Profiles in Professionalism

June 22, 2019

These six 2018 Tony Kern Award winners are aspiring and inspiring business aviation professionals.

The recipients of NBAA’s 2018 Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Awards are all sterling examples of what it means to be a true business aviation professional. Their careers embody the six key attributes of aviation professionalism, as defined by the Kern Award:

• Vocational Excellence
• Professional Ethics
• Continuous Improvement
• Professional Engagement
• Professional Image
• Selflessness

Here are the stories of six of this year’s Kern Award winners.

Chris Algee
Scheduling and Dispatch Manager
Encompass Health

Working in a business aviation operation can certainly be stressful at times, which may lead to scenarios that could compromise operational safety. However, approaching a job with enthusiasm and a professional mindset is key to getting through the difficult times and taking valuable lessons from them.

“The right attitude is everything,” said Chris Algee, scheduling and dispatch manager for Encompass Health. “Don’t get me wrong; this job can be chaotic at times. But it’s important to recognize what can be learned from those experiences to help avoid such disruptions in the future.”

Algee, who has nearly two decades of experience working as a scheduler/dispatcher, believes in the importance of such positive thinking.

“In my experience, having a positive attitude allows you to be part of conversations that enable you to take a more active role in the direction of your flight department,” he explained. “That kind of engagement is critical to maintaining a safe and professional flight operation.”

A positive attitude should also extend beyond your job duties and your own flight department.

“It becomes about giving back,” Algee said. “Be proactive: join your department’s safety committee. Attend industry conferences geared to your job role, and pursue professional accreditation, such as NBAA’s Certified Aviation Manager program.

“Going beyond your job description demonstrates you’ve completely ‘bought in’ to your role in business aviation and understand the importance of elevating the entire profession,” he added. “We should feel privileged to do this.”

Marty Grier
Senior Manager of Aircraft Maintenance
The Home Depot

With more than 40 years in general aviation – 15 of those in his current position as senior manager of aircraft maintenance at The Home Depot – Marty Grier has been a model of professional engagement focused on mentoring others and giving back to the industry.

A member of the Georgia Business Aviation Association and a mentor to active military personal returning to civilian life, Grier is also a member of the NBAA Safety Committee and the NBAA Maintenance Committee. In 2018, he was a presenter at the Bombardier Safety Standdown and was the first maintenance professional to receive the coveted Safety Standdown award.

“It’s in my DNA,” Grier said when asked why he is so dedicated to giving back by volunteering. “It’s the way my mother raised me and is a core value of The Home Depot.”

That willingness to put others before himself has earned Grier tremendous respect among his peers. However, Grier acknowledged it is not always easy to lead a volunteer group.

“The common vision inspires us to work together,” he said, but “one of the biggest challenges in a volunteer group is availability due to work-related conflicts. It’s tough to get everyone together because of all the demands on our time.”

But helping others make the most of their volunteer experience seems to be where Grier excels.

“In all the time I have volunteered with Marty, he has always exhibited selflessness,” said Jeff Wofford, who nominated Grier for the Tony Kern Award. “Marty involves everyone and keeps everyone on track without alienating anyone.”

Anna Romer
Maintenance Technician
3M Aviation

Strength. Deliberation. Determination.

Those are the words used to describe Anna Romer, a maintenance technician with 3M Aviation. But if you were to ask Anna about the personal attribute the she values most, she would say honesty.

“As a maintenance technician, you have to be absolutely honest,” said Romer. “Not only that, when you find a problem and bring it to light, you need to have a game plan to mitigate it.”

Anna remembers well a moment earlier in her career when she was towing a Gulfstream 450. The tail of the aircraft struck an obstacle. Romer immediately owned her mistake by reporting it to the director of aviation. Then she created a plan to repair the damage and voluntarily put in the time necessary to effect complete repairs.

“It was my mistake,” she said. “It was only right that I did whatever it took to get that plane back in the air as soon as possible.”

Not only does Romer accept responsibility for her errors, but she is compassionate in dealing with others.

