Airport Experience® News - Conference Issue 2024

Right: May says she is considering retirement hasn’t set a date yet. There are a few things she’d like to see through on a professional level, but she’s also started a list of non-work goals she’d like to accomplish.

the commercial program at DEN,” says Pat Murray, deputy CEO at SSP America . Operators love her collaborative approach. May and Dechant meet with the Denver Concessionaires Association every month. She listens, she’s honest and doesn’t leave people hanging, thinking something might happen only for it to fall through later, says Roddy McOwan, chief development officer at WH Smith North America . “I have found her to be extremely approachable,” he says. “I think she’s fair and equitable. She delivers on what she can and tells you what she can’t do.” McOwan said May was instrumental in overhauling some old rules within the concessions program that capped the amount of the program any one company could hold. Consolidation, he says, makes enforcing that rule more difficult. “There’s a recognition from Penny that the industry is changing and therefore it’s appropriate for them to change their criteria,” he says. Her relative inexperience in the airport industry may have been a blessing in disguise, he adds, as she’s been willing to listen to concessionaires talk about their challenges and she often seeks out input from other airports on how they’ve solved similar problems. “She’s open with the rest of her team to finding out what else is going on in the industry,” McOwan says. “She realizes there are things in Denver that might need to be improved.” Efficient Execution The frequency of communication between airport and partners alone is impressive, says Kevin Westlye, president of High Flying Foods . Even more impressive is how seriously the DEN team takes the information provided by operators. In one such instance, operators passed along frustrations voiced by their employees over the lack of a dedicated security entrance for badged employees.

“We took that to Penny,” Westlye says. “We set up meetings with the FAA, we learned about security concerns, protocols, regulations and, lo and behold, Denver opened a card reader gate for employees. It saves every one of our employees about 15 to 20 minutes every day. They are head-over heels ecstatic about it.” That’s just one example, he says. Time after time, the airport has worked with concessionaires when trying to solve problems. DEN’s properties team has lengthened leases in upcoming RFPs to give operators more opportunities to monetize increasing buildout costs. They listen to challenges, work to educate and negotiate. “Penny just gets stuff done rather than hiding behind bureaucracy and just saying ‘There’s nothing we can do,’” he says. “The employees already have to commute to work, where if they worked in a restaurant downtown, they could literally walk down the street from their apartments, house or whatever. To be cognizant of that as a way to keep great employees at the airport was really just a good experience.” Hancock says that for all her competence as a colleague, her calm demeanor is equally helpful in getting work done. “She’s just a pure joy to work with,” he says. “She doesn’t get too hyped or too low. She’s always smiling, always willing to do what we need to do to make it right. As a leader who has a bazillion things coming at you at one time, that calm-in-the-storm person is so critical.”

Retirement Options May hasn’t set a date but she can see retirement calling in the distance. “A lot of my friends at the city have already done it and they are looking at me and laughing,” she says. “But I’ve always said, if I was having fun and I could actually do some good things, I’m going to keep working.” There’s another series of new concessions under contract that will open in the next year that she’d like to see through. “I think they’ll make a big difference for all of us,” she says. She also wants to make sure there’s a robust program in place wherein opportunities are created for small businesses. She’s particularly excited about a business development training academy established at DEN to help small businesses what it takes to succeed in the airport. “I’m very proud of the work that we’re doing,” she says. “It’s really coming along.” That said, she has started a list of non-work activities and goals that she wants to accomplish. May enjoys traveling, so she’d like to start seeing other airports as a consumer rather than an employee. And she’s been dabbling in art, specifically sketching and painting. But while she’s got some ideas for what life after work will look like, she’s not in a hurry to get there. “One of my friends has said, ‘You’ll wake up one day and you’ll know it’s time to go,” she says. “I’m not there yet.”

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AX NEWS MARCH 2024