Susan Warner-Dooley

The HNTB Companies
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Rising to the challenge
profiles | 2011
Susan Warner-Dooley, AAE, IAP
National Director Strategic, Business
and Financial Planning, Aviation Practice
HNTB Corporation
On a brisk fall day at Madison Elementary School in Newark, Ohio, fifth grader Susan
Warner came to a crossroads. Her new teacher believed in homework — lots of it.
Facing weeknights filled with math problems and American history, the insightful, yet
self-described “average” student, saw two options: She could view the homework as a
burden or accept it as a challenge.
The resolute 11-year-old chose the latter. From then on, Susan made straight As,
simultaneously earning a juris doctor and a master’s degree in business administration.
Newly graduated, she stepped onto her first airplane in 1984 en route to a job interview
… and soared.
Today, on Susan Warner-Dooley’s desk, amid the strategic business plans and financial
spreadsheets is a placard that reads, “Excellence is the Exceptional Drive to Exceed
Expectations.” It’s a self-imposed challenge she has met repeatedly during her
aviation career.
Susan received her first taste of the aviation industry providing tax-exempt bond
legal counsel to various U.S. airports. Aviation’s challenging mix of public service and
business management proved too hard to resist, and Susan left her legal career of nineand-a-half
years to join the Columbus Airport Authority as general counsel and director
of properties and administration in 1995.
Later, she accepted a position as deputy executive director with the Metropolitan
Airports Commission, which operates the Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport.
There, she was instrumental in restructuring long-standing airline rates and charges
with fortress hub carrier, Northwest Airlines.
“I don’t settle for quick solutions,” she said. “I want the right solutions, and I push myself
until I find them. I worked with Northwest Airlines to find creative solutions that would
meet their objectives, too, and then I helped validate the benefits of the new approach
to the airport’s board of commissioners,” she said.
Meeting a challenge still is what energizes Susan today in her role as national director
strategic, business and financial planning for HNTB’s aviation practice. She provides
clients with services in strategic assessment and planning, financial policy and analysis
and capital program funding, as well as airline relations, rates and structures and
commercial operations and development.

Before HNTB, Susan held other high-level positions with major U.S. airports, including
chief of strategy and administrative officer for the aviation department of the Port
Authority of New York and New Jersey, and chief financial officer/assistant director
of business management for the Miami-Dade Aviation Department.
With experience in various airport management positions, as well as her Airports
Council International committee activities, Susan offers HNTB clients a comprehensive
understanding of the issues facing airport management. Among them: how the airlines’
changing role is affecting airports.
“Airlines aren’t the hub-loyal, fortress carriers they once were,” she said. “They are
transient and increasingly reluctant to make long-term financial commitments.
Airports can no longer rely on their all-in financial support. They need to evolve their
business models and find new financing options.”
Helping airports identify and incorporate those new options is a challenge Susan’s
willing to accept.
Education:
• MBA, Business Administration, 1985, University of Cincinnati
• JD, 1985, University of Cincinnati College of Law
• BA, Social Sciences, 1978, Ohio State University
Professional registrations:
• Accredited Airport Executive, American Association of Airport Executives
• International Airport Professional, Airport Management Professional Accreditation
Programme (AMPAP)
Professional affiliations:
• Airports Council International – North America, Finance Committee
• Airports Council International, World Economic Standing Committee
• American Association of Airport Executives
• International Aviation Women’s Association
• Transportation Research Board, Aviation Economics and Forecasting Committee;
Panel chair, ACRP 2001-2007 Airport-Airline Agreements and Rate Methodologies
Hire date with HNTB
June 2009
Years of industry experience
26