Edward A. McLaughlin
Community Relations, Aviation Consultant

Edward (Ed) McLaughlin manages municipal and airport contacts and activities as they relate to the Harding Company’s interests in natural gas exploration and production.  He is a retired U.S. Air Force colonel with over 8,000 hours of flying time and over 400 hours combat flying in Viet Nam.  At the time of his retirement from military service in 1987, he was chief of staff for the Air Education and Training command in San Antonio, TX.  Some notable highlights of McLaughlin’s Air Force career include service as Commander, Sheppard Air Force Base, TX; Vice Commander and Commander, Andrews Air Force Base, MD, and special operations planner for the Rapid Deployment Joint Task Force in the Pentagon.

In 1991, McLaughlin joined the North Texas Commission as Vice President, Aviation and International Business Development.  The economic impacts under his leadership were estimated to be over $17 million in 2000.  He has served as president of DFW Airport’s Management Club for three years and Vice Chairman of the City of Fort Worth’s Aviation Advisory Committee for four. 

A graduate of Troy State University in Alabama, McLaughlin earned a MBA degree from Webster College, St. Louis, MO and has done work toward a PhD in management at New York University.  He is a graduate of the Prestigious National Defense University, the Industrial College of the Armed Forces and the Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College.