The committee leading the search for the next director of the Baton Rouge Metro Airport is conducting interviews today with five candidates vying for the position.
The group of candidates, which includes four out-of-state applicants and one local, were scheduled to begin meeting at 8 a.m. for one-hour interviews with the seven-member search committee. The interviews, which will last through mid-afternoon, are being held in the Metro Council chambers at City Hall.
On Sunday, the candidates toured the airport and parts of the city with representatives from the Baton Rouge Area Chamber and the Baton Rouge North Economic Development District.
“I think we have some good candidates and I really look forward to hearing from them,” says Metro Councilwoman Barbara Freiberg, who pushed to conduct the national search for a new airport director. “Even though most of them are coming from out of town, the majority have some kind of connection to Louisiana, so I think they all are concerned with the airport and the difference it can make for the community.”
The candidates include:
- David “Austin” Futch, who works for the aeronautical firm Cleared Direct and previously held management positions with the aviation wing of the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey and with the Shreveport Airport Authority.
- Don Green, director of transportation services for the city of Abilene, Texas and previous director of the Gulfport-Biloxi, Mississippi airport.
- Derek Martin, who is currently not employed but was vice president of operations and maintenance at the Wayne County Airport Authority in Michigan from 2016-2017. He was also employed for several years with the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey.
- Jason Wilson, who became commercial business director for the Mobile Airport Authority in June, after several years at the Miami International Airport. He previously worked in commercial business development at the Baton Rouge airport.
- Mike Edwards, who serves as the current interim director at Baton Rouge airport, where he has been employed since 2014. He previously worked at Louis Armstrong International Airport in New Orleans and at a regional airport in New Haven, Connecticut.
Following today’s interviews, the search committee is expected to narrow the list to three finalists. The Metro Council will choose the next director from among them.
The search for a new airport director became a contentious issue in late 2017. The split was among those who wanted to bring in an outsider to run the airport and those who wanted to appoint then-interim director Ralph Hennessy to the job permanently.
Hennessy was a veteran executive at the airport, who served under longtime director Anthony Marino until Marino’s retirement in January 2017. In May, he left the airport to work for a national consulting firm.
