Q&A with South Bend International Airport CEO Mike Daigle
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Mike Daigle, CEO of South Bend International Airport, has lived in Seattle, Alabama, Virginia, Louisiana, New York, Colorado, Germany, Panama and even Somalia, thanks to his career in the military.
Born in the New Brunswick province of eastern Canada, Daigle grew up on a small family farm in Maine. He began his military career as an airplane mechanic before a suggestion from one of his bosses changed his career trajectory: flight school. When the military decided to send him to Korea, Daigle decided to retire to take care of extended family members in the U.S. This decision led him to a career in airport management.
Daigle spoke to Inside INdiana Business about his journey in the aviation industry, his time in the military and one of the causes dear to his heart. This article has been edited for clarity and brevity.
As a veteran, what has your mental health journey looked like?
We all have different experiences, and while none of them are stress free, we all have different ways of dealing with all of that. I have a tremendous support system. My mentors through the military were tremendous, helped me manage and deal with certain things very well. I have great pride in everyone who has served and who is serving today. They are amazing men and women who are continuing to give of themselves. I may have retired from the military, but it’s still deep in my heart.
What part of your experience did you leverage to go into your first airport management position?
So my last [military] job at Fort Carson, Colorado, I was the airfield commander. I had a team of people who were running operations, public safety, fire, medical and all of the things that are required to run an airport. When it was time to get out, I thought about going to work for the airlines and flying for a living. Then a side conversation with a third party said, “You should consider airport management,” and I didn’t know exactly what all that entailed in the civilian world. So I started my research and was working to get things done, and the opportunity came up and we moved to Lacrosse, Wisconsin as my first civilian airport management job. Like everywhere else you have to learn, and you have to work, and you have to see what your team brings to the table and keep pushing forward.
Why aviation, why flying, why planes?
I grew up on a small family farm in northern Maine, and I thought that was what I was going to do for a living but that didn’t materialize. So I went into the military to get the GI Bill so I could go to college. As I went through the process of doing all the requisite testing to ascertain my skills, aviation maintenance was one of those things that popped up at the top of the list as an option for me. I’ve been in the aviation world now, gosh, over 40 plus years in different jobs and facets. The one thing we say in our industry is there’s no two days alike.
What defining moments in your life have shaped your approach to leadership and your management style?
The mentors that I remember to this day are the ones who looked at people holistically. Understanding that, yes, they have a job, but they have a family and they have all these other obligations. So at the end of the day, I look at those leaders and mentors that were in my life and the very positives that they provided.
Now some of them I had were not very good leaders and were not people that I would like to emulate, and I learned from them too. So all of us have to learn from the great people in our lives and the people who aren’t necessarily as great. That doesn’t mean they’re bad people. But you have to look at that and say, “Does that fit with what I want to do? And how I want to be known and respected and how I can move forward through my professional career?”
Drawing from that experience, how are you now making sure the people that work with you also have good mentorship?
I’d like to tell you it’s black and white and it’s easy, but I think from the beginning, we have to understand that every single person is different. Every single person brings to the table different attributes, different skill sets, different strengths and different weaknesses. One of the things that I do, especially with my senior leadership team, I want them to take a look at the problems and the issues in front of us and the possible solutions that we can implement from their point of view. In other words, this is not a dictatorship.
What I have known for years and years is that as a group, if we take a look at what a solution can be, and we have people with different skill sets, different experiences and viewpoints, and they say, “If we take that solution and we tweak it like this,” it’s better received. It’s better implemented. It may cost us less money. The implementation will be easier. Part of my leadership is to make sure that people contribute with the skills and talents they have and that we listen to them and say that works.
Occasionally, what happens is somebody makes a suggestion, but there might be a regulation or a law that prohibits us from doing what they think is the right thing to do. So we go back and communicate why we cannot implement their suggestion. That way they can learn from that and it’s respect in both directions.
What’s the biggest challenge you’ve had to face looking back on your career?
In my civilian career, the two challenges that were probably the most difficult were 9/11 when the airplanes flew into the towers in New York City, and what that did to the industry and how we had to adjust from there. And then the other one is COVID. During COVID, we still had to operate as an airport. We couldn’t shut down. We had to work. We still had to be available, and we run 24/7, 365 days a year. The biggest challenge was implementing the solutions that made sense. The airport authority here has four different departments and one solution does not fit all.
