Spirit Aerosystems restructures business model

Photo Credit: Spirit Aerosystems

Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. (Wichita, Kan., U.S.) has announced a new organizational structure to focus on growth in the key markets it serves. Spirit will organize around three primary business divisions: Commercial, Defense & Space and Aftermarket. Beginning with the 2021 fiscal year-end results, Spirit will report financial results based on these three external reporting segments.

Spirit has previously expressed a vision of achieving a 40-40-20% split for future revenue across the Commercial, Defense & Space and Aftermarket divisions respectively. Spirit’s new structure and leadership team will help drive strategic plans across those three divisions to continue diversifying the company’s customer base, delivering the company’s balance sheet and driving greater margins.

“We believe these organizational changes will enable Spirit to serve our customers better across the Commercial, Defense & Space and Aftermarket divisions and accelerate growth for Spirit,” says Tom Gentile, Spirit AeroSystems’ president and CEO.

Sam Marnick, as executive vice president and COO of Spirit, as well as president of the Commercial Division, will oversee Spirit’s global commercial aviation operations, including its programs with Airbus (Toulouse, France) and Boeing (Chicago, Ill., U.S.), business and regional jets and emerging markets such as electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL). In addition, she will have leadership of Spirit’s supply chain, fabrication, tooling and facilities organizations.

Duane Hawkins will continue leading the Defense & Space Division as executive vice president of Spirit and president of Defense & Space, with a focus on continuing to grow Spirit’s presence in that market.

Kailash Krishnaswamy, as senior vice president of the Aftermarket Division, will lead Spirit’s aftermarket business, which has reportedly doubled in the past year following the acquisition of the former Bombardier (Montreal Canada) maintenance, repair and overhaul operations. Spirit announced further expansion of its aftermarket business in April 2021, with the acquisition of assets from Applied Aerodynamics (Farmers Brand, Texas, U.S.) and the signing of a joint venture agreement with Evergreen Aviation Technologies Corp. (Taoyuan, Taiwan).

Justin Welner, as chief administration officer & chief compliance officer, will oversee a number of functional areas for Spirit, including human resources, corporate affairs, information technology, EHS, sustainability, compliance and risk management.