EXECUTIVE WATCH Dwayne Charette President Airbus Helicopters Canada By Rick Weatherford


Dwayne Charette sports a surprising affinity for the president of a major OEM: he likes problems (and he even views failures as “learns”). Early in his operations career — a field prone to problems — a leader once told him, “Dwayne, if we didn’t have problems to deal with, there would be no need for our jobs.” Charette considers that perhaps the best business wisdom he’s ever received. “It sounds simplistic, but it’s true,” says Charette. “Problems and challenges are part of the job; once you accept them and view them as opportunities, the stress level kind of goes away.”


That stress-level relief has been put through an unprecedented stress test. Once Charette’s presidential predecessor (Romain Trapp, profiled in Rotorcraft Pro’s Nov./Dec. 2020 issue) was promoted to head of the Airbus Helicopters North America Region and Charette took the Canadian captain’s seat in August 2019, the


14 Sept/Oct 2021


new chief pilot had no honeymoon flight. Shortly after takeoff, a sudden virus storm severely struck many nations and businesses seemingly overnight. “One day, we went home as normal, and the next day the world had changed upside down,” Charette said. Then, the problem solver sprang into action. “We were able to quickly put measures in place, because our team thankfully bought in 100 percent. We didn’t miss a single day of operations. We went to two different shifts, implemented enhanced cleaning of the facility, incorporated social distancing measures such as one-way traffic hallways, and adopted work-from-home when we could. We worked with our province of Ontario by educating them to designate us an essential business, which allowed us to remain operating. In a crisis, people rely on helicopters. The weight of responsibility for me has been how to keep our employees safe while serving our customers who rely on us to deliver.”


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