Airport Experience® News - Leadership Issue 2024

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DIRECTOR OF THE YEAR MEDIUM-HUB AIRPORTS

us aenz TOMMY JOHNSON, Federal Security Director, U.S. Department of Homeland Security When Jesus was appointed director at San Antonio, he came in with a “one team, one mission” mentality, and his leadership galvanized our teams’ collaboration. He really values the peer-to peer process and involves TSA in almost every security decision at the airport – even if it’s not a directly TSA-affected issue, he keeps more security minds in the room. I think that his best attribute is that he clearly understands that the airport business is a passenger-driven one, but he is as concerned about their security as he is about revenue. He understands that the first priority is to make sure our passengers are safe when they fly out, and that we should do everything we can to make that experience as painless as possible. He approaches everything as a collaborative effort, and he’s challenged each of his department heads to be as collaborative as possible and to have friendships and partnerships up and down the ladder. I can really, really see the change, and I can tell you right now that it’s not that collaborative everywhere – it’s part of the fiber that makes San Antonio unique. JEFF COYLE, Assistant City Manager, City of San Antonio Prior to my current role as an assistant city manager, I was the director of government and public affairs. My predecessor is the one who hired Jesus, and I met Jesus as a fellow department director. About a year later, I was promoted to assistant city manager and was put in charge of overseeing the airport as one of my departments. I came into the role as ACM with very little airport background, and here I was, being tasked with managing somebody who has decades of experience in the industry, who knows far more about airports than I ever will. Right from the get-go, Jesus was wonderful about educating me and bringing me along. I recall him setting up a series of briefings with various members of his team to go through airport financing, air service development, capital development, security and FAA, and what I quickly realized is that running an airport is like running a small city, and in some cases, not even small. Jesus had a grasp of every aspect of it — from the customer experience through restrooms and concessions and security checkpoints to the security posture of the airport to the all-important relationships with the airlines. He’s an airport guy, through and through, which I think has been really, really important to us in growing up as an airport. And as time has gone on and our working relationship has developed, I now understand where my role is, how I can support him, but I always understand that he is the expert in this arena, and my job is to help the airport navigate City Hall and the community at large with some of the more challenging issues. TED KITCHENS, Director of Aviation, Manchester-Boston Regional Airport (MHT) The first time I met Jesus was at the Houston Airport System, when I served as the director of planning and programing and Jesus was working on the international terminal at Houston Hobby. At this time, Jesus was focusing on the operational readiness activation and transfer process, and we got to know each other there. He’s a very “team-first” leader, and can organize the team in a way that is highly effective, which requires a lot of strategic thinking and a lot of empathy. Jesus leads with empathy and makes sure that everyone’s voices are heard. But he can also drive towards execution and get projects over the line, because there’s a hard deadline between flight schedules and concessionaires that are opening businesses, and they depend on a project being completed on time. I learned so much from Jesus, and he probably doesn’t know how much he taught me. He’s got a terrific sense of humor, too! KEVIN BURKE, president and CEO, Airports Council International – North America Well, I can’t say enough good things about Jesus. Jesus is one of these leaders that when he enters the room, you have a leader there. He took over San Antonio in 2020, and he’s done an amazing job. I got to know Jesus well when he served in the Houston airport system both for William Hobby and George Bush Intercontinental Airport. He’s just a superb executive. He understands the politics of our industry and he also understands how important it is to work collectively with their federal regulators. And from our perspective, he’s now on our board and he has been supportive of the agenda that we have been advocating for many years. He works hard. He’s a humble man, and he’s done some great things for the airport industry.

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AX NEWS DECEMBER 2024 / JANUARY 2025