Career Launch
After the air force, Alexandre began his civilian aviation career in earnest. In hindsight, it seemed an inevitable industry for him to enter. “Not only was my father in aviation, but I also had other relatives in the industry and that’s probably why I ended up in aviation and still live in the United States (working in the industry),” he says. Starting out, Alexandre began in sales at a company in England, Sermatech Teleflex, that supplied aviation turbine engine manufacturers like Snecma, GE, Rolls-Royce, etc. He initially moved to Lancashire in 1993 and remained with the company for 11 years, crossing back-and-forth between England and France throughout his employment before eventually being sent to Teleflex’s U.S. headquarters.
At his first company, Alexandre hit the jackpot by finding not only a boss, but also a mentor for life and work: Skip Kundahl. “He was just an amazing guy. What I saw in him was a leader who made leadership look effortless just by being truly empathetic. He was very caring; he was employee- and team-centric. He didn’t make shortsighted decisions, but considered how a decision would affect employees and the company in the long-term.” Alexandre concludes, “He not only showed me how to be a good leader, but also how important it was to be a nice guy. Too often, being a nice guy is seen as a weakness, but here was a guy who had the best results and was loved by his customers and employees.”
With that first role model giving him a good start, by 2001 Alexandre rose to VP of sales and approached his U.S. boss about expanding his sales responsibilities into Operations. Remaining VP of Sales, Alexandre also ran international operations. He already extensively traveled internationally for sales, so his expansion of responsibilities became an efficient use of the company travel budget. “I used the same plane ticket to go see sales customers and to run international operations,” Alexandre remarks. Again, Alexandre was able to find a number of role models around him. “Many of my peers came from GE and brought a wealth of operations management experience with them,” he says. “I sucked all the knowledge I could from them and copied and pasted, in a lot of ways, what they did and made it my own.”
Four Types
One insight Alexandre took from these executives was how to assess employees. (Read and learn!) “I was told there were four types of employees: (1) The guys that have great skills, great performance, and great attitude; these are the ones you reward and groom by giving them more responsibility. They’re an easy decision. (2) The ones that have poor skills, poor performance, and crappy attitude. They need to go; that’s another easy decision. (3) The ones that fall short on the performance side, but have a great attitude. These are the ones that you want to invest in, coach and help them overcome their gaps. (4) The ones that perform, but have a (crappy) attitude and feel rules don’t apply to them. These are the worst type. Because they perform or have a specific or unique skill, they exert a lot of influence in the organization. Their negative attitude however makes them a negative influence on the business. They can become a growing cancer for the business,
16 Jan/Feb 2022
and as hard as it may be for a short period of time, these must go. I’ve kept these categories in mind since I learned them 20 years ago and tried to apply them. It’s very hard to tell a star performer with a bad attitude they have to change or have to go. I failed to make that call a few times in my career, and realized too late that I wasn’t following through with what I was preaching.”
When he joined Turbomeca (now known as Safran Helicopter Engines) in 2005, Alexandre discovered the uniqueness of the helicopter industry. “It was very interesting, but very different; I went from having a few very large customers like GE, Rolls-Royce, and Pratt & Whitney, to having 600 smaller helicopter customers in the U.S. alone. The majority of our rotorcraft industry is guys having two to four helicopters who require, demand, and deserve the same level of service as the biggest operators.”
Other Positions
Alexandre spent over five years at Turbomeca, which gave him entrée to the rotorcraft world. After leaving Turbomeca, he spent shorter tenures as CEO and/or president at Sagem Avionics and Heli-One, and was managing partner of a Vancouver-based consulting firm. Alexandre Dhanwant Associates, for over six years. He also serves on boards for Optima Aero and Erickson Inc.
United Rotorcraft
In 2020, Alexandre became the current president of United Rotorcraft and has been bringing those efficient, best practices mentioned earlier to the MRO and completions sector. United Rotorcraft is going to especially need them if Alexandre’s vision for the future is realized. Remember that his first post-college job was for an artificial intelligence (AI) company. AI is basically the ability of machines and software to learn and adapt autonomously. Alexandre foresees AI affecting future critical flight missions, but not just these missions. “Amazing technology is coming that could improve an MRO shop,” he says. “There are already virtual or assisted wearable technology applications that provide instructions and decision-making aids on a shop technician’s goggles or headset. That same technology could one day be applied in the back of an aircraft, as an example, to aid in providing critical care to a patient in flight.”
According to Alexandre, the technology will change, but United Rotorcraft will remain focused on what really counts. “Our employees are truly focused on the guys and gals that fly and save lives, such as clinicians, medevac pilots and personnel, and firefighters. We take great pride in supporting those frontline heroes and like to think we contribute to their heroic work, even though we may be one or two steps removed from the front line.”
United Rotorcraft and its president may be slightly removed from the front line, but they remain on the cutting edge.
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