Human Resource - Help Or Hindrance? - Squarespace · Human Resource - Help Or Hindrance? by Frank M. Jay The Human Resource department is found in most companies in-cluding airlines.

Human Resource - Help Or Hindrance? by Frank M. Jay

The Human Resource department is found in most companies in-cluding airlines. As a “mainstay” function, its importance is without question. Without it, compensation would not be structured in a reasonable way, benefits would not be implemented or upgraded, and recruiting at many levels would not occur. It goes beyond those basics to include corporate communications, training, labor rela-tions, management development, organizational development, man-power planning, etc.

But should it be involved in the recruitment of the corporate executive and, if so, to what extent?

If you ask most retained search consultants, their answer is “never”. They believe that the Human Resource department constitutes a potential communications barrier between the “client” (the hiring executive) and the search consultant. If you ask the potential can-didate, their answer is much the same. They will say in most cases that HR is a “necessary evil” and is to be circumnavigated if at all possible in order to achieve success. If you ask the hiring executive confidentially, in most cases they will say the same.

So, is there benefit in including the HR department in the executive search? Honestly, it depends on the department and the executive that “heads” it. Human Resources can be extremely beneficial to the search consultant in so many ways.

HR can facilitate a better relationship between the hiring ex-ecutive and the consultant, can provide information critical to the process such as organizational charts, job descriptions, corporate information, information on hiring practices and in-formation relative to city and state. In addition, they can act as corporate interviewers at a high level…providing effective opinions and analysis on candidates of interest. Finally, HR can coordinate the whole process to insure a seamless effort on all parts.

The best HR executives (in my opinion) are not interested in con-trolling the search process. Instead they desire to support and coor-dinate the process to insure that the hiring executive obtains the best and most qualified candidate for the position available. They rightly expect to be included, communicated with, and involved in the pro-cess...to be “in the loop”. But, they don’t stand between the hiring executive and either the search consultant or the qualified candidate.

Recently, in a search that we accomplished for a key executive for a major airline, the Human Resources Vice President provided much needed support in all of the ways listed above.

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Frank Jay & Associates | Aviation & Aerospace Executive Search(281) 359-9040 | www.frankjayassoc.net

December 2017 In this Issue: * Human Resource - Help Or Hindrance? * Aviation & Aerospace Employment Indices * On The Move

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On The Move


Aviation Executive Monthly DECEMBER 20172

Aerojet Rocketdyne welcomed Kenneth Kramer as Director of Manufacturing Engineering. Mr. Kramer most recently served as Director of Engineering with KAMAN Aerospace.

AeroMexico announced the promotion of James Bernal to Vice President, International Airport Affairs. Mr. Bernal has been with the company since 2000 and most recently served as Director-International Airport Services.

AIM Altitude promoted Group Commercial Director, Richard Bower to Chief Executive Officer. Bower will succeed Mark Edwards who will become a non-executive Deputy Chairman.

airBaltic appointed Alina Roscinaas Vice President of Human Resources.

Airbus named Eric Schulz, Rolls-Royce Civil Aerospace President as Executive Vice President-Chief of Sales, Marketing & Contracts. Mr. Schulz will succeed John Leahy who will retire after 33 years with the company. The departure of Paul Eremenko at the end of 2017 was also confirmed. Marc Fontaine, currently Digital Transformation Officer, will take over as acting Chief Technology Officer.

AJW Group welcomed Martyn Haines as its new Technical Director. Mr. Haines joined from Kenya Airways where he had held the same title since 2015.

Alaska Airlines promoted David Ferrel to Manager, Network Strategy. David had served as Senior Analyst, Network & Fleet Strategy since 2016. Todd Traynor-Corey was welcomed as Director-Onboard Food & Beverage. He joined from United Airlines where he served as Managing Director-Hospitality, Planning & Experience.

Allegiant Air appointed Michael Wuerger to Vice President of OCC. Michael previously served as Director of OCC.

American Airlines named First Officer Charles Wheeler and Captain Tony Adrosky Chief Pilots-DFW. Charles most recently served as an IOC Duty Pilot and Tony joined American in 2008. Chief Pilot Mike McClellan will return to Chicago after serving 18 months as a Chief Pilot in Miami. Captain Tim Airey will serve as the new Chief Pilot-PHL and will transfer from the New York crew base. Ankush Chowdhury was pro-moted to Director, Financial Planning & Analysis (Capital Planning)

Beckett Air, Inc. appointed Jeannie Sowers as Human Resources Manager. She joined from United Airlines where she had also held the posi-tion of Human Resources Manager.

