After graduation from the academy, Lamas fulfilled his 11-year military commitment as a naval flight officer flying the S-3 Viking, the F-14 Tomcat, and the F/A-18 Super Hornet. “It was an absolute honor to fly those machines and serve my country overseas in Operation Iraqi Freedom,” he said. He also served a stint as an aide to (now-retired) Rear Adm. Chris Weaver in Washington, D.C. Lamas acknowledges the flag officer as a key mentor. “He was an amazing and true gentleman, and I witnessed how well he worked and balanced things at his high level. He also taught me about the challenges one needs to handle in an organization, such as time management and setting priorities to use your time — and other people’s time — wisely.”
After fulfilling his 11 years in the Navy, Lamas chose to undertake a civilian challenge by entering the business world. He began that quest by earning a prestigious MBA on scholarship from the University of Virginia Darden School of Business. (His wife, Dana, also has an MBA. Their teen sons, Alex and David, don’t have master’s degrees yet, but they have scuba diving certification like their parents.) “I learned a tremendous amount during my two years at Darden, and really appreciated the culture of that school,” he said.
Upon graduation, he took his degree in 2010 to the respected consulting firm Bain & Company and rose to case team leader in the Dallas office. There, he was exposed to a wide range of industry clients that included airlines, tech, consumer products, chemicals, etc. “I was really blessed with all these opportunities, but missed leading a single organization in a hands-on way and missed being more directly involved,” Lamas said.
So to get directly involved in 2013, he took an opportunity to become director of strategy at Bell Helicopter to revitalize its commercial business under John Garrison. Lamas focused on Bell’s international training and created a business plan to revitalize global training. Lamas said, “As has happened to me several times throughout my career, I presented my plan and was told ‘Ray, that’s a great plan, now go do it.’”
Thus began the next four years of Lamas’ career at Bell as general manager of Bell Global Customer Training, when he and his staff of 95 implemented the plan to support over $800 million in commercial helicopter sales by serving over 4,000 global Bell customers. Lamas considers that time “a great accomplishment,” but he is quick to share the credit. “I was surrounded by a
great team and we did that together,” he said.
He explained this credit-sharing humbleness. “I
don’t consider
accomplishments as personal to me; they were always accomplished by a team. You can’t succeed on your own. You need a good team working with you and the support of your peers as well; no one is an island in any organization.” What if he was forced to name a personal accomplishment? Lamas answered, “I guess I could consider my transition from the military to a rewarding civilian career as personal, but I had some great mentors along the way.” One of those mentors was Chris Seymour, “a fantastic gentleman,” who mentored him at Bell.
Lamas now volunteers as a career mentor at a non-profit, American Corporate Partners, to also help others transition from the military to civilian careers. Lamas likes to pass on the best career advice he said he ever received: “Listen, listen, listen! Really listen when someone is speaking to you, and don’t be distracted by what you want to say back. Don’t talk unless you have something constructive to say. Don’t speak to just hear yourself, but listen. Listening is very powerful.”
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