Steve Bentley (born in Blackpool, England) is an entrepreneur, founder, CEO, and managing director of Sofema Aviation Services. He is a Fellow at Royal Aeronautical Society (since 2020).
In 1980, Steve Bentley moved to British Caledonian Airways BCAL as a direct entry base maintenance supervisor working on BAC 1-11, Boeing 707, Boeing 747, Boeing 757, Douglas DC10, Airbus A300 & Airbus A310.[1][2]
In 1988, he moved to take up a 3-year contract position with Royal Brunei Airlines, where he was employed as a quality assurance auditor. In 1991, Steve joined Virgin Atlantic as a certifying staff at Heathrow Airport. In 1993, he moved to quality assurance at the Crawley HQ undertaking the role of senior airworthiness inspector for acquired Boeing 747-400 aircraft during build and delivery in Seattle, USA.[3]
In 2008, Steve Bentley launched Sofema Aviation Services in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company provides aviation consultancy and regulatory training to European Commercial Aviation.[4]
In 2012, following the successful launch of Sofema Aviation Services, he launched EASA Online as an online regulatory training platform and training portal.[5]
In 2016, EASA Online was rebranded as Sofema Online which has a wider base of regulations including Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) and Overseas Territories Aviation Regulations (OTAR’s).[6]
During the spring of 2018, Steve became a 25% share founder and co-owner in Romanian EASA Part 145 – RAS Technic at Otopeni Airport, Bucharest.[7][8][9]