![\"Wilkes-Barre](\"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/08\/02d05eb1-1ffe-4875-9fb3-f49d39cdb70e-WilkesBarreScrantonInternationalAirportBoard.png\")
<\/p>\nAVOCA BOROUGH, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport has a new leader, ending a national search for its next executive director.<\/p>\n
The six-member Bi-County Airport Board voted Thursday to hire Kim William “Bill” Hopper of Greenville, North Carolina, who brings more than 30 years of airport management experience to the position.<\/p>\n
Hopper most recently served as executive director of the Pitt-Greenville Airport Authority in North Carolina, a position he held from 2019 until retiring in June.<\/p>\n
His hiring is conditional on the negotiation of a final employment contract.<\/p>\n
The airport launched a national search after former Executive Director Carl Beardsley Jr. resigned earlier this year.<\/p>\n
Consulting firm ADK was paid $47,000 to conduct the search. The position was advertised with a salary range of $135,000 to $150,000, depending on qualifications and experience.<\/p>\n
Four finalists were interviewed by the airport board earlier this month. The names of three of those candidates, including Hopper, had not been publicly released before Thursday’s decision.<\/p>\n
The only publicly known finalist was Lackawanna County Commissioner Chris Chermak, who temporarily stepped aside from his position on the airport board while seeking the job.<\/p>\n
Attorney Chris Munley was appointed to fill Chermak’s board seat during the selection process. Chermak is expected to return to the Bi-County Airport Board now that another candidate has been selected.<\/p>\n
Chermak had publicly promoted his candidacy and previously claimed he “had the votes” to become executive director, an assertion disputed by all six members of the airport board.<\/p>\n
Hopper will take over leadership of an airport jointly owned by Luzerne and Lackawanna counties.<\/p>\n
<\/p>\n
Wilkes-Barre Scranton International Airport Board<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"AVOCA BOROUGH, LUZERNE CO. (WOLF) \u2014 The Wilkes-Barre\/Scranton International Airport has a new leader, ending a national search…\n","protected":false},"author":2,"featured_media":273375,"comment_status":"","ping_status":"","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"footnotes":""},"categories":[15],"tags":[178,180,179],"class_list":["post-273374","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","category-scranton","tag-scranton","tag-scranton-headlines","tag-scranton-news"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273374","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/2"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=273374"}],"version-history":[{"count":0,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/273374\/revisions"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/273375"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=273374"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=273374"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/www.newsbeep.com\/us-pa\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=273374"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}