Yeah, we're trying to get
you to want to work here,
but we're not gonna tell you who it is.
But we're gonna tell you
you want the job, right?
It's big.
So they have to accept the job
before they find out who it is?
They do not.
Is that what it is? They do not, but to get the--
It's like the dating game or something?
It's like the dating game, exactly,
behind the curtain.
And you open the clock, nope.
Yeah.
So, no, but if--
Do they get to ask questions like this?
It's like, okay, candidate number two,
I need to know, you know,
if we were making Whoopi,
what's up?
(laughing)
That's true.
Yeah, yeah, get old school with it.
Welcome to Own the
Jet by Aspen Aero Group,
where we share perspectives
from some of the leading voices
in private jet
ownership and business aviation.
I'm your host, Derek Savage,
along with my co-host, Jason Spoor,
president of Aspen Aero Group.
Our guest today is Linda Frankl
from ADK Consulting and Executive Search.
Linda is a master at helping companies
find the right people
to manage their aircraft operations.
Join us as we dive
deep into the mechanics,
mindset, and moments
that define jet ownership.
And together, we'll learn
what it takes to own the jet.
Our guest today is Linda Frankel
from ADK Consulting and Executive Search.
Linda is a master at
helping companies find leaders
to manage their aircraft.
Welcome, Linda, thank
you for joining us today.
Well, thank you, I appreciate it.
Happy to be here and look
forward to the conversation
to talk about ADK and
how we can assist you,
as well as just talking
about aviation in general.
It's a subject that
everybody gets fueled by, right?
(laughing) Same, same.
(laughing)
So, I mean, once you're
in it, I mean, you live it.
And I think our firm is one that has a
number of individuals
that have spent many
years in the aviation field,
myself included.
And we just wanna
continue to see people excel,
people fulfill their
mission and interest in life.
And so we're here to help them,
where they're helping
companies and people.
Yeah, so tell me a little bit about,
because the audience and
I don't know a whole lot
about ADK and what you guys do.
So if you can start there
and just kind of give
me an overview of ADK,
who you help, what you help them do,
and maybe even both
sides of that equation.
So just kind of going
back to the origination
of ADK consulting, our
founders worked for UPS
and one of the initial--
That was my first job, I worked for UPS.
You worked for UPS, too?
Yeah.
You wore the brown suit?
No, no, I was in the hub, like--
Sortin' stuff.
Shuck in packages, yeah.
But yeah, that was, yeah,
17 years old, first job.
That was hard work.
Anyway, I'm sure your
founder did not do that.
(laughing)
Well, you know, he was one of,
I guess one of the
initial hires with the company
and did a number of different things,
including public relations and affairs.
And he retired from UPS in Louisville.
And the Louisville Airport Authority
was looking for a new leader.
And they reached out to him and said,
"Hey, can you help us?
"You know aviation,
you know the industry,
"you know people,
we're looking for a good
"executive director, president, CEO
"for our airport authority."
Okay, so he was somebody that knew people
from their perspective, right?
He knew who to go to.
So he then started a national recruitment
for an executive director for
Louisville Airport Authority.
And from that, he got to
know a number of leaders
in the industry.
And then actually, it often happens is
when the leader was
selected for Louisville,
then the airport
authority that where he left from
contacted him and said,
"Can you do a search for us?"
And so then the bill's
just built, it's snowballed.
And so then four or five years later,
he started doing, I don't know,
a multitude of
searches throughout the year.
And his wife said, "Maybe
you need some assistance."
Or actually he said, "I
need some assistance."
And so they joined
together as a husband and wife,
ownership of ADK,
Executive Search and Consulting.
I joined them then in 2011.
And so I was the third
official member of the team.
And then now we have
25 dedicated individuals
with numerous backgrounds in aviation
or array of backgrounds
in aviation multiple years,
as well as other industries,
whether it's in recruiting or marketing,
real estate, business
development, those types of things.
So you don't just work in
that corporate aviation space,
business jet space.
There are other people that
you serve outside of that.
I would say our niche
is aviation industry.
So that's where we, I
think, have excelled,
is we got started
primarily with airports.
And then now we have expanded
that to an aviation landscape
for the most part.
So all those--
So like marketing people for the airport,
et cetera, et cetera.
We do that as well.
Those are our
executive leaders for airports,
but also the tenants,
operators, the consultants,
the concessionaires, the other entities
that are in an airport arena, FBOs.
We've done searches
for FBO managers as well.
So for me, the
uninitiated, what's an FBO?
Oh, it's a fixed base operator.
Okay, and that means--
So it is where those private jets
are basing their plane often
or storing their plane in a hangar.
Okay.
Or their purchasing fuel from the FBO.
But that's at a larger airport?
Is that how that works?
Really, it's, yeah, yeah.
The airport has an FBO.
