RotorcraftPro_ExecWatch_JimWinkel

By Rick Weatherford
AVIATION SPECIALTIES UNLIMITED
PRESIDENT JIM WINKEL
PASSION AND PROVIDENCE
Because of a fateful decision made in Fort
Rucker back in the 1980s, rather than conducting an interview
in Boise, Idaho, as the president of night vision leader Aviation
Specialties Unlimited (ASU), Jim Winkel could have well instead
been conducting a Bible study in Central America as a missionary.
Whether that decision was made with providential prayerful
guidance, or just good judgment, Winkel now gets to faithfully
serve two masters: (1) At ASU, he serves his passion for night
vision technology, and (2) at All Saints Presbyterian Church, he
fulfills an even higher calling as an elder for his Presbyterian
Church in America’s missionary efforts.
A lot of lessons were learned, and a lot of time and moves
transpired, before Winkel worked his way to the president’s desk
in Idaho. Some moves were historic; one of Winkel’s earliest
boyhood memories is making the westward road trip along Route
66, as millions did to California, so his father could work for Shell Oil
in the San Francisco Bay Area. Winkel spent most of his childhood
there in the ‘60s, but the elder Winkel again was transferred –
this time to Houston, Texas, which was far removed from the
California counterculture scene of the 1960s. “Making that move
was quite a culture shock,” Winkel recalls. “Racial desegregation
in the schools was a big issue at the time in Texas, an issue that
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didn’t impact me in California.” Civil rights race issues weren’t the
only adaptation. Winkel humorously remembers, “Another big
change I had to adapt to was the Texas accent. I remember our
PE coach telling us not to forget our towel fee to wash our towels.
I thought he was saying not to forget our taffy fee; I was wondering
why in the world we needed to buy candy in gym class?” Winkel
adjusted to Southern culture enough to successfully ask a fellow
high school student, Sandy, out on a date. It must have gone well;
the couple has been married for 37 years.
MILITARY YEARS
Those halcyon Houston high school years were good ones, but
the student was about to make decisions that would directly shape
his destiny, even if he didn’t know it at the time. “An Army recruiter
told me that based on my ASVAB test scores he wanted to send
me to West Point,” Winkel reflects. “You know, when you’re young,
you really don’t know much. I instead chose to go to Boot Camp,
because I really didn’t know if I wanted to commit to the military at
that age like an appointment to West Point would have required.
In the Army, I learned electronics repair for GCA radar.”
At Fort Hood, the aspiring aviator was temporarily assigned to
an aviation company and got accepted to flight school. He flew
Hueys when he was transferred to Germany. Upon returning, he
was assigned to Fort Rucker, Alabama, as a flight instructor, when
he heard that missionary calling. ”At about this time my wife and I
felt a strong calling in our spirit to become missionaries in Central
America. With the political turmoil in Central America at the time,
we decided that it wasn’t the right environment to raise our kids.”
Rather than enter the mission field, Winkel entered the Florida
National Guard. “I spent eight-and-a-half years in the Florida
guard and absolutely loved it.” He became a standardization
instructor pilot and the lead instructor pilot for the Black Hawk unit.
Winkel adds, “I was privileged to obtain a multi-engine, fixed-wing
qualification as well. I was also an instrument examiner. So I kind
of punched all my tickets.”
Well, he punched one more. Florida was assigned to C-23
Sherpas. “My last two years, I was the detachment commander of
that unit, which we started from scratch.”
After 20 years of service, Winkel’s military years were maxed out
and over. In 1996, he realized he’d soon be leaving the military
and its retirement benefits weren’t going to support his young
family at the time. “In preparation for that, I had an idea of taking
night vision out of the military and getting it to law enforcement.
Many law enforcement pilots had flown with night vision in the
military and they wanted to continue flying with NVG (night vision
goggles) in their civilian careers.”
