NATA Industry Excellence Award Recipients Continued from page 25 Distinguished Public Service Award: Eduardo “Eddie” Angeles “It truly is an immense honor to have had the oppor- tunity to work at the highest level of the Federal Aviation Administration—to have the gig as an Obama appointee was a tremendous honor for me person- ally,” said Eduardo Angeles, who served as the FAA’s Associate Administrator for Airports. “The FAA is the point where all the elements of flight and the aviation industry converge into one orga- nization. Career-wise, it was really a pinnacle.” Angeles oversaw a $3.5 billion annual federal airport grants program and passenger facility charge collec- tions totaling $2 billion during his two and a half years with the FAA. Also, he managed programs for national airport planning and development, including safety stan- dards, design and engineering, certification, environmen- tal processing, and financing. He oversaw a clarification process on the hangar use policy and the determination process for the aviation fuel tax and how that money should be spent at airports for aviation purposes. He also directed a major program to expand runway safety areas. Angeles explained: “As part of the Runway Safety Area (RSA) initiative, we improved over 1,000 runways that came to a successful conclusion under my watch to bol- ster aviation safety by providing an additional buffer for pilots on takeoff and landing, and also introduced new programs such as a runway incursion program, addressing procedural changes, lighting and marking changes, and in some cases complete redesigns. And these are just a few examples of things that have improved the safety of avia- tion for business travelers across the country and improved maximization for utilization of funds. Most of all, I’m proud to have worked with some of the best people in avia- tion, some of the true giants at the FAA and throughout the industry. You have to be ready to up your game when you’re shoulder to shoulder with giants! It really forces you to be your best. It was the best job I’ve ever had.” Angeles likes to think that his seven-year- old self would be impressed if he knew some of the things he’d be doing as an adult. “Like many people that have a dream of working in avia- tion, I can trace my passion to that very first flight experi- ence,” Angeles said. “As a child, my first flight experience was on a plane leaving the Philippines when we immigrated in 1972. I was seven years old, and getting on that TWA flight from Manila to Honolulu literally represented a whole new world of opportunity. The whole experience and the magic of flight itself was amazing to me; and I’d always dreamed of being involved in aviation from that day. I don’t have perfect vision, so my dream of becoming a commer- cial pilot was crushed early on, and I ended up becoming a lawyer instead. I’ve been fortunate to have come full circle and to have spent most of my career making those two worlds meet. Getting a call from the White House was icing on the cake: that’s not the kind of job you can even apply for! These are the jobs where they find you. And it was extra sweet to be a part of history, working with President Obama, the first African-American president. I consider myself a child of the civil rights movement and a benefi- ciary of that movement. That’s my story; that’s who I am.” His career has included a role with the San Francisco Attorney’s Office assigned to the San Francisco International Airport’s Legal Division, and work as a Senior Assistant Attorney for the Los Angeles City Attorney’s Office, where he served as General Counsel for Los Angeles Continued on page 29 Aviation Business Journal | 2nd Quarter 2017 27