So the leadership team sat down in a room for about half a day, and started looking at all of the options. How do we cover shifts at two o’clock in the morning? How do we make sure that at noon, we have the staffing place to do what’s required? Snow removal, how do we do that? How do we make sure that people are kept safe? All of these things and do it within all the rules and guidance that came from the federal government and the state government. I think we came through really well. There was a fiscal component because obviously, people weren’t traveling for a while and so we weren’t getting the revenue to pay the bills. We had to tighten our belt in many areas to make sure that we were being fiscally responsible also.
What are some of the most rewarding moments from your time at the airport?
Oh my gosh! To me, the most rewarding thing is when I see somebody succeed, when I see a member of the team who succeeds in their career, in their personal life. If we or I contributed to that in any shape, manner, or form, maybe it’s less than 1% of the 100% the person did, I think that’s amazing. We promote education, we promote people pursuing professional accreditations because that success by them also benefits the organization and helps us grow and be better stewards of the facility, but also helps us serve our community better.
Our mission statement is pretty easy to serve the traveling public and community. And so how do we do that? And whether we’re serving the aviation passengers, the train passengers, the people using taxi cabs out front, all of those things, that’s all part of the traveling public, and how do we serve them and the community to be an asset where we live.
How do you stay involved with the community outside of the airport?
One of the programs that serve the community that we started in 1997 is called “Bears in the Air” in Lacrosse, Wisconsin. When we started this program, it was about giving back to the community and how we could use the airport to do that. The idea originated from my wife, son and I. Bears in the Air is a program that contributes brand new teddy bears to kids in local area hospitals during the holiday season.
Because of the generosity of so many people in our community, we’ve given away tens of thousands of teddy bears to kids over the years, and lots and lots and lots of cash. We also donate to the Robert L Miller Senior Veterans Center in South Bend so they can help veterans get back on their feet and become contributing members of our society and our community. It’s a program that’s near and dear to our hearts. The airport team contributes their time and their talent to help us kick this off and provide to the community. It’s nice to see that people see a value in helping their neighbors and helping their friends.
When we first started, it was primarily by my family and held at the airport. It’s just continued to grow and grow. The letters we’ve received over the years from moms, dads, doctors and nurses about what that small contribution of a teddy bear to a child who’s not having a good time and was in the hospital over the holiday seasons, knowing that somebody cares enough about them to do something to help their day.
Drawing from your decades of work experience, what’s one piece of career advice you’d give to early-career professionals?
One of the things I’ve learned in my 40-plus years in the working environment is that opportunities will come to you, and you may not see them as an opportunity or something that you should do. Your mentors and your supervisors, they see people who don’t say no. They see people who say, “I don’t know how to do that but because it benefits the organization and the team, I’ll go learn how to do that.” So if I had a suggestion or advice, it is that we never know where our career or future will take us. When an opportunity gets provided to you, instead of just saying, “No, that’s not what I do. That’s not who I am,” take some time, think about it, learn about it and then if there’s a way to say yes, jump forward with both feet.
If you work hard, things will go forward. Not everything is always positive. Sometimes you have a bad day. Sometimes things don’t work out, well. Keep putting one foot forward and keep moving forward. A lot of people believe I’m a very positive individual, and I am. I see the good in people. I see the progress and the future is rosy. It’s not perfect. It’s not always easy, but somebody told me that long ago that nothing worth doing is easy.
What does your work-life balance look like at this stage of your career?
I’ve been blessed with my family and everything so that I can do things when I need to. When my family needs me, I can be there. When my work needs me, whether it’s 10 o’clock at night or Sunday afternoon I can be there. Work-life balance is not always easy to do. This is not an 8-5 job. We’ve got a tremendous team of people who do so much but sometimes they need resources. Sometimes they need somebody to speak with or some guidance and so the leadership needs to be available, not just me. So work-life balance is something that’s always changing and evolving. And as an employer, we also need to understand that for our team members too.
Any final thoughts?
We’ve been here in the South Bend community for over 12 years. This is the longest my wife and I have ever lived anywhere in our 40 plus years together. Our community is amazing in many, many ways but it’s not perfect. There are things we need to do better in our community, not just the airport, but where we live. And again, this goes back to giving your time and talent in the community to make things better. We have many strengths in our region, economically and otherwise, let’s put those to good use and let’s work on the areas that we need to work on. So that we can have good lives for all of the people who live in our community.