Bruno DeSouza, AMT 2018 Next Gen 40 Under 40 Award Winner

Bruno DeSouza was 23 when he decided to get into aviation. The career opportunity was working in purchasing with Regional Airline Support. 

"My mentor with Regional Airline Support was Tino Collorafi.  He guided me in understanding the importance of customer service. He would stress to put the customer before yourself and to make their urgency your urgency.  At Banyan, Lynn Juengel has been and still is my mentor.  She helps me think strategically about business and to plan ahead much like a chess game. Plus the Banyan technicians are all great mentors with helping to piece together different aspects of how their work relates to mine, helping me to understand maintenance and avionics troubleshooting guidelines and phase inspections."

With his job at Banyan Air Service, DeSouza is responsible for providing the leadership, vision, and direction of six direct reports and over 50 teammates associated with maintenance, turbine, and parts warehouse as well as shipping and receiving. He helps keep Banyan compliant with FAA, EASA, INAC, and ANAC requirements. He works with the Banyan technical sales team in a service manager role to assist Portuguese and Spanish speaking customers.  And he works with the information technology staff and accounting staff to stream line processes for better efficiency. DeSouza is Banyan's representative for LABACE and NBAA.

Most of DeSouza's training has been on-the-job training. Advanced training has been in-house training on many aviation aspects, some of which include avionics equipment, maintenance equipment, leadership training, and contract negotiations.

Nominated by Nancy Bouvier, Director of Marketing, Banyan Air Service: Bruno DeSouza is 34 years old and has held the position of parts manager at Banyan Air Service at Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport for about three years. He is recognized at Banyan as the “go-to guy” that “always comes through” and “always accepts the challenge.” His teammates highly respect him and appreciate his commitment to find solutions for them. Bruno is dedicated and will come in during vacations, weekends, and during an AOG emergency to locate the parts that enable the technicians to get the aircraft back in the air. He works closely with the information technology staff and the accounting staff to stream line processes that make his team more efficient. One recent innovation he has made is the use of Uber to deliver parts, saving Banyan hundreds of dollars on shipping. When he is not at work, he enjoys spending time playing basketball, soccer, and swimming with his spouse and two sons, ages 8 and 4. He hopes they will follow in his footsteps and enjoy a career in aviation."

To give back to the industry, DeSouza "works closely with vendors and our team by presenting new ideas for procedures and creating new cost options. These ideas center on lowering costs, making the processes easier, and/or shortening timeframes."

As for future goals, DeSouza is working on getting his A&P license and also wants to continue his formal education by taking business management classes. "In addition, I will continue to my self-growth by learning newer techniques to assist operators, maintenance, and avionic technicians to ease their processes while lowering costs and increasing efficiency."