MOON SHADOW TRAINING
Thus, he founded a little company in Lakeland, Florida, called Moon
Shadow Training, which wound up training about 30 customers
around the country. Winkel ran Moon Shadow Training for about a
year when he left the military. He recalls ruefully, “Sometimes my
instructor pilots were the ones making all the money.”
Still, it was a year of entrepreneurial effort that opened a window
of opportunity, even when Winkel did his best to slam that window
shut. As a result of Moon Shadow, he developed a relationship
with Litton Industries, which manufactured night vision goggles.
They invited Winkel to Dallas for a meeting. “I thought they were
going to talk to me about becoming a consultant and for three
hours they tried to convince me to become their manager of
business development for a new aviation products unit they were
establishing.” he recalls. “For three hours I tried to convince them
I wasn’t their guy; I told them I was just a dumb Army pilot who
didn’t know anything about business development.” Winkel wasn’t
as unenthusiastic as he played. On his way from the airport he
pulled over to a payphone (remember those?) and called Sandy
to tell her about the persistent offer that had been made. “As a
Texas girl, she jumped at the opportunity,” he says, “And in 1999,
we moved our family to Dallas, which began my journey of being
involved with large aerospace defense companies.”
That journey began with a rush. The awe-shucks former Army pilot
started developing and selling for Litton and also regulated night
vision standards by co-chairing the RTCA committee that created
minimum requirements for NVGs that published the defining
document (DO-275) still in use today for governing NVG flight
within the national U.S. airspace system. From Dallas, Winkel was
promoted to business development manager for Europe, then
rose to international business development manager and finally
became the BD/Sales department manager.
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ASU,” Winkel explains. “Our roots were
in Texas; I was heavily involved in my
church’s mission work.” Still, the Winkels
left the land of Texas tea and loaded up the
truck and moved to Boise – Idaho, that is,
the land of smurf-turf blue football fields
and ASU blue sky.
C’EST DOMMAGE
This international experience served
Winkel when he left Northrop Grumman
in 2006 (the defense contractor had
acquired Litton Industries) for Francebased
Thales, which wanted Winkel to
help grow its optronics business. For two
years he endeavored to do just that, flying
from his Dallas home to the Thales tactical
radio facility in Maryland. However, the
upcoming executive, who had developed a
skill for closing large sales, flew head-on
into an obstacle he couldn’t overcome:
government politics. “It was increasingly
difficult to promote Thales’ products in the
U.S.,” Winkel recalls. During one important
presentation before a U.S. government
panel, the government director opened the
meeting by stating, “I just want everyone
here to know that you guys are a French
company.” Taken aback, Winkel replied
that although the parent company was
based in France, he and his team were
representing Thales’ British operations.
The director countered that he just wanted
everyone on the review panel to know
for sure Thales was a French company
before they deliberated. “He then stood up
and walked out of the room, leaving the
panel, and us, dumbstruck. It was one of
the most unprofessional displays I’d ever
seen,” Winkel remembers with a tone of
astonishment lingering in his voice.
After that episode, Winkel received a timely
call from his former employer (recently
acquired by L3 Technologies) asking him
to come back as vice president of business
development for the electro-optics division.
“I decided to leave Thales, because I
realized it was going to be extremely difficult
to put an operation for them together when
the U.S. government had significant bias
against the French,” Winkel says.
COMEBACK
The returning VP soon snatched career
victory from recent defeat in a way that would
have made the Marquis de Lafayette smile.
Undaunted, Winkel struck up a conversation
with Mike Atwood and his company, ASU.
Winkel had known Atwood for years, going
back to their days when they served on the
RCTA committee. The problem was that for
most of those years, Atwood represented
competing products to those Winkel sold.
That changed when Atwood decided to
make the move to Winkel and L3’s night
vision line. It became a lucrative move.
Shortly after making the switch, ASU won
a $43 million NVG order, which became the
largest sale in ASU history.
“I came to admire what ASU was doing,”
Winkel says. “Mike was one of those
legendary guys. He and I had similar ideas
back in the mid ‘90s, but he was the guy
that made those ideas successful.”
