NATA Industry Excellence Award Recipients Continued from page 23 now for a small part in what we all worked on,” Duncan said. “To me, the time period that I was on the board was a pivotal moment that was about ensuring the stabil- ity of the association long-term and ensuring it was still a representative voice for our members. That was a clear effort we made during the transition to new leadership: to make sure we could be successful in stabilizing the asso- ciation and putting it in a different place politically.” Duncan has been just as successful at helping to grow his family business. Duncan Aviation is now the world’s largest privately-owned business jet sup- port facility. He says, he feels fortunate to have held many roles in many different areas of the business. “Like a lot of people in this industry, I’ve worn a lot of hats. I’ve worked in components—the pieces and parts— and in our instruments and avionics shop, and I’ve helped with the opening of all of the satellite locations, giving me all these opportunities to see different parts of the industry. We really run the company as a senior leader- ship team, and for the last 20 years I’ve been part of that team. It’s been a great way to learn and grow in my career. Looking back on it all, I’d say things really changed for us when we started to expand, when we purchased Kal- Aero in 1998. It really changed our business a lot, because we quickly realized that we couldn’t just do real quality work at one location and treat the other like a satellite. We had to have equal quality at every location. Something about figuring that out brought our business a long way. It was a big deal! Now we’re there all over again, build- ing a major facility in Provo, Utah. We have 50 people there now, and we’ll be up to 150 when it’s fully built out. It will be a $60 million effort, all told, and we’re looking forward to that growth and opportunity for our people.” Distinguished Public Service Award: Margaret “Peggy” Gilligan A special award added to this year’s NATA Industry Excellence Awards recognizes Peggy Gilligan and Eduardo Angeles for their work as FAA Associate Administrators. In March of this year, Gilligan retired from a 37-year career with the FAA, where she served, most recently, as the FAA’s chief officer steering safety, oversight, and certification, and was a familiar public face of the FAA in Congress and otherwise. “I’ve been sleeping past 5:15 a.m. for the better part of a month now, so I’d have to say retirement is treating me pretty well so far,” Gilligan said. “It takes a little getting used to!” After graduating from law school, Gilligan sought out opportunities to work in pub- lic service and first joined the FAA as a staff attorney in the FAA’s Eastern Regional office in New York. Once there, she quickly found her personal passion project. “I was one of those people who came out of law school wanting to do some good in the world, something that really matters, and I found that early on as I came to understand the mission of the agency and its commitment to safety throughout the industry,” Gilligan explained. “Then, back 24 Aviation Business Journal | 2nd Quarter 2017
