Keilah Bias, AMT 2018 Next Gen 40 Under 40 Award Winner
Keilah Bias was always interested in solving problems, trying to improve processes, and being creative. This led her to becoming an engineer and landing a job as a summer student with Vector Aerospace in 2013. "I have always been fascinated with how the aviation industry seems to be this thriving ecosystem of complex processes, despite of being one of the most regulated industries," she says.
Bias has been mentored by many intelligent, talented and kind people over the years including her previous professor and now friend, Libby Osgood, who is an aerospace engineer. "My current supervisor, Sharon Ross, and the women I work with at StandardAero since our Vector Aerospace days greatly contribute to building my skill and knowledge in the aerospace industry and my personal development."
She received her diploma in engineering from University of Prince Edward Island, and finished her industrial engineering degree with cooperative education at Dalhousie University.
Nominated by Alex Youngs, StandardAero director of sales and marketing business intelligence: "StandardAero’s Summerside facility utilizes a broad range of KPIs to manage processes related to customer, financial and productivity. These measures draw data from various systems including Salesforce, ERP, financial and many bespoke databases. Keilah has been instrumental as a bridge between the business and the technology team responsible for data warehousing. By developing a suite of management dashboards, Keilah equipped the leadership team with effective management tools for day-to-day decision-making. Keilah was a key resource for leaders during the C3 (cost, cash, competitiveness) campaign where $8M in annual savings were identified, realized and sustained. She set dashboard expectations and then coached many teams to help them track savings and ensure balancing metrics were visualized and monitored. During her five-year career with StandardAero, Keilah has earned a reputation for innovative leadership, project management and quality excellence."
Bias constantly advocates to promote engineering as a career choice for young students, especially for women/girls. "I believe that many girls don’t even consider engineering because they never knew it was something they could do. I also advocate for diversity and teaching design thinking to students. Outside of the industry, I do my best to be involved in community projects as I believe engineering, or any career, is meant to help better our society."
"My greatest career goal is to add value to other people in whatever role I am in. I also desire to increase my knowledge of the aviation and aerospace industry, along with different areas of business operations. I would like to pursue a teaching role in the future, whether as part of my role, or in a sessional capacity. Since I was a child I believed that teachers can have a lasting effect in the society. Finally, I want to be in a position where I can inspire others, especially young girls to pursue engineering as a career choice and aerospace as an industry to build their career."
