another. One of their first calls was from the Tennessee Valley Authority (TVA). “They said we trained with you a few times at Bell and we still want to train with you under Helicopter Institute. Then we got another phone call from another organization and another phone call, and so on.”
Rowles and long-time friend and mentor Gary Young.
Moving Forward
Rowles and his supportive spouse moved forward by starting their current company in 2009: Helicopter Institute. “Our goal was to create, at a minimum, OEM-quality training for multiple manufacturers at our one training institute,” he says. “In addition to our current training offerings, we’re launching our 505 program this spring. After that we’ll have the 429 program. For example, our goal is that if you’re an A-Star operator, you can get your A-Star or your 407 training and do your ATP in an R44 if you need to. All of this will happen at our one facility. We’re also now offering contract training for Part 135 providers. We’re also able to train and give operators their complete Part 135 checks, which eases the burden on FAA helicopter inspectors. We’re not copying what other trainers do, but we are trailblazing and offering regulatory turnkey training solutions that no one’s ever done. We’re doing it to fix industry training issues that the FAA cannot handle because they don’t have the staffing or capability to provide what we’re preparing to offer, and currently offering in specific cases.”
With all his business success, Rowles emphasizes that his greatest pride is his family, as his adult children have returned to work at Helicopter Institute. “The fact that my children have grown up with me as their father and that they chose, in their own accord, to come back to work with us and for us is right up there at or near the top of my greatest lifetime achievement. I was so busy in their early years that I wasn’t around much, but somewhere in their early adult life they came to understand those choices I made that affected them,” he says.
Upon launching, Helicopter Institute began getting calls from one large organization after
rotorcraftpro.com 17
One of those calls was from Era Group, which asked Rowles to take over its training center at the Gulf of Mexico. Subsequently Era Group’s CEO offered Rowles the position of senior vice president of operations. Rowles accepted the new responsibility (with Samantha
staying behind to manage Helicopter Institute). As Era Group’s senior VP of operations, Rowles, the man who was once looked at askance for his lack of formal education, was now receiving operation reports spanning from Alaska to the Gulf of Mexico.
And when Era Group went public on the NYSE, Rowles was with the leadership team in New York to ring the closing bell for the world’s leading stock exchange. That’s the story of how a determined, business-owning husband and father with the curious combo of GED and MBA flew above his turbulent early circumstances.
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