In addition, she goes the extra mile to invest in her future and the future of her company, having completed her bachelor’s degree at Embry-Riddle Aviation University while working fulltime at a job that involved extensive travel. In spite of the heavy load, Romer graduated with a nearly perfect grade point average.

David Small
Flight Operations Administrator
Cox Inc.

David Small, the flight operations administrator at Cox Inc., did not set out to become an aviator. But in college, while he was pumping fuel at his local airport, an aviation professional took an interest in him and became his mentor.

“When I received the Kern Award, I immediately thought back to those days. I had no direction,” he recalled. “My family wasn’t involved in aviation, other than a great uncle who flew in World War I. My mentor was the one individual in my career who took a chance on me.”

It made a lifelong impression on Small, who has since striven to better himself at every opportunity. He completed the University of Southern California’s Safety Management Program, as well as the Managing the Corporate Aviation Function course at the University of Virginia’s Darden Graduate School of Business. Now, Small is pursuing the NBAA Certified Aviation Manager credential.

Just as important, Small wants to provide the same sort of mentoring he received to others in business aviation.

“I said to myself as I matured in business aviation that I would do all I could to help those who wanted a shot. That’s how I got involved with GBAA (the Georgia Business Aviation Association). I want to help others the way someone once helped me.”

Small has been involved in GBAA for 22 of his more than 35 years in aviation. When he first became a leader of the organization, GBAA awarded $4,000 in scholarships annually. Now, the association awards more than 10 times that amount every year to future business aviation leaders.

Robert Snyder
Sr. Vice President of Aviation Operations
Sedgwick Industries

Selflessness is a common theme among the aviation professionals receiving the 2018 Tony Kern Award, and no one embodies it better than Robert Snyder.

“There’s a young gentleman I came to know through my wife’s work who really wanted a career in aviation. He had grown up in a poor part of Kenya,” Snyder explained. Together with a small group of friends, Snyder and his wife were able to help the young Kenyan come to the United States and enter flight training.

Snyder’s admiration for the young man’s tenacity was obvious as he spoke of the student. “We’ve been able to host him here and help get his pilot ratings. He did this in spite of a very difficult upbringing. His grades were very good. He’s now finishing his certified flight instructor rating.”

Call it paying forward, or perhaps paying back, said Snyder.

“I came up in the industry in a very different time, when the opportunities were not as plentiful as they are today,” Snyder said. “I was able to meet people who helped me emphatically throughout my career. Now the opportunities are there, but for a lot of young people, the interest just isn’t as intense.”

So Snyder works as a sort of evangelist, spreading the news about the benefits of a career in business aviation. The only way to bring new blood into the industry, he said, is to make a personal investment of time and effort.

George Kleros
Sr. Vice President for Strategic Management and Fleet Support
Jet Support Services, Inc.

George Kleros has sought to apply a professional mindset to his job since the very beginning of his aviation career, washing planes for a regional airline more than 30 years ago.

Kleros is also an advocate of STEM education for female students looking to pursue aviation careers, and he served as maintenance coordinator for Shaesta Waiz’s 2017 round-the-world flight in a Beechcraft A36 Bonanza.

“It’s no problem getting an N-registered jet maintained and serviced in Europe, but it’s quite another when you’re talking about a piston-engine airplane in Dubai,” said Kleros.

“It’s a 24-hour endeavor that isn’t only about making sure parts arrive on time.

Maintainers [in Dubai] also need type-specific qualifications to work on aircraft, and those personnel can be difficult to find.”

That meant lots of word-of-mouth referrals and interviews conducted around the clock. Four major weather delays, last-minute reroutes and technical difficulties also threw wrenches in the planned maintenance and repair schedule, as did a fuel leak that developed in one of the Bonanza’s tip tanks on the ground in Dubai.

Thanks to quick thinking – including use of an iPhone camera to help the support team pinpoint the location of the leak despite being thousands of miles away, and redrawing diagrams for the repair team that weren’t clear in the original documentation – the team got Waiz back in the air quickly, although not even the best planning could resolve every issue.

“We had to fly by the seat of our pants, so to speak, while never losing sight of our goal,” said Kleros.