Wow, okay.
Most airports have
some type of airport, FBO.
It's a private club.
If you want to buy fuel,
you have to have an FBO.
Okay.
So if you need to purchase fuel,
you're gonna have an FBO.
But you do hiring for
them, or not hiring, but like--
We have hired leaders for, and again,
most of our searches have
been for the senior leaders
for organizations or businesses.
Outside of for like, in private aviation,
what's interesting is that, so a company,
a corporation that owns a jet,
whether they may be in
manufacturing or insurance,
private equity, commercial development,
they know that business well.
Yeah.
But there's the likelihood
that they don't know aviation
or connect to aviation well.
Okay.
So where ADA can
assist them is we will have,
we have individuals that are connected
into that discipline,
into that landscape.
Yeah, I getcha.
Our team members attend conferences.
We have a network of
over 100,000 individuals
that are specific to
aviation that we reach out to.
We have researchers on our team,
sources on our team, we get connected.
So going back to, yeah, corporations,
individuals with jets then,
so you're looking to backfill
or place director level?
Director of aviation for that fleet
or organization for their cheap pilot
and things of that nature.
Yeah.
Sometimes their cheap pilot is also their
director of aviation,
but it's more the director
of aviation who understands business,
understands regulatory requirements,
understands operational efficiencies,
as well as motivating and leading others.
Yeah, now Jason, you've seen
this from the corporate side.
Sure, absolutely.
Right?
Like your background for
people that don't know,
your director of aviation for Google,
among other companies.
Yeah.
Talk about that a little bit with,
like what are the needs
of companies like that
when it comes to like
finding the right people?
Yeah, so very critical, right?
Of course aviation is kind
of like you just mentioned,
kind of removed from, you know,
whatever the corporation does.
And the language that's spoken there
and the way things
are handled is different
from everything from
how we schedule people
to how we do
vacations and planning, right?
So when corporations go to look for this,
it's great to have a source like her,
because you know, you can
get multiple different people
to look at and see if
their culture is gonna fit.
And that's key, is that
the, are they a cultural fit?
In the sense of, you know,
our company also recognizes
that many of these private entities,
they want confidentiality.
Okay.
And it is complicated
when you're trying to entice
individuals to come to work for a company
without being able to
be provided their name,
their location, really you
can tell them a little bit
about their fleet mix, but not, you know,
everything about how they operate.
Yeah, we're trying to get
you to want to work here,
but we're not gonna tell you who it is.
But we're gonna tell you
you want the job, right?
It's big.
So they have to accept the job
before they find out who it is?
They do not.
It's like the dating game or something?
It's like the dating game, exactly,
behind the curtain.
Yeah.
So, no, but if--
They get to ask
questions like, is it like,
okay, candidate number
two, I need to know, you know,
if we were making Whoopi, what's that?
(laughing)
That's terrible. Yeah, yeah, get old school with it.
But yeah, how do you do that?
I mean, if you found someone that's like,
hey, this person is like rock star,
director of aviation,
executive level person,
and they would be a great
match for Corporation X.
Yeah.
We talk to them in
the sense of, you know,
we reach out to them and
say, what are you looking for?
What would entice you?
What type of business excites you?
Where do you see yourself?
And then we learn from
them if it is a match.
So we've already talked to the client
what specifically they're looking for,
and then we talk to potential candidates
about what is their experience,
what experience level do they have,
and what are they looking for
to see if it might be a close match.
And then we can have more conversations.
One of the other things,
we have a lot of high touch in our
specific recruiting firm.
We have lots of conversations
with the client and the candidate.
We're kind of a, our role is to be an
effective communicator.
We asked candidates to
do a self-directed video,
and that's to give them the opportunity
to tell their story.
So we ask some simple questions of them,
just kind of like we're here today.
Yeah. And we tell, you know, it's helpful.
So people are doing their
best TikTok sort of thing.
So they're doing their best
TikTok, exactly, you know.
Some have gotten pretty creative.
I was gonna say, what's
the weirdest, funniest thing
you've ever seen one of those?
You know, we see odd things,
and but I will say I was shocked to see,
we often see people swear, you know,
but that might fit someone's
culture and that might not.
So it's, you know, it's a risk,
but sometimes it's a good risk.
And, but you know, one time we saw a guy,
and he was kind of
fumbling over his words,
and then he drinks his beer.
And we're like, but you have the
opportunity to save this,
and you did, because
you can save or retake.
And he actually saved it.
He's like, this is something to do.
Well, maybe he felt like after, you know,
thinking about this, this
might not be the right fit.
So I'm gonna go ahead.
But I think afterwards, you know,
if they catch him
drinking on the job or whatever,
it's like, you knew
what you were getting.
Yeah, I didn't hide anything from you.
Yes, exactly.