C&L Aviation Group welcomed Ron Jennings as Regional Sales Manager. Jennings joined from J.A. Air Center where he served as Vice Presi-dent Technical Sales & Services.

CHC Group announced the appointment of Scott Thanisch as Senior Vice President & Chief Financial Officer. He joined CHC in 2016 as Vice President & Treasurer and has served as interim Chief Financial Officer since October.

Constant Aviation promoted Daniel Davenport to Director, Business Development-Airframe. He most recently held the position of Midwest Regional Sales Manager and has been with the company since 2016. Randy D. Miller was welcomed as Regional Sales Manager. Randy joined from Textron Aviation where he was the Territory Sales Manager since 2014.

CTS Engines welcomed Diane Cavuoto as Senior Vice President, Supply Chain. Diane joined from Honeywell Aerospace where she had most recently served as Vice President, Strategic Sourcing.

CubCrafters announced the promotion of Patrick Horgan to Vice President, Operations Product Development. Pat has been the Director of the Engineering & Product Development Department since joining the company in 2015.

DynCorp International appointed Tim Wolard as Director of Maintenance. Tim has been with DynCorp since 2010 and most recently served as Program Manager / Site Manager.

Executive AirShare promoted Jill Plumb to Vice President of Marketing, Corporate Communications & Customer Experience. Jill held the position of Director of Marketing & Corporation Communications since 2006.

Extant Aerospace welcomed Harley Stalnaker as Chief Inspector. Harley joined from AirReady MRO where he also held the position of Chief Inspector.

Flightstar Aircraft Services named Jonathan Nuhu Senior Quality Assurance Auditor. Jonathan had been Manager of Quality Assurance with HAECO Americas.

flyadeal promoted Scott Robillard to Head of Cabin Crew and Catering. Scott recently joined flyadeal as Manager of Ancillary Revenue.



GoGo announced the appointment of Alexis Girin as Vice President of Asia Pacific Sales. He most recently served as the Amadeus Account Director for Singapore Airline Group. Mark Schwab joined as Senior Advisor of International Sales-Commercial Aviation Division.

Grupo EULEN welcomed Randy Ruggieri as Senior Vice President-Operations. Ruggieri joined from Menzies Aviation where he held the position of Regional Vice President.

Gulf Air announced the appointment of Kresimir Kucko as Chief Executive Officer, effective November 12th. Mr. Kucko previously served as Croatia Airlines President & CEO.

Hawaiian Airlines announced the upcoming retirement of President & Chief Executive Officer Mark Dunkerley. Peter Ingram, Executive Vice President & CCO will succeed Dunkerley effective March 1, 2018.

Honeywell Aerospace welcomed Stephane Fymat as Vice President-Product Management and Marketing-BendixKing. He most recently served as Vice President-Product Management & Marketing with Infrascale. Sathish Muthukrishnan was welcomed as Chief Digital & Informa-tion Officer. He joined from American Express where he was CIO & VP-Enterprise Digital, Enterprise API Engineering & Big Data Labs.

International Civil Aviation Organization (ICAO) appointed Captain Claude Hurley as President of the Air Navigation Commission.

Intrepid Aviation announced the appointment of Daniel Perez as Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Perez has worked for Intrepid since 2012 and most recently held the position of Executive Vice President-Operations & Aircraft Programs.

L-3 Technologies welcomed Steven Clements as Director of Operations-Airline Training. He most recently served as Director of Flight Stan-dards/Manager of Operations with PanAm International Flight Academy.

Lee Aerospace recently promoted JR Larson to Senior Program Manager. JR has served as Program Manager since 2015.

Matrix Aviation Services, Inc. welcomed Ziya Akbasoglu as Vice President Airport Services. Ziya had most recently held the position of Airport Projects Manager-USA with Air France-KLM.

Miami Air International named Luis Macias Director of Customer Service. Luis joined from IATA where he was an instructor.

Million Air - Chuck Suma was recently named Chief Operating Officer. Mr. Suma is also the CEO of Suma Consulting Group.

NORDAM Group, Inc. welcomed Mark Sheppard as Senior Supply Chain Coordinator. Mark most recently served as Program Manager-Fleet Programs with Delta Air Lines.

