceravolo has spent his career building high-performance teams and proving them under pressure. Over 14 years in the U.S. Navy, he flew the F-14D, F/A-18E, and F-5N in support of Operations Iraqi Freedom and Enduring Freedom and held multiple squadron leadership roles. At Tropic Ocean, his teams delivered when it mattered most, evacuating more than 900 people and delivering 200,000 pounds of aid in the 10 days after Hurricane Dorian. Teams like that, teams that plan, brief, execute, and debrief like a fighter squadron, are what Afterburner has built for 30 years, and what Ceravolo intends to keep building at the helm.
That’s the leader now at the helm. The next 30 years start now, and the debrief is open to everyone. To learn more about Afterburner, or to book a keynote, training program, or event with the Afterburner team, visit afterburner.com or contact the team at team@afterburner.com.
About Afterburner
Fighter pilot James D. ‘Murph’ Murphy founded Afterburner in 1996 on the belief that the way fighter squadrons plan, brief, execute, and debrief could transform how businesses perform. Afterburner’s Flawless Execution℠ methodology has reached 2.2 million leaders across more than 3,500 organizations, including 85% of the Fortune 500. Every speaker on the team has flown the missions they teach. Afterburner is 100% veteran-owned and headquartered in Coral Gables, Florida. One Mission. One Moment. One Leader at a time. Learn more at afterburner.com.
Media Contact
Sarah Halloran
CMO, Afterburner
Sarah@afterburner.com
423-290-2134
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SOURCE Afterburner Capital