So no, but so that's an
opportunity for someone
like to tell their story
and for the client to see
if they might be a cultural fit.
But we also caution our clients
to not just put all
their, you know, focus on that,
you know, touch point
of a video recording.
Some people can be real
uncomfortable with it.
They can maybe be too stiff
or they may be too casual.
But the conversation,
the in-person conversations
always go a lot better.
Nice, nice.
So what are some of
the biggest challenges
like finding these, because
this has to be a super niche
sort of like thing to
find the right people
for the right jobs, or do
you find it being the other way
where you've got just a
flood of people looking for jobs
and not enough people looking for them?
Well, would you agree
the aviation industry
is a small industry?
It's a very small industry.
And especially now, I
mean, it seems like,
of course, the airlines are
sucking up a lot of pilots
and a lot of talent.
So when it comes down
to the business jet world
or corporate world, you
know, finding qualified
and good people is a tough thing.
And we actually try as a company,
and I think many businesses do today,
we try to help be a
coach, a mentor, a developer
of individuals that are
interested in aviation
to try to get those
pilots or those people
that are interested in
aviation administration
at a young age and to let them learn
that aviation's a great field to be in.
And so we kind of, you know, participate
in those types of things as well.
But the aviation industry
is a very small industry.
We feel like we have a
great reach, our company does.
We are very active in the industry,
whether, like I think
I mentioned, you know,
we attend a lot of conferences.
Well, yeah, that's where we met you guys,
yeah, at a conference.
It was a MBAA
conference in Columbus, yeah.
So if I'm owning the jet, right,
let's say I'm, you know, some rich guy
with a company or whatever,
I'm coming to you and saying like,
"Staff up my crew," right?
Or it's like, is that what it is?
We can help primarily
with the executive leadership
to a greater degree than, you know,
all of the team members that might go
behind that business,
whether you're hiring other pilots,
whether you're hiring mechanics,
whether you're hiring
customer experience individuals,
we don't really work in that discipline,
but we can find you
connections to find connections.
And I think that's where
we kind of come to play.
We've placed so many people at airports
working for an airport itself.
And then as I mentioned before, you know,
the fixed space operator,
we have placed people with them as well.
So oftentimes if you own a jet,
you're having engagement or a partnership
with those individuals as well.
Gotcha.
But if I'm a big
corporation, if I'm OmniCorp,
and I come to you and say,
look, I really want,
I feel like our
executives should be flying around
on a fleet of Gulfstreams,
and I need somebody to
manage that entire situation,
that's when I'm
reaching out to you directly.
That's what you're
reaching out to us for.
And we're gonna find you someone
who knows enough about that business
and that can tell you or help direct you
kind of to brokers into
others about how to, you know,
elevate your operation
so that it is operationally efficient
as well as regulatory.
Gotcha.
Is it usually like the HR department
that would reach out to you guys or?
It is, but usually it's at
the direction or suggestion,
excuse me, about the
suggestion from a pilot,
a chief pilot or
someone who's in the industry
who knows the aviation
and knows that, you know,
we need someone who knows something
maybe beyond just human
resources for our company.
Gotcha, gotcha.
So Jason, did you work with an
organization like ADK
or with ADK and any of your,
any of the stuff that you had to do
in terms of like finding the right people
for the right roles?
Yeah, companies like that
just on the candidate side of the house
or being contacted, you
know, for certain positions.
Yeah, so you told us earlier
a little bit of an origin story
about how you got into aviation.
And I thought it was really cool
because I'm a huge like space nerd.
So I love, like, I feel like the,
and I don't want to go get too far
and give away the story,
but I think the space shuttle
was the coolest like
aircraft ever created,
even though it was
like hugely inefficient
and it, you know, broke apart
and all the bad stuff that happened,
I just thought it looked cool.
Growing up, it was just iconic, right?
It was like this huge thing.
But anyway, I'd love to
hear how your interest started
in this entire world of aviation.
So just early on in a real brief story,
it was in the fourth grade.
I do recall that I
went to the Space Center
in Huntsville, Alabama
and was just, you know,
impressed not by, you
know, I think it was Baker,
Mr. Baker, that was the monkey,
the first monkey that went on.
Yeah, I know.
But just really the overall operation.
And so I kind of gained it a little bit
of an interest in space at that time.
And then as I went through high school,
I kind of knew I wanted to, I
grew up in Memphis, Tennessee.
I knew I wanted to go away to college.
And so I was looking at different options
and I heard about Embry-Riddle
Aeronautical University,
which was a fully
aviation oriented university
in Daytona Beach, Florida.
It sounded pretty good.
Yeah.
So I was like, I can go there.
It's got a good reputation
and I can become an astronaut.
It happens to be on the beach.
Right, and actually I can go down to,
yeah, I can go down to the coast
to the NASA launch pad as well.
And so I was like, okay, I'm that way.