PenAir promoted Michael Walsh to Sales Director. Walsh has served as Regional Sales Manager since 2016.

Qantas welcomed Christopher Keen as Senior Manager, Group Network Planning & Performance. Keen joined from Hawaiian Airlines where he held the position of Director of Network Strategy.

Revenue Management Systems, Inc. (RMS) promoted Michael Peters to Vice President Product Management. Peters had served as Senior Director of Sales & Support-EMEA since 2011.

Sabre Corporation announced that Herve Couturier, President of Kerney Partners, was elected to its board of directors. Couturier served as EVP of R&D at Amadeus from 2012 to 2016, and prior to that was EVP of SAP AG’s Technology Group and Head of Research. Sabre also announced that Larry Kellner, currently executive chairman, will return to his prior position of non-executive chairman effective December 31st, 2017. Sabre Airline Solutions announced the promotion of Shahram Shahinpour to Team Lead-Operations Research. Shahram had most recently served as Senior Operations Research Analyst & Developer.

Silver Airways promoted Brian DeBolt from Senior Manager Maintenance Control to Base Manager-Line Maintenance. Brian has been with Silver since 2015.

Spirit Airlines, Inc. announced that Chief Executive Officer Bob Fornaro will step down and Ted Christie, the airlines’s Chief Financial Of-ficer, will take over. Christie will become President January 1, 2018. Brian McMenamy was recently appointed Vice President & Controller and Principal Accounting Officer. He most recently served as Vice President, Finance with American Airlines.

Triumph Accessories announced the promotion of Allan MacDonald to Director of Engineering. Mr. MacDonald had served as Chief Engineer-Repair Development since 2015.

On The Move, Continued...

On The Move

United Airlines appointed Jill Kaplan as President, New York/New Jersey. She joined from Crain’s New York Business where she was most recently Vice President & Publisher. Kate Gebo was named Executive Vice President-Human Resources & Labor Relations, replacing Mike Bonds, who announced his retirement earlier this year. Liam Mackay was promoted to Director-Regional Partner Management.

United Technologies announced the appointment of Paul Eremenko as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer, effective January 1, 2018. Eremenko succeeds J. Michael McQuade, who will retire next year.

Urban Airship welcomed Anthony Combs as Corporate Controller. Combs held the same title previously with Radisys Corporation.

Virgin Atlantic Cargo promoted Paul Fallon from Director Cargo Operations & Business Development to Director-Commercial & Business Development. Tania Wilson was named Director, Operations. She will join in January 2018 and is currently Head of Safety at Virgin Atlantic. These changes follow Dominic Kennedy’s promotion to Managing Director of Virgin Atlantic Cargo.

West Star Aviation welcomed Sharon Klose as Director of Engine Program Development. She joined from Duncan Aviation where she held the position of Senior Sales / Service Engine Manager for the past 10 years.

XTRA Airways welcomed Peter Zamoyski as Director-OCC. Peter is also the President of AVA Aviation Consulting.

_________________________________________Human Resource - Help or Hindrance

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In addition, that person provided a liaison between our organization and the Chief Executive Officer that assured quick and effective communication in the absence of the CEO. Essentially, the VP/HR became an extension of the CEO and of his re-sponsibilities and helped to assure the success of the search.

Granted, not all HR executives are as supportive and beneficial in the search process. Often times, egos and the desire to control become more important than the achievement of results…no matter which departments are involved. But, in the recruiting process at the upper levels, the Human Resource department offers a great deal of opportunity to achieve a successful hire by “honing” the process, facilitating effective communications, and providing an essential point of corporate contact for the search firm.

Surely, the HR exec sees his or her role as the management of the search and the search firm involved…and that is where prob-lems between the HR exec and the search firm most often occur. Search engagements are most often authorized by the hiring executive. Search firms therefore look to that “decision maker” for management and approval…leaving out the HR exec except for coordination and communication. Resentment then may occur on the part of the HR exec or…when they play an active role in coordination and management of the search…on the part of the search firm.

We believe in and support the effective Human Resource department as a key element of the retained executive search. We believe that they should be an extension of the decision maker’s authority and should be included in the search process. If the decision maker, the Human Resources department and the retained search firm all work together with support for each other, the result will be a better search with successful results

Sincerely,

Frank M. Jay



Human Resource - Help Or Hindrance? - Squarespace · Human Resource - Help Or Hindrance? by Frank M. Jay The Human Resource department is found in most companies in-cluding airlines.

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