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The recent announcement that Richard Deakin, the CEO of UK NATS for the past five years, has decided to move on is yet another timely reminder of the difficulty in attracting and retaining strong talent into the very senior ranks of the ANSP industry.
Deakin is very well regarded for the job he has done to develop NATS. Through technical innovation and the development of its commercial activities he has driven NATS‘ operational and financial performance where today it has become arguably the best ANSP in the world. He is a loss to the industry and we wish him well.
Like so many of his ANSP peers over the years however, Deakin too has suffered at the hands of politicians and the media.
It is no way for a competent professional who has done a difficult job to be remembered but unfortunately this is all too familiar territory to watchers of this industry. In recent years equally competent leaders of ANSPs in the United States and in Australia have experienced underserved and difficult departures largely because they pursued change and were worked over by the politicians and the media.
Attracting progressive CEOs into the ANSP industry is not easy. It is dominated by governments and difficult unions, it operates a high consequence business requiring highly reliable systems, and it has inbuilt resistance to change. If this isn’t enough, a reform oriented CEO runs the risk of being subjected to ridicule by shortsighted politicians and the cheap media headline.
No wonder a job like this is hardly likely to bring a rush of candidates who are committed to long-overdue change.
The aviation industry deserves better.
