Williamsport, PA - July 25, 2005 - Lycoming Engines announced this month the appointment of Almir Bolina, Suzette Snyder, Bryan Blunt and Doug Bubb to the Lycoming senior leadership team and Dane McGuffee and Dave Mankey to leadership roles at Lycoming as well.
Dane McGuffee has joined Lycoming as director of aftermarket sales. Dane will spearhead worldwide aftermarket sales efforts and provide vision and leadership to a high-performing team of regional sales managers. In this position he will be a key liaison between the field and the factory and communicate the voice of the customer. Dane will also work with marketing on the development of sales forecasts and on market segmentation. In addition, he will represent Lycoming by presenting technical information to various audiences and develop that skill in others. Dane joins Lycoming following his career with Dallas Airmotive, where he worked as a sales professional beginning in 1995.
Almir Bolina has joined Lycoming as Senior Director of engineering. In this role, Almir will be responsible for all Lycoming engineering, including product development, configuration management and the company's new program management process and department. He will lead Lycoming toward engineering excellence and premier performance translating the voice of the customer into new products and product enhancements. He will also help lead the institution of Lycoming's new Advanced Technology Center located in Williamsport. Bolina joined Lycoming in May 2005, from Cummins, Inc., where he held positions of increasing responsibility such as manger of Application Engineering, Technical Center and Agricultural and Industrial Marketing in Brazil. He also worked in Mexico as their Director of Product / Customer Engineering and Marketing, served as Director/Chief Engineer of Customer Engineering / Vehicle Integration supporting the US market and worldwide engineering organizations. In his management positions, he was also a lead support for new products introduction, Rapid Problem Solution and Design for Six Sigma projects.
Suzette Snyder has been promoted to the role of Sr. Manager, Human Resources for Lycoming replacing Dan Smith. In this role, Suzette will lead and manage human resources activities to ensure the right people are in the right places and prepared to meet the challenges of the business. She will be responsible for all Lycoming Human Resource initiatives, including Labor relations, employee relations, talent selection, development and retention, benefits and compensation, performance and career management, succession planning and work force planning. She joined Lycoming in February 2005 after holding positions of increasing responsibility at ConAgra Foods, Inc., Kellogg Company, TRW Inc., and Pennsylvania Blue Shield.
Doug Bubb was recently elected the new president of Lycoming's UAW Local 787 and has been invited to join Ian Walsh's senior leadership team. Doug has been employed by Lycoming for 28 years, and was the former Chairman of the union committee. He has held positions in assembly, experimental, and machining. He played a major role in helping lead Lycoming to the ratification of their new contract after eight years of bargaining. Dave Mankey joined the Lycoming Leadership team as well, in his new role as plant committee chairman and was also a major contributor to Lycoming's final success in achieving a collective bargaining agreement. Dave has been employed by Lycoming for 39 years and has held positions of increasing responsibility including steward, sergeant at arms, vice president and chairman of the UAW. As plant committee chairman, Dave will be responsible for overseeing the implementation of the labor contract.
Bryan Blunt just joined Lycoming as the director of quality. Bryan will lead Lycoming's Quality organization in the development of innovative techniques and approaches to inspection and process control. He will plan and direct all aspects of Quality Assurance operations, including Quality Engineering, Inspection, Metrology, Flight Safety and Material review. Bryan will ensure coordination with and support of all Operations functions with regard to quality inspection processes and lead the development of supplier controls systems and procedures to obtain 100% product conformance. His mission is help Lycoming achieve six-sigma level performance. Before joining Lycoming, Bryan served ten years in front-line supervision and individual contributor roles at Bechtel Power's Nuclear Generating Station in Palo Verde, AZ. He completed ten years with increasing responsibilities within different business segments of AlliedSignal Aerospace. Most recently, his experience has been at Cessna, where over a six-year period he served in roles that included Textron Six Sigma Black Belt, Director of Supply Chain Quality, and Manager of Materials Quality.
Lycoming is an operating division of Textron's Avco Corporation subsidiary, specializing in the manufacture and support of piston aircraft engines. More than half of the world's general aviation fleet -- both rotary-wing and fixed-wing -- is powered by Lycoming piston engines. Textron Inc. is a $10 billion multi-industry company with 44,000 employees in 40 countries. The company leverages its global network of businesses to provide customers with innovative solutions and services. Textron is known around the world for its powerful brands such as Bell Helicopter, Cessna Aircraft, Jacobsen, Kautex, Lycoming, E-Z-GO and Greenlee, among others. More information is available at www.textron.com. An online press center can be found at www.lycomingpower.com/media.