EXECUTIVE WATCH Greg Edmonds
CEO of Salus Aviation By Rick Weatherford
G
reg Edmonds is Kiwi to the core. The CEO of Salus Aviation, which has four
locations in New Zealand, and operations in Boulder City, Nevada, and Pretoria, South Africa, proudly proclaims himself a “Kiwi” in the first few seconds of our interview in his native New Zealand accent. And why shouldn’t he? After all, he grew up in his nation’s capital city of Wellington, resides in its largest city, Auckland, and has a passion for its national sport of rugby, which he played in the past and still participates in on both amateur and professional levels.
ALL BLACKS
Edmonds is chairman of the board of Ponsonby Rugby, which he says is “probably the most successful rugby club in the country. We’ve produced 48 All Blacks and they’re some of the great names in the sport.” What’s an “All Black?” Relax. The All Blacks are New Zealand’s winning national rugby team, known for their all-black uniforms, World Cup titles, and pre-game haka.
SALUS AVIATION
Edmonds may well be proud of his Ponsonby club producing champions because the man has produced throughout his whole career and is now winning at Salus Aviation. They lease aircraft and provide needed parts and MRO services around the world. The company currently has a total of 38 aircraft leased out all over,
14 May/June 2026
with even four in Antarctica flying over penguins. The majority of their leases are twin-engine, mid-size helicopters.
Leasing generates 40% of Salus’ revenue, with another 40% coming from its MRO operations, which is challenged by global supply issues. Edmonds said, “I’d be surprised if any executive in aviation didn’t say that the supply chain is their biggest challenge. It’s still very fragile, in my view, and slow. The increasing costs of materials and inventory and very slow delivery times is a continuing and stressful challenge for us.” This is particularly irritating because, the CEO says, “We pride ourselves on making sure our aircraft have 96-98% availability on our contracts.” Finally, the remaining 20% slice of Salus Aviation’s revenue pie is generated from the company’s design work and manufacturing.
WORKING MAN
You might assume it takes a seasoned aviation executive to oversee an aviation company with different revenue streams and services spread over locations from Oceania paradise to Nevada desert to the southern tip of Africa. Well, it is a surprise that Edmonds career was not focused on aviation, nor did he begin in business. No, Edmonds started out as
a blue-collar electrician, following
his parents who employed their skills in tradework: his father laid carpet and
later opened a repair garage; his mom sewed dresses. When Edmonds left high school, he took an electrical-engineering (electrician) apprenticeship, at Wellington’s power company. Upon completing his apprenticeship, in the early 1980s, Edmond recalls, “I got advice from a couple of older blokes to get out of here [the power company] before they institutionalize you and you wind up staying 40 years.”
Edmonds took their advice and took a job with Chubb Electronics installing security systems, cameras, and such. “It was a very interesting job, actually,” he says. “I installed the first ever total access, closed- circuit TV systems in the Parliament building and in museums. That’s standard now, but back then it was new technology.”
SUITED FOR SALES
Then, Edmonds made a life-changing decision that started with a simple question; his manager asked him if he would give sales a try. “It was a difficult decision,” Edmonds recalls. “I’d been working for years with tools in my hands. Did I want to put a suit and tie on and sell stuff?” Edmonds cut a deal—he’d work two days a week with his tools and three days a week in sales. “If I didn’t like sales, my manager said I could go back to being an engineer [electrician] full time.” Edmonds didn’t part with his tools easily; he’s still got those same pliers, wire-strippers and circuit testers from over 40 years ago. (“I
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