Faith Quilling
Senior Director, Development, Clear Channel Airports
AGE: 30
- Alma Mater: Bloomsburg University, MBA and BSBA in Marketing
- What is your dream job? Developing a television show about international travel. I would introduce audiences around the world to exotic but rarely seen places.
- What person has impacted your career the most? A previous boss introduced me to the world of airport advertising and gave me the opportunity to grow and succeed within the industry. For that, I will always be grateful.
- If I could visit any airport in the world, it would be: Munich during the holiday season. During this time, the airport features a Christmas market and ice skating rink.
Faith Quilling demonstrates genuine interest in elevating the passenger experience while supporting modern technological improvements throughout the airports and the industry. She exhibits grit, determination, and great situational awareness as she navigates any challenges she faces. She also provides great industry insights and updates on new airport advertising technology.
While growing up, Quilling always loved to travel and was fascinated by the airport experience -- arriving at the airport, checking in, security, pre-flight concessions, gatehold and boarding. It wasn’t always about the destination, but more so the planning and journey getting there. After grad school, she had been looking into relocating for a career in finance and stumbled onto a position at Clear Channel Airports in her hometown of Allentown, Pa. Airport advertising seemed intriguing for her, allowing her to combine her love of travel and airports, along with marketing and advertising, her undergraduate major.
It was Quilling’s desire to innovate that led her to oversee the introduction of Clear Channel’s ClearVision, which brought cable network content into airport gates and provided airports with another medium for advertising. ClearVision challenged the market to provide content that was light-hearted and relaxing, and in the process improved other industry-wide airport television networks overall.
Under Quilling’s guidance, ClearVision was introduced into nine markets. In 2015 Faith was promoted to her current position, where she oversees a portfolio of 30 airports and their respective media programs. She also serves as a consultant to four internal sales and operations teams, consisting of more than 100 airports and representing $50 million in annual revenues.
Quilling’s involvement and contributions to the industry have not been limited to her success in business development. She is an active member of Airports Council International-North America and serves on the Commercial Management Steering Committee. At ACI-NA’s Business of Airports conference, she was asked to present on advertising issues, among which include how to avoid controversial content and not violate freedom of speech, program design, and technology. In her free time, she can be found planning her next vacation with her husband, or walking Bristle, her Norwich Terrier.
Quilling enjoys the opportunity to create new advertising programs that raise the traveler experience in airports. “Today’s airports can be more of a destination in their own right, and we try to contribute to that through innovative and experiential campaigns that actively engage and entertain travelers,” she said.
She also enjoys getting involved with the community in each of her markets. “I learn as much as I can about the local culture. This information is then used to design an advertising program that reflects the nature of that particular community,” she explained. “At Clear Channel Airports, one of our top priorities is to create a sense of place within the airport space so when travelers arrive, they know precisely where they are.”
In addition to the travel aspect of her job in the industry, Quilling said the people are what she enjoys most. “Our industry is filled with thousands of dedicated professionals who are all working towards the same goal – providing the best passenger experience in airports,” she said. “It is wonderful to develop airport advertising partnerships with that same goal in mind throughout the country, and get to really connect with people from many different backgrounds in the process.”
The best piece of career advice Quilling ever received? “People with goals succeed because they know where they’re going,” she said “My father passed along this advice to me at an early age from his mentor, Earl Nightingale. Throughout my life I have followed this by setting personal goals that I am persistently pursuing and working to achieve.”