And so I thought that I
would go into engineering
and become an astronaut.
That wasn't for me,
because I didn't want
to be that space nerd.
I learned.
I really felt like I was better suited
in administration and
management communications
and that field, so.
But it sounds like
maybe like by being steeped
in that world, you met
all these cool people
and were like, here's
an opportunity, right?
Like here's some stuff
that I can really make happen.
And it sounds like you have.
Well, thank you.
And I feel like I have,
and I feel like the company that I
currently work with,
ADK Consulting and Executive Search,
we have a lot of aviation professionals
and we all seem to get really jazzed
by aviation and airports and aircraft.
And because of that,
I think we're really,
we excel in the
discipline of executive recruiting.
Yeah. Yeah.
Go ahead, man.
Since, since 2011, you said it was--
That I've been with them?
Yeah, or when it started?
Oh, 2003.
Oh, three.
So since that time, how
many people do you think
you've placed?
Just a guess, just--
Oh my goodness, that is, that's, oh.
All of them.
(laughing)
Yeah, oh, I should know
that off the top of my head.
Tons. But it's been thousands.
It's been thousands.
Would you say a plethora of candidates?
A plethora of candidates
is a great response, yes.
No, no thousands of individuals.
And we've talked to more.
And we've had relationships with more.
And that's what we, I think, really value
is the relationships and the
partnerships that we develop.
I mean, we don't want
to be transactional.
We want to be your partner.
We want to assist you in your journey
for your success in aviation.
So that's what we like to do.
Where do you see things going from here
in the world of aviation?
Because I know,
Jason, you had mentioned--
Yeah, you had mentioned like the deltas
in Southwest of the world are scooping up
all the talent that they can.
Which I'm guessing would make your job
more difficult, right?
I mean, or I'm assuming.
Yeah, I think there's so
many unknowns with air mobility.
And that what is really going to occur--
Right, with AI.
Yeah, and the unmanned aircraft and AI
and what's going to be--
Do you feel like,
well, let me ask you this.
Do you think AI, and
Jason, this might be a question
for you, man, because do you feel like,
because I haven't even
been thinking about that.
But is it going to
like displace the needs?
Or more people?
Or like what's doing
the other industry right?
We look at trucking and all
the thoughts of having trucks
going down the road with no drivers,
autonomous vehicles.
Is that coming to airplanes?
Absolutely, it's going
to come to airplanes.
It's all about the bottom line, right?
So an airline or a freight hauler,
whatever it's going to be.
If they can eliminate
cost, which would be a pilot,
then they're going to look at it.
So ultimately down the
road, yeah, we're going to--
So would the next director of aviation
be like just a prompt engineer?
Yeah, it's going to be
an AI-generated person.
Yeah.
Just like that.
Okay.
No, we still need
leaders that can help guide
and direct kind of the
regulatory compliance.
I mean, you can have a
checklist, AI can manage that.
But what goes into the
strategic thinking behind that
I think cannot
necessarily be replaced by AI.
Yeah, excellent.
That's a good way to put it.
Right.
If somebody wanted to reach
out to you to find out more,
if I'm head of HR at big corporation
and we need to find somebody to maybe
look after our fleet
or work or manage or whatever our fleet,
what's the best way to reach out to AI?
So what I would really
encourage people to do
is to take a look at our website
because our website
really tells a great story
of our company and our
placements and our capabilities.
So our website is adkexecutivesearch.com.
And I mean, again, you
mentioned my name at the beginning,
Linda Franco, happy to help anyone that
might need assistance
and respond to their inquiries,
but you can reach me
through that or, but I mean--
And we'll put all your
information in the description too.
So yeah, so they'll know how.
We have a lot of
professionals on our team
that would be excited to help clients.
And like I said before, it's a
relationship business
and we feel like we
have a lot of touch points
and want to continue those.
Nice, nice.
Any closing thoughts, Jason?
No, not only, we talked a little bit
about the corporate aviation stuff,
but also the airport administration
and that type of world.
Yeah, and FBOs and I
mean, yeah, all of them.
So not just the corporate, yeah.
Yeah, it's the airports themselves
that are going to need people.
But we actually have
one of the better airports
here in Indianapolis, so hopefully--
That's really good.
Yeah, yeah, yeah,
hopefully there's not too much need
there, but--
You do, we've worked with them.
We've done searches for them.
Really, really?
Okay, cool, cool.
That's why we're such a good airport.
(laughing)
We do know the
president and CEO very well,
but we also know a number of other
members of their team.
So yes, we've placed people in.
He's a very dynamic person.
He's exceptional.
He really is an
exceptional leader for his community.
And oftentimes, airport
leaders are community leaders.
Awesome, awesome.
Well, great.
Once again, thank you again
for joining us, Own the Jet,
and tune in next time
where we will help you learn
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