BOISE BOUND
The admiration was returned. In 2013, Mike
and Chris Atwood began a conversation
with Winkel about his coming onboard
when Mike eventually exited his company.
“I never had any intention of moving our
family from Texas, but decided to join
Things have a way of working out, or maybe
Providence wills it for faithful Presbyterians,
but Winkel has been working for ASU for
approximately five years, now serving as
the company’s president. Not only has the
night vision business prospered, but Winkel
and his wife were able to serve and revitalize
missionary efforts in their new Boise church
home. “It’s been a real blessing to see the
passion that people have for missions in our
church here. It’s phenomenal,” says a man
at peace with the decisions he made.
RECIPE FOR
SUCCESS
Winkel has been rewarded with a diverse
career; he navigated through international
corporate skies, and storms, to land at a
relatively cozy, family business in Idaho.
How did a self-described “dumb Army
pilot” have such a successful career in
so many environments? Winkel answers,
“I think there are a few ingredients. One
is having a real understanding of how
the technology works and how it will be
employed operationally. It’s one thing
to have an idea for a cool widget; it’s
another thing to understand how it’s going
to be used. In aviation operations, there
are many considerations: operational
performance, safety, regulatory issues,
and cost issues are examples. It’s a real
dynamic environment.”
Leadership experience is another
ingredient in a successful business recipe.
“The military gave me an opportunity
to lead people. Leading people is very
different in the civilian world. In the military,
everyone has a shared experience. You
have very consistent, clear-cut chains of
command. That’s not always present in
civilian environments. We have a lot of
people with military backgrounds here at
ASU, but our company culture is currently
changing. I’m tending to be more hands-off
and delegating to our vice presidents. I
try to set the vision and let them execute.
When I served in the past at lower levels,
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I had teams and more directly planned
the execution. Now, as president, I have
people below me who plan very well for
their teams. I set the overall vision for
the company and look at those things
outside the specific scope of VPs, such
as regulatory issues and new product
development. Being the ultimate leader, as
Mike and Chris have only recently moved
into far less active roles in the company,
is something new for me. I’m still growing
and learning,” he says.
FAMILY FIRST
One life lesson Winkel has learned is that
his role as a father is now a greater priority
than it was in the past. “I’ve made some
changes since moving to Boise. I take time
to get outdoors and enjoy God’s creation
with my family,” he says. “I’m taking time
to enjoy my teens still at home, more than
I did with our older children. With them, I
got busy with the military, business, and
life in general and didn’t spend the time
with them like I’m now doing with our
younger children. I’m now trying to be an
encourager to these young kids both as
a father and a friend too, which has really
been a really neat experience.”
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GLOBAL PUSH
Make no mistake; Winkel is not
transforming into a laidback stay-at-home,
snowboarding dad. There are challenges
facing ASU and the president is planning
for his people to overcome them. “The
North American market has slowed down;
we’ve reached a saturation point,” he
explains. “So, we’re making a global push
to introduce game changing, really cool
night vision technology into Europe, Asia,
and Africa. The challenge with reaching
farther abroad is that your logistics lines
stretch further. Sending a team of installers
to Entebbe takes more planning than
sending them to Shreveport.”
Winkel retains his zeal for missions from
the ‘80s, which is when he first flew with
NVGs. Back then he hated the full-face,
uncomfortable apparatus that provided
only marginally better visibility. He
eschewed the technology, until his Florida
National Guard unit became an NVG
fighting force. Then he found night vision
technology vastly improved and much
more comfortable and functional. “You
could look down to the ground and clearly
see six shadows in perfect formation and
I’d think Wow, how many people in history
have ever experienced night vision like
this!
“I went from absolutely hating the
technology to loving it. It’s a neat thing; not
only does it save lives, but it’s cool. I’ve got
a real passion for it.”
With passion for his family,
church, and night vision,
Winkel is a man on a mission.
CONTACT: TBHELICOPTERSSAOL.COM OR 417.293.7323
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