Steve Bentley

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).

Career and education
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.

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.

Sofema Aviation Services
In 2008, Steve Bentley launched Sofema Aviation Services in Sofia, Bulgaria. The company provides aviation consultancy and regulatory training to European Commercial Aviation.

In 2012, following the successful launch of Sofema Aviation Services, he launched EASA Online as an online regulatory training platform and training portal.

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).

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.