 After a 12-year career at Kelley Air Force Base, Dan joined Standard Arrow in 1999 and has helped position its engineering services, business development, and government relations. Dan is also a member of the University of Texas at San Antonio Engineering Advisory Council. He has worked tirelessly this year to raise the profile of the aerospace industry in this community and we're indebted to him. Please join me in welcoming Dan Gonzales to the podium. He will act as our moderator for this afternoon's program. Thank you, Richard. Good afternoon. I'd like to, on behalf of the San Antonio Chamber of Commerce and the Aerospace Committee, welcome you to today's luncheon. This is the second in a series of three luncheons that we have scheduled for this year, all with the intent of raising the awareness and the profile of the aerospace industry in San Antonio. I think we all know that there's tremendous opportunity for growth in this industry in San Antonio, and like with any industry, there's also challenges that need to be overcome to enable that growth. Just in July, we heard from Mr. Brian Cole from Aviation Week and from Mr. Jim Parshpaugh, our resident expert in aviation, who works at Port San Antonio. And at that time, at our first luncheon, Brian Cole described an industry that was growing and growing through new orders of aircraft, new orders of engines through the year 2030. At least that was the lens that they were looking through at that time. So we know opportunity for growth exists, and what we are attempting to do this year is to provide some synergy so that we can begin some actions to invest in the San Antonio Aerospace and Aviation community. We hope that you leave here today with an understanding of where our industry is headed, as well as what actions can the local community take to enable that growth. Historically, the aviation and aerospace market in San Antonio has been defined by the design of business aircraft, by the maintenance repair and overhaul of commercial aircraft and airframes, the maintenance repair and overhaul of engines and accessories and avionics, and the VIP upgrade of commercial aircraft. With us today is a group of people who lead companies in this industry locally and globally, and they're going to help us understand how the local market is reacting to the potential growth in the industry. So I'm going to take some time to introduce our panel members, and I'd like to start with Mr. Brian Scott. Brian Scott is the San Antonio Site Leader for the Boeing Global Services and Support. Brian, thanks for being here. Brian is responsible for the day-to-day leadership of the site operations, including all production operation responsibilities such as staffing, qualification, and certification of the workforce for both commercial and military business. During his career with Boeing, he has assignments of increased responsibility leading multi-discipline teams in quality, manufacturing, and supplier quality. Prior to his arrival in San Antonio, Brian was the Director of the Boeing Military Aircraft Program at the St. Louis Site. This included oversight of processes, policies, and best practices, and interface with external suppliers, domestic and foreign military customers to define, evaluate, and communicate requirements and priorities through all phases in the product or service life cycle. So Brian brings a lot of experience with us. Thank you, Brian. We also have with us Mr. Rick Stein, who is the President of the Military and Components sector for Standard Arrow. Rick is responsible for leading the achievements of the sector's performance objectives, customer satisfaction, and business development activities. Prior to joining Standard Arrow, Rick served as the Senior Vice President of Technical Operations for the Heiko Corporation, where he was responsible for technical operations of the aerospace companies within Heiko Aerospace. Rick previously worked at General Electric Aircraft Engines, where he served as team leader and design engineer on the Advanced Tactical Fighter Demonstrator Program. Rick, thank you for being here today. Rick is also my boss, so let's give him a big round of applause. Also with us is Mr. Ron Soret, Vice President and General Manager of Completions for Area Luxury Interiors, Interiors, a division of VT Aerospace. Ron is responsible for the operations, marketing, and sales, and overall strategy for area luxury interiors. Ron has over 30 years of experience in the aviation maintenance and VIP interior completion business. He has held leadership roles at D. Howard Company as a Director of Quality Control. He has been at Associated Air Center as a Vice President of Operations, and he was the COO of core design completions, as well as he was the President of King Aerospace Commercial Corporation. So help me welcome Ron. Thank you for being here. You know, I'm very happy to have this panel assembled today because I think they represent a broad spectrum of the skill sets that are resident within San Antonio that you may not otherwise hear about unless we have this forum to speak to. For this forum, we do have a panel format. It's a question-and-answer format, so I have a series of questions that I will pose to the panel. Each panel member will have an opportunity to respond to those questions. This is not intended to be a Republican debate, full-contact MMA-style question-and-answer session. They're going to say no then. They know. So we will be collegial, and we're going to begin by asking each of the representatives here to describe for a couple of minutes the local operations. So would you mind starting us off, Brian? Sure. The Boeing San Antonio site has a long history. The Kelly site, we're really proud of the aerospace history there. So San Antonio has a jewel coming from St. Louis. I've really learned a lot about that history. And going all the way back to P-51s, they were Boeing aircraft. We got a picture from Mr. Perchbach of Boeing P-51s filling up that space. So we're very proud to be located there. We have an excellent workforce, highly skilled workforce. We have a unique skill set of commercial and defense, overall and repair, extensive capabilities supporting that operation. So anywhere from C-17, the 787 commercial aircraft of B-52 and exec fleet aircraft, we excel. So very proud to be fortunate enough to lead that team and be in this community who partner with us greatly and help us be more competitive in that space. Great. Thank you, Brian. Rick? I'm with Standard Arrow, and our facility obviously is in the port of San Antonio. I've only been with this site for a little bit over two years. However, they have a long history of T-56 engine MRO. I would say, what, 20 years somewhere in that? Probably the original private public partnership where they converted from the Air Force overhauling the T-56 into a public company. And we've done that very well. And we have a great workforce here, and we do about 60% of all the T-56 in the world get overhauled through our San Antonio shop. And the workforce there has years of experience and just an excellent facility and work ethic. Thank you. Thank you, Rick. Good afternoon. As Danny said, I'm the Vice President and General Manager of Area Luxury Interiors, and we're continuing the tradition of doing VIP interior completