Leon Watkins Leaves Airport Industry a Legacy of Service, Advocacy and Cooperation

Trailblazers rarely start with the goal of achieving fame or notoriety. In most cases, the individual simply has a vision and a desire to reach a destination for which there is no road map available; so they must create their own path. And so it was for the trailblazer Leon Watkins and a small group of other Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) officials and airport professionals who set out to clear a path for businesses owned by minorities and women to fully access business opportunities in the airport industry. During his tenure at FAA, Watkins helped develop the USDOT Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (DBE) Program and the Airport Concessions Disadvantaged Business Enterprise (ACDBE) Program; and led the programs’ implementation in the airport industry during the initial stages.

Watkins leveraged his leadership position as the FAA director of the Office Civil Rights, and later as associate administrator for civil rights, to set in motion strategies to clear a path toward the unprecedented participation of minority- and womanowned businesses in airport contracts. He was a passionate civil rights leader, with a special interest in ensuring that DBE and ACDBE firms had an equal opportunity to do business in the airport industry. Watkins also knew the importance of diversity in the workplace and spent his career opening doors so that women and minorities could have a seat at the table.