Kaman’s Helicopter Division President, Salvatore Bordonaro, recently released the following statement:
“My Vision for the Helicopters Division is to double revenues in five years while maintaining
profit margin. While we (Helicopters) have done well in 2009, this goal challenges us to do even
better in 2010 and beyond.
On January 6-8 the Helicopters Division leadership team met and evolved our strategy to
meet this challenge. As a result, and to guide global action toward the future, we developed a
Helicopter’s vision statement, core values, operating principles and a new Product Group based
business alignment. Moving directly into the future, our workforce will be aligned to support these
Product Groups. With this new Product Group alignment, our future success together depends
even more on collaborative, cross-functional communication, commitment and continuing focus
on customer satisfaction.
We will have three Product Group General Managers, Service Group Heads and the
Marketing & Business Development Head, all reporting directly to me. This group will form the
Senior Leadership Team (SLT) for the Helicopters Division, addressing the needs for a more
responsive, strategic approach to growth and sales. The SLT will assume a greater role in
strategic planning and focus on business development, strategic initiatives, and product/service.
My leadership role will shift to greater strategy development.
Three product groups are established, reporting to newly established General Manager
positions. I am pleased to announce the following appointments:
Tim Bates is appointed General Manager of the Blade Center of Excellence and
Subcontract Product Group. Tim has successfully led the Operations Group along with
acquiring Business Development and Program Management skills that will be essential in leading
this newly formed group. In his new capacity, he will focus solely on developing and growing all
aspects of blade business and managing the existing aircraft subcontract efforts.
Terry Fogarty is appointed General Manager Unmanned Aerial Systems (UAS) Group.
Terry has successfully managed the K-MAX Program along with the UAS development. In his
new capacity, he will focus solely on the UAS development and growth opportunities.
Bob Manaskie is appointed General Manager of the Helicopter Aftermarket Group. Bob brings the knowledge and experience managing the SH2 program for US and foreign military customers. In his new capacity, he assumes all aftermarket requirements in the Division,
including the K-MAX program requirement.
John Shelanskas is appointed as the interim Director of Operations. John has successfully managed various Production activities and will take on responsibility of all operations.
These appointments are effective immediately. What is new about these positions is that
the Product Group General Managers will be responsible not only for revenue generation, but
also running the end-to-end aspects of their business. Please join me in congratulating each of
these leaders on their new positions.
Our job is not complete. In the next few weeks you will be hearing more about the
organization as the SLT continues to work together to refine roles and responsibilities. However,
within the next two days you will meet with your current leadership team for an exchange of
questions and views and to have a more detailed discussion of the new Product Group business
focus and structure. Be assured that we do not have all of the answers at this time; we anticipate
that we will announce the refined Business Group organization structure more completely by
January 27th. Further, we invite you to share your ideas and any issues with your current
management at any time and at the planned February 2nd, Town Hall Meeting.
This is an exciting time for the Helicopters Division. As an organization, we have a long
history of being opportunistic in our growth. We have used our deep knowledge and skills to
create niches through diversification. We believe that this new Product Group structure gives us
both an opportunity to use the talent in our organization and reinvigorates those opportunistic
muscles to aggressively grow our business.
We look forward to growing our business together with you. We, the leadership team,
need your commitment to make it work for us all.”