7 minute read
DELIVERING EXCELLENCE
from HomeBase March 2023
by PHI
Meet Tom Neumann, President of PHI MRO Services
Tom joined PHI in 2022, bringing with him more than 20 years of business development and operational leadership experience, and leads the global growth and expansion of PHI MRO Services.
HomeBase sat down with Tom to find out more about MRO and his love of green chilies.
Tell us about your career to date.
My professional background began in the late 1980s and early 1990s in the helicopter business working for Papillon Grand Canyon helicopters, where I worked at the flight line and with customers directly. After that, I went into the logistics business working with DHL as a logistician and then moved into a 20-plus year career at Honeywell, managing various parts of their business - mainly in the rotorcraft area. I had stints both on the defense side of rotorcraft, as well as working with all of our OEM partners - Airbus, Sikorsky, Leonardo and Bell. I then went into the avionics business prior to joining PHI last year.
What’s the most memorable moment of your career to date?
I think for me, the most memorable part has been watching the helicopter industry evolve from a very grassroots type of organization into a thriving industry where we’ve evolved to utilize technology and aircraft in a way that is transformative. Being a part of the evolution of the helicopter industry, working with global fleets and looking at the way we’ve embraced safety is probably the most memorable part of my career versus a specific time. And as technology continues to grow in our field, it’s pretty cool to be part of that.
- Tom Neumann, President of MRO Services
What interested you about joining PHI?
PHI has a wonderful reputation with almost 75 years in the business. The fact that I had an opportunity to take an internally-focused portion of the PHI family and turn that into a business that allows us to help the greater industry by providing specific services and expertise really appealed to me. That, and we have team members who have been with us for more than 40 years – that’s really saying something positive about an organisation when people stay for so long!
What is your vision for the future of the MRO function?
Our MRO division at PHI is full of team members who carry an immense amount of experience and capability. What I’d like to help us achieve is to take this capability and experience and provide it to the greater market for helicopter services.
Our goal is to be able to provide our gold standard MRO function to partners, to help them drive safety and best practice within their own businesses, as we have the capacity and willingness to share what we do with others. We’re putting as much emphasis on third-party work as we do on working on our own fleet.
How has your background and experience set you up for success in this role?
Having worked with multiple partners across a variety of roles within the industry means I bring a collaborative spirit to try and make things better, not only for PHI but for the industry as a whole. For example, one of my focuses is how we can get state-of-the-art safety technology installed on aircraft at a reasonable price point.
What do you want our teams and our customers to know about what we’re doing here at PHI?
I want our teams to know that we have a bright future to showcase our talents to customers, and I want to show our customers that entrusting their valuable assets with us for maintenance, repairs and completions gets them a value that they can’t get in many other places.
I also want to show our OEM’s that we have the ability to help them get their products onto aircraft to offer to the market. OEMs know how to make things; we know how to install things, and we want them to trust us to install their products on aircraft.
Our strategy right now is three-pronged.
Firstly, we want to focus on OEM support across first, second and third-tier OEMs. The second prong is supporting government operators in the United States and globally. We’ll work with everyone from the very top of the federal government to the most rural of municipal operators. Thirdly, we are focused on providing the best technological products and completions for any helicopters in the industry. That’s what we do—we’re helicopter people through and through.
- Tom Neumann, President of MRO Services
What excites you most about the future of PHI’s MRO division?
What excites me the most is that we have all this capability that the wider industry didn’t have access to until now, and now we’re willing to work with folks to help raise that gap, including smaller MROs. We are driven to be collaborators and we actively want people to partner with us to raise the capability of the entire industry.
How are you finding living in a new part of the US?
When I joined PHI in 2022, my family and I moved from New Mexico to New Iberia, Louisiana. We really feel that we have been embraced by the Acadian culture and the people here, and this has been one of the greatest transitions I’ve had!
Aside from the food being amazing, too, I know that this is a great place to live and there’s such a strong culture of not just working hard but playing hard too—it’s a great balance and truly embodies the ‘Laissez les bons temps rouler’ (Cajun French phrase meaning ‘let the good times roll’) attitude of South Louisiana. The cost of living here is also affordable, compared to many other parts of the United States; we have great access to the airport; and our regional infrastructure is strong. I’m really enjoying living in this part of the world.
Is there anything you miss about New Mexico?
Green chilies – there’s nothing else like ‘em.
Do you have any parting words?
I encourage everyone to keep an eye out for all our exciting progress coming up in 2023! At PHI we are always open to discussing any opportunities with the industry on how we can contribute, and we want to be a collaborative partner in every way possible. We have great people, we take care of our own and we’re excited about a long-term future for PHI’s MRO division.
