The summer after Daniel Walker graduated from high school in 2000, he worked as an electrician apprentice for a commercial electrical company. The first job site that he was assigned to was the construction of a four-bay hangar for a major airline at McGhee Tyson Airport. "It was thrilling to be working just off the runway and watching all the planes arrive and depart. I knew that aviation would be a field that I would love and I began to contemplate whether my plans of attending a four-year university was the best thing for my career. I soon set up a visit to tour an A&P school and changed my college plans and enrolled to receive my A&P license. The decision I made as an 18 year old has turned out to be one that I have never regretted and am extremely thankful for."
Walker has been employed at StandardAero Maryville (TN) for 15 years, staring at the age of 20. He is currently the operations manager for the APU LRU and AE3007 third-party repair department. He manages a team of 19 technicians and schedules day-to-day production tasks to meet or exceed customer expectations.
Walker attended North Central Institute, Clarksville, TN, and received A&P/associate's degree. Additional training includes Leadership Tools for Manufacturing Managers at the University of Tennessee Knoxville and Kaizen Facilitator Training at StandardAero Cincinnati. He credits his grandfather, an electrician for being a mentor and a role model by showing him the "values of work ethic and treating everyone with the utmost respect. Growing up I was fortunate to frequently see him interact with his direct employees and customers. His selfless and caring attitude made him well respected and trusted by everyone. It was a great example for me to follow as I pursued into my aviation career."
He was awarded StandardAero Maryville’s first “LEAP” award in November 2015 which recognizes the manager that displays excellence in leadership, education, achievement, and personal growth.
He was nominated by Leon Dodd Jr, director of quality, StandardAero: "After only a year on the job, he was selected to be trained as a test cell operator and eventually became the singular test cell trainer in 2005. His experience in the AE3007 test cell created an outstanding foundation for problem solving and maximizing throughput while maintaining a high standard for quality and customer focus. He expounded on that experience to land his first job in a leadership role, by being selected as the lead technician for the build cell in 2007 despite being one of the cell’s youngest members in both years and tenure.
"Daniel received a promotion to the role of operations manager in 2010, becoming the youngest person to fill this role at StandardAero Maryville at the age of 28. He managed a motivated, high achieving team in the build cell for an MRO that achieved industry leading marks in both turn time and cost of poor quality. His duties also included production scheduling for all the in-house AE3007’s which reached up to 60 engines at times. He became the primary point of contact for the Rolls-Royce AMC project manager and developed key relationships with his internal and external counterparts. In addition to his management responsibilities, Daniel was appointed as the project manager for the AE2100 radiation decontamination project for the U.S. military, as a result of the Haiti Tsunami. He was in charge of setting up an entire facility from the ground up at a remote facility. In February 2017, Daniel has transitioned to his role of operations manager to the APU LRU cell. Daniel helped the team deliver its highest volume of parts in June 2017."
His long-term career goal is to become the vice president/general manager of the StandardAero Maryville facility. His short-term career goals are to continue to obtain more knowledge and experience in the company to ensure growth and longevity for the Maryville facility.
