Airport Experience® News - Leadership & Culture Issue 2023

2023 MEDIUM AIRPORTS DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR

KEVIN BURKE President and CEO, Airports Council International – North America Cindy is a strong member of our board. She’s the chair of our finance committee and she has done an amazing job. She’s never afraid to offer her opinion on things. She’s got the best interest of the trade association in mind. She’s helped us tremendously in navigating through Covid 19, in terms of helping our finances and helping us navigate through some perilous waters. We came out of it in great shape. She not only gets involved in the financial side she is very adept on all the policy issues that we have to deal with, from the FAA reauthorization bill to environmental issues. And I’ve never seen anybody work as hard as she does. She always comes prepared to every meeting, and she doesn’t just sit and listen. She’s got great questions, she’s got great advice.

RICH DESMOND Chair, Sacramento County Board of Supervisors

Even though the airport is an enterprise fund, any large contracts and other issues have to come to the Board of Supervisors for approval. I and the other supervisors talk with Cindy directly

quite frequently, meet with her either at the airport or in our offices, often on airport issues. I can speak confidently on behalf of all the supervisors in saying that Cindy is not only a stellar department director when it comes to personnel, but certainly a stellar director when it comes to running a very complex airport system. I think Cindy really excels at is bringing high quality talent to her team on the programmatic side, on the budget side. She has brought in people who were really a reflection of her and her leadership in terms of doing things the best way and really being cognizant of the needs of the users at the airport. And she›s just been outstanding in every regard. An issue will come up about a contract maybe, and Cindy is very open to discussions about operational implications, political implications, and is always very open to working towards a solution that works best for everybody. We have a $1.3 billion [capital] project underway. Cindy, through her very thoughtful, deliberative process, is going to make sure that this is done the right way - in a way that really contains costs while delivering a great product. She›s already shown tremendous ability in moving this project forward.

TROY GIVANS Director, Community Development, Sacramento County One thing I can tell you is that I think speaks volumes is the fact that I’ve been with the county for 32 years, and in my previous capacities I’ve never had a standing meeting with the airport’s director. It speaks to Cindy’s viewpoint on being collaborative and

inclusive and making sure that we are putting in the appropriate upfront work to help projects succeed. She’s making sure that we’re doing plenty of groundwork in advance for not only the implementation of the project and the end result, but also to help expedite and make the projects or projects smooth. Cindy has done a lot of culture work. She inherited a department where we had a lot of great facilities, but I think for a variety of reasons, the culture piece had become a bit disconnected. I think she has wisely put a tremendous amount of work into building a team and supporting a team. Now she’s undertaking a huge expansion and significant investment at the airport. She’s put together a team that’s going to be able to develop that vision. The expansion comes with challenges, but it’s certainly needed and I think she’s provided the vision and the phasing plan that will put the airport in an outstanding position for years to come, while still ensuring a positive customer experience.

CONGRESSWOMAN DORIS MATSUI (D-CA 7th District)

Cindy is fabulous. [When she took over as director], we struck a friendship right away because she was the type of person who just gets things done and I’m the type of person who really appreciates someone

like that. During Covid, we worked closely together to make sure the airport got the funding they needed. She understood the critical areas of the airport and she just immersed herself in getting the funding that was necessary to get through the pandemic. In the good times and the challenging times, she has a way of being very innovative, but also understanding that you’ve got to execute. It’s no good just to talk about it, you’ve got to implement. And that really is the way she has been all the time we’ve worked together.

TODD HAUPTLI President and CEO, American Association of Airport Executives

Cindy Nichol has a really strong finance background. She’s extremely detail oriented, but she sees the whole playing field. She’s very engaged in public policy issues and knows literally everything that’s going on at her airports, and how public policy issues impact what’s going on at her facilities. She’s very thorough, very smart. I think her star is on the rise.

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AX NEWS LEADERSHIP ISSUE 2023