The Aerospace Executive Podcast

Inside Albers Aerospace: Building a “Next-Gen Prime” w/ John Albers

In the defense industrial base, everyone knows the primes dominate the big programs, but that leaves a huge gap in the middle.  Startups don’t scale, the primes can’t mo

Aerospace is Losing Key Electronics to Data Centers: How Executives Can Respond

“The AI data center build-out is already the biggest infrastructure project, inflation-adjusted, that we've ever undertaken as a society.”  That’s Sebastian Schaal, co-f

From Manager to C-Suite: The Hardest Transition in Leadership w/ Bill Koch [Replay]

The transition from being a rockstar in your vertical to leading at the C-suite level is one of the hardest jumps in modern business.  Not because you aren’t capable, bu

IPOs Are Back and Changing Aerospace Deals, Here’s Why w/ Nick Fazioli [Replay]

Aerospace has always been a cyclical industry, one sector up, another down, capital moving cautiously between them. That’s not what’s happening right now. Every major sec

Inside FDH Aero’s Billion-Dollar Distribution Strategy w/ Ian Walsh [Replay]

Most people think the aerospace supply chain is crawling back to normal after the pandemic. But that’s not what’s happening. The industry is scaling in a permanently ele

Aerospace Companies Need a New Kind of Manager w/ Matt Gjertsen

What is the minimum level of leadership an aerospace company needs to survive constant change? Because technical excellence is not enough anymore. Aerospace and aviatio

The Upstream Metals Strategy Keeping Aerospace Moving w/ Kelly Thomas

The aerospace supply chain does not only break at final assembly. Some of the most important pressure points sit much farther upstream, inside the specialized materials b

What Private Equity Really Demands From Leaders w/ Maxwell Salazar

Private equity is no longer a small corner of the market that only dealmakers, investors, and portfolio executives need to understand. It is becoming one of the defining

Private Aviation Customers Are Changing: Here’s How Sentient Jet Is Adapting w/ Alan Walsh

Private aviation is no longer serving the same buyer, the same use case, or the same expectation set that it was built around twenty years ago. The old assumption was si

Business Aviation’s Next Chapter: Beyond Range, Speed, and Size

Business aviation has spent decades climbing the same performance ladder: more range, more speed, larger cabins, better engines, better avionics, and more capable aircraf

The Aircraft, Engines, and Business Models That Built Business Aviation w/ Richard Aboulafia and Kevin Michaels

Business aviation is often misunderstood because the aircraft are the most visible part of the story. The brands, the cabins, the speed, the ramp presence, and the cultur

The Inflection Point for Flight: Inside Electra Aero’s Quiet Revolution in Air Mobility (Replay)

In aerospace, we talk a lot about “the future of flight.” But most of that conversation has been driven by fantasy. Fully electric aircraft that can’t fly far enough, and

The New Defense Procurement Model: Faster, Smarter, More Investable w/ Meghan Welch

Defense is not just changing because the technology is changing. It is changing because the old way of buying, building, funding, and deploying that technology no longer

The Pro Sports of Business: What PE Demands From Aerospace Leaders w/ Adam Coffey

Private equity is often talked about like it’s either a villain or a jackpot. Founders fear it, corporate executives romanticize it, employees hear horror stories, and ev

Space Infrastructure…The New Logistics Opportunity w/ Dr. Robert Sproles

The space industry is treated like it’s a collection of launches - rockets, satellites, new vehicles, and programs. But that framing misses what’s actually being built ri

$100 Oil, Spirit Airlines and Why Aerospace Buyers Are Still Leaning In w/ Bill Alderman

Oil is $100, airline losses are starting to show up, and Spirit’s collapse is exposing just how hard it is to run an ultra-low-cost model when low cost has disappeared.

IPOs Are Back and Changing Aerospace Deals, Here’s Why w/ Nick Fazioli

Aerospace has always been a cyclical industry, one sector up, another down, capital moving cautiously between them. That’s not what’s happening right now. Every major sec

Controlling Catastrophe: Why Captive Insurance Makes Sense w/ John C. Averill and Andy Shuttleworth

Most operators think insurance is about protection. Buy a policy, transfer the risk, move on. But what if that model is quietly draining your margins instead of protectin

Want Long-Term Career Relevance? Rebrand Don’t Reinvent w/ Matt Johnson

Listening to 70s Southern rock, you can’t help but notice how easily it could fit into today’s rotation. Then you look at something like Hyrox. It shows up as new, but it

Defense Acquisition Has Changed...Here’s How to Win Contracts Today w/ Gemo Yesil [REPLAY]

Today’s defense landscape is chaotic and fast-moving. Drones, AI, autonomy, and cyber threats are reshaping how wars are fought…and how the Pentagon spends.  For compani