As a child Steven Barrett dreamed of being a pilot but motion sickness came as a harsh reality, from there hepursued an accounting designation with hopes of landing a job at Vector Aerospace. He always found aviation to be fascinating and was lucky to be able to land a good career in his hometown with Vector.
He graduated with a bachelor of commerce on the Deans list with a major in accounting from Saint Mary's University in Halifax. After working a few years he graduated from Certified Management Accountants of Nova Scotia with CMA designation. In 2011 he was hired at Vector as a senior financial analyst, then he was sent to Vector Australia on a secondment to assist with teaching the Vector way of business and train the finance team on enterprise resource planning systems, then he went to Vector PEI as a senior financial analyst. He was promoted to his current position as controller for Vector Engine Services Atlantic in 2014.
In his current role as controller he is responsible for overseeing day-to-day accounting across all divisions within Vector Engine Services Atlantic. He has a staff of three financial and senior financial analysts. They are involved in forecasting, budgeting, managing audits, month end close routines, and financial reporting. Barrett is also involved in cost saving initiatives and other ad-hoc projects that benefit the company. He also oversees financial managers in Singapore, Australia, and South Africa. And he provides satellite shops with training and guidance when possible.
Nominated by Alex Youngs, vice president, Strategy & Analysis, Vector Aerospace: "Steve played a significant role in helping to set up and train the finance team at Vector Aerospace Asia, the company’s brand new location in Singapore which was opened as a dedicated Pratt & Whitney Canada PW150A designated overhaul facility in 2014. Steve also assisted in setting up the financial processes for an expansion of Vector’s Service Centre Network in 2017, facilitating the establishment of the company’s new service location in Bournemouth, UK. Vector has a strong commitment to process excellence, in order to remain globally competitive, and Steve has played a central role in this activity. As the financial controller for a major C3 (competitiveness, customer service and costs) project at Vector’s PEI-based engine MRO shop, Steve assisted in achieving million-dollar savings for Vector in the space of only two years, thereby helping to ensure the site’s future. Over and above his day-to-day responsibilities, Steve has also been a major proponent of employee training within the Vector team. In 2013, Steve and a colleague rolled out an “Introduction to Finance” course companywide, providing 200 employees with valuable insight into cost control and accounting. Then during 2014-15, Steve designed and rolled out Microsoft Excel training courses companywide, giving approximately 200 employees an introduction to this popular spreadsheet software, at both basic and advanced levels."
As for future career goals Barrett would like to stay at Vector and continue to give back to the company and the community.
