Management Team
George Abi Zeid
President & CEO
George Abi Zeid is an experienced entrepreneur and real estate developer/operator who has led multiple ventures in both technology/Telecommunications and real estate over his 30+ year career. Mr. Abi Zeid has founded multiple successful telecommunication companies. In 1980, he founded Swift Global Communications (SGC), a telecommunications company that primarily targeted financial sectors (banks and brokerage houses) and shipping companies. SGC main line of business is fax and telex distribution domestically and internationally at discounted rates competing with ITT, ATT and Sprint.... In 1993, during Mr. Abi Zeid’s tenure as President and CEO, Swift Global was recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of the fastest growing companies of the year. Mr. Abi Zeid served as President and CEO of Swift Global until 1994, when it was sold to Xpedite Systems, Inc. (which subsequently changed its name to Premiere Global Services, Inc. and today trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol PGI). After the sale, Mr. Abi Zeid remained with Xpedite as one of largest individual share holders and, until 1998, President of Xpedite International with offices in over 25 countries around the world.
In 2001, Mr. Abi Zeid founded Swift Telecommunications, Inc, specializing in acquiring the non-strategic telecommunications divisions within larger corporations with the objective of creating a single operator with economies of scale. As part of this business plan, Swift Telecommunications acquired Italcable from Telecom Italia (Telecom Italia is the National telephone company of Italy); GN Comtext from Great Nordic (Great Nordic is a large Danish concern), and the largest acquisition was of EasyLink, a leading provider of electronic data interchange services (EDI) from AT&T for $60 million. The Combined business, with revenues totaling over $127 million annually was later merged with Mail.com, establishing EasyLink Services Inc., which currently trades on the NASDAQ under the symbol ESIC. From 2001 to 2005, Mr. Abi Zeid served as the President of the International Division, Member of the Board, Executive Vice President, and was the largest individual shareholder.
In 1992, GAZ Realty Inc. was established by Mr. Abi Zeid as a real estate holding company and developer/operator of fuel super stations, Abi Zeid was investor and hired GM at each site to manage and run these sites. From 1992 to today, Mr. Abi Zeid’s primary focus has been on improving customer experiences in the various stations that he has acquired, with many of his locations receiving industry awards for performance. Since 2006, Mr. Abi Zeid has been focusing his efforts exclusively on GAZ Realty Inc., and in 2007, Mr. Abi Zeid formed Airport Plazas, LLC. a company fully dedicated to establishing plazas at airports around the country. The average plaza will include the sale of gasoline, convenience store, car wash, light auto repair, towing, a food court, and more. The Airport Plaza concept has been met with very favorable reactions from airport operators looking to improve their own customers’ experiences and maximize airport revenue.
The first plaza at Newark Liberty International Airport opened Sep 14, 2010 and Airport Plaza won RFPs for number of major airports including JFK International Airport, Fort Meyers International, Tulsa and Cincinnati International airport.
Jubran Charles Jubran
CFO and Sr. Vice President of Finance
Mr. Jubran has over thirty years of financial and accounting experience. Having served in varying roles for leading national firms such as Sony, Price Waterhouse and Arthur Young & Company, Jubran brings a structured discipline to the financial and accounting activities of Airport Plazas. Additionally, Mr. Jubran has played a key role in various corporate acquisitions and private placement equity investments. Mr. Jubran holds an MBA in Accounting and Finance from Adelphi University and currently oversees all financially related activities for Airport Plazas.
Stefano Pascucci
Executive Vice President - Business Development
Mr. Pascucci heads up the business development of Airport Plazas. The responsibility includes the development of new sites across the country, tenant and airport contract negotiations, as well as overall site design input. Mr. Pascucci is typically the lead person for preparing, submitting and presenting projects to the various airport authorities.
Prior to working for Airport Plazas Mr. Pascucci spent a number of years as a commercial broker working with leading national retail brands. Prior to venturing into the real-estate world Mr. Pascucci held a number of senior executive positions with large multi-national and publically traded companies. Throughout his career Mr. Pascucci has visited more than 80 countries around the globe and speaks five languages.
Alan Abizeid
Vice President - Administration
Prior to joining Airport Plazas, Alan held a number of responsibilities including property management, tenant relations, supplier contract review, and lease negotiations. In his role as VP of Administration, Alan coordinates a broad range of responsibilities throughout the organization by drawing on his past experience. Alan establishes and maintains key business processes that insure standardization across all locations. Specifically, roles include property management, reporting, projections, vendor and tenant contract negotiations and site development. Alan graduated with a Bachelor’s in Business Management from the University of Scranton.
Georges W. Abou Zeid
Vice President - Operations
Georges has over a decade of experience in service plaza construction and management. Prior to joining Airport Plazas, he managed ARCO AM/PM plazas throughout California. Recently, Georges took over operational responsibility for a number of GAZ Realty locations throughout the NY metro area. Georges has a Bachelor’s in Computer Engineering from California State University of Fullerton.
Georges is responsible for all aspects of launching new airport locations inclusive of hiring, training, project oversight and maintaining P&L targets across multiple outlets.
Fran L. Santacapita
Vice President - Controls & Compliance
Ms. Santacapita has been brought into Airport Plazas to roll out and monitor all business procedures and controls at our sites. This includes, but is not limited to, recruiting staff, researching and implementing tools and applications that enable management to capture productivity information, and providing loss prevention safeguards. All Airport Plaza sites will utilize the corporate criteria for operating and reporting, and compliance will be monitored by Headquarters.
Fran is a dynamic, effective leader with 25+ years experience building and enhancing business operations for both private and public companies. She is proactive, results-oriented with exceptional management and leadership skills combined with an astute business sense. Her past career success came by building staff and infrastructures that supported rapid expansion of growing firms through effective business strategy, P&L management and meticulous execution.
