Retiring CEO reflects on years leading airport
What does it take to run a mega airport that churns with a million travelers a week, a thousand flights a day and fuels Central Florida’s economy?
You have to stomach the 24/7 grind, respect polarizing politics and grasp fiscal alchemy that renders airline and passenger fees into bricks and mortar, including the $3 billion terminal opening this year.
That’s from Orlando’s retiring airport boss, Phil
Brown, whose last day is Monday.
“If anybody remembers anything about me, it’s probably going to be that the sucker worked for 11 years here,” said Brown, 71, who shuns accolades and even pay raises but then did something not publicly noted for. He grinned. “Whether that’s good or bad depends on who you are talking to.”
Colleagues say Brown conducts his duties with a straight-talking sensibil
ity particularly amid tense, horrifying or random events, not to mention a budget gored by COVID’s zombie phase for air travel.
When an undercover cop five years ago fumbled his backpack, which dropped a Glock, which went off in the airport’s biggest atrium and startled passengers, Brown quickly sized up the trauma.
The bullet scarred some carpet, the cop was treated by paramedics for a leg wound and a scrum of Orlando police locked the scene down.
“Another day at the rodeo,” he said, not flippant, returning to his desk.
In an interview, Brown said his job, requiring two phones bedside each night, took much of his bandwidth. That might explain the impression he left with some outsiders that he has the warmth of a drill sergeant.
“Generally, I like most people unless they give me a reason not to and even then I don’t have to like you to be respectful,” Brown said.
“I think what it is is that I have a bad habit of letting stuff run through my head and not focusing on people and they might think I don’t like them because I’m not smiling.” He’s been made aware.
“My wife told me that. I’ve been told that back when I used to be a bartender.”
Others came to take his demeanor as stability. As chief executive officer of the Greater Orlando Aviation Authority, or GOAA, he has run Orlando’s international and executive airports.
“Phil’s integrity and attention to detail was the bedrock of his excellent performance as CEO for the airport,” said Frank Kruppenbacher, a seven-year chairman of GOAA until 2019. “He was always unselfish and put the airport first.”
Ralph Martinez, a former GOAA board member and now on the Central Florida Expressway Authority board, said he hates to see Brown leave. “I felt that he was very impartial and honest.”
Orlando Mayor Buddy Dyer calls him a friend.
“He’s a no-drama, matter-of-fact kind of guy, extremely professional and a good leader,” Dyer said. “He’s a guy who lets you know where he stands and there is no hidden agenda.”
In 2019, GOAA’s board launched a coup of sorts to award a lucrative contract to a new general counsel without warning or transparent bid process.
It was messy, led by the board’s five appointees of the governor voting against the board’s two mayors, Dyer and Orange County’s Jerry Demings, leaving Brown in the middle.
The effort was beaten back and several appointed board members left GOAA.
“That was probably one of
the most important things he did, was manage through all of that,” Dyer said. “I was always comforted that he had the airport’s back or best interests in mind. That was a difficult process to work through when you work for the board. You work for all seven of those board members.”
Brown called on the board nine months ago to set up a transition for his retirement. That left the agency on unusual turf. None of the board members, except Dyer, had experienced a change in the top executive position.
The board voted to pay $120,000 to headhunter firm Korn Ferry, which from a long list of 60 potential candidates brought in four finalists: three veteran leaders from other U.S. airports and Gov. Ron DeSantis’ transportation secretary.
With Dyer and Demings touting Seattle’s airport CEO, GOAA’s five governor appointees did what many observers expected of them all along, backing the secretary, Kevin Thibault.
Speaking days before the selection, Brown wished them well.
“When I first considered going after the executive director’s position, somebody made the comment to me that to be successful you’ve got to live, sleep and eat the airport, not literally, but you have that much focus on it,” Brown said.
“I think I have done that and I think that’s why it’s probably time for me to leave,” Brown said. “There is only so long that you can do that.”
Overall, Brown said, the airport’s dynamics shift constantly, buffeted by an enormous, squabbling family of stakeholders. Nearly 20,000 people work
at the airport, which houses a city’s worth of retail and restaurants and an alphabet of agencies.
“I’ve described this job to others as I’m not in charge of anything but I’m responsible for all of it. That’s a little bit of tongue in cheek,” Brown said. “But the point of it is you’ve got a lot of agencies here that have responsibilities and I look at this job as making sure everybody gets to take care of their responsibilities.”
Longtime spokesperson Carolyn Fennell said Brown succeeded being tenacious, listening to the community’s wants and remaining a gentleman about it.
Of his achievements, Brown is grateful for helping to navigate the airport out of a history of airlines controlling airport budgets, expansions and workforces and into an era of airports having significant autonomy.
Brown tried hard to recruit carriers from Asia and still hopes for a future of nonstop flights from Orlando to Japan and China.
“When traveling overseas he made it a point to learn about the customs, history, food and even some of the language,” said Vicki Jaramillo, director of GOAA’s air service development.
Spirit and Frontier airlines grew tremendously during Brown’s tenure.
“We have always viewed Phil as being one of the top airport executives in the industry,” said Spirit CEO Ted Christie “He would be the first person to deflect praise to his team, which says a lot about his leadership style.”
“The Frontier team is forever grateful for his support,” said that airline’s CEO, Barry Biffle.
Brown is a finance guy but that mattered little for the tragedy of Feb. 2, 2019.
“The moment that will remain with me for the remainder of my life is walking into the terminal after the Transportation Security Administration officer jumped from the 10th floor of the Hyatt,” Brown said. He fell inside the airport’s atrium among passengers.
“I was looking at the crowd and trying to figure out how we deal with it, how do you help all of these people,” Brown said.
“I really enjoyed the opportunity to learn from a lot of different people and work in a place that was challenging. Sometimes the job was more challenging than I wanted it but that’s sort of what you have to take,” he said.
“I spent 14 years in the investment banking and the financial advisory business. Frankly, I made much more money than I did here. But I never felt like I made much of a difference there.”
Brown said the coming weeks look like indulging curiosities.
As the retiring leader of a powerhouse employment center, an industrial ecosystem unlike any other in Central Florida, he will read the critically acclaimed “Bullshit Jobs” and the “Dawn of Everything” by an anarchist professor of economic anthropology at the London School of Economics, David Graeber.
“I will for the first time that I can remember in 44 years,” Brown said, “look forward to the point on Sunday night when I don’t have this sense of dread of what the hell do I have to do tomorrow.”