Bedford Minuteman
Thursday, June 6, 2002

New Massport chief shares thoughts

By BARBARA FORESTER
CORRESPONDENT

On Friday, May 31, less than two months after taking over the top job at Massport, Craig Coy stopped in at the Civil Air Terminal at Hanscom Air Field.

The 52-year-old executive director and CEO, who joined Massport in mid-April, was most recently chief executive officer and president of HR Logic, the largest U.S. private professional employer organization. Headquartered in Waltham, HR provides human resource programs for 3,000 companies across the country.

Before that, Coy was vice president/general manager for Lear Siegler Services, Inc. and chief operating officer for U.S. Coast Guard Activities in Europe. The Harvard Business School and U.S. Coast Guard Academy graduate also served as deputy director for counter-terrorism on the White House National Security Council and as special assistant in the Office of Policy Development.

Coy took a few minutes to discuss the links among Hanscom, the four surrounding communities, and Massport.

Q: What is Hanscom’s role within the current air system Massport controls?

A: I don't have a fully crystallized position yet. But certainly Hanscom is an asset and plays an important role within an efficient, safe, user friendly, and community-sensitive transportation system. I'm out to continue to find ways to keep it a good asset.

Hanscom is great for general aviation and for corporate users. In my previous business I used it a lot; I was a frequent flier on Shuttle America. Hanscom is convenient to fly in and out of. Still it serves that
(commercial) market in a very limited way.

There are rules here and I'm not coming in to change the rules of the game. The market at some point will also help dictate Hanscom's future.

Q: What role do the communities have in Massport’s vision for Hanscom?

A: The communities have an important role but not a primary one -- advisory, sources of information, etc. They are one of many resources that we have. And we have any number of vehicles by which to reach out to the communities.

Q: Can Massport and the communities work together?

A: As far as I'm concerned, I'm declaring peace. I'm not declaring victory or defeat. We should be able to work together in good faith and resolve our differences before they harden into conflict.

I plan to be firm, fair, flexible, but not limp. I¹ve told my staff we have to listen; I don't come in with a pre-conceived agenda.

Q: How does approach translate into action?

A: I believe in managing inside the box. We have to concentrate on four areas. One is security; another is safety. There's also performance -- a combination of operating performance and financial performance so that at the end of the day we do what we say we will do.

There is also citizenship which includes being accountable to the communities we support.

Q: Where will Hanscom be, five or ten years from now?

A: If you look back 10 years, you can see what has happened to this region. I don¹t know of any reason to stop that impetus for growth.

Predictions are that 37 million passengers will come through New England. Now most of them will go to Logan, but we have to try to build public policy to accommodate that.

Terms & Conditions | Privacy Policy
© Copyright 1995-2001 - Town Online - All Rights Reserved ==========
**NOTICE: In accordance with 17 U.S.C. Section 107, this material is distributed without profit to those who have expressed a prior interest in receiving the included information for research and educational purposes.** ==========