Age: 35
Years in Aviation: 11
Brian Publiski currently is a project engineer/project manager with Liebherr Aerospace Saline Inc. located in Saline, MI. In this role Publiski coordinates capability readiness and budgetary estimates for new products, provides technical support for pneumatics equipment, tracks and analyzes repair history in order to have a positive impact on repair performance and minimize premature failures. He also designs and develops tooling and test equipment and trains repair shop technicians. Publiski holds an FAA A&P Mechanic certificate which he received at MIAT College of Technology.
Publiski began his career at Duncan Aviation in Battle Creek, MI, as an airframe mechanic accomplishing scheduled and unscheduled maintenance. After a year he took a job at Liebherr as a shop technician. He soon decided to go back to school and received a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering and master’s in engineering management, both from Eastern Michigan University.
Publiski says, “Right out of high school I pursued a degree in mechanical engineering but didn’t have the ambition at the time to endure the boredom of the typical classroom setting. A couple of years into my degree, I was burned out. After taking a semester off, my Grandfather suggested that I check out MIOA (now known as Michigan Institute of Aviation and Technology). I was immediately interested in the idea of being able to learn something in the classroom, and then take that knowledge to the shop and apply it. That style of learning turned out to be the perfect fit for me and because of that I really excelled in the program.”
He feels his current boss Steve Fracassa fulfills the mentor role from an engineering perspective and says, “He has a lot of industry experience and enjoys sharing that knowledge with his employees so that they can grow in their abilities.”
His company hosts several interns from different parts of the world every year. Publiski does his best to fulfill a mentoring role for them during their stay. While these interns are all very intelligent, they often lack the industry experience which is necessary to be effective as an engineer. He says, “I, and the other engineers I work with, see it as our responsibility to help them grow into accomplished, efficient engineers by the time they finish their internship.”
As for his career goals, he’s waiting for the opportunity to move into a managerial role. Once that goal is achieved, the future of his career will be focused on the continued growth of Liebherr Aerospace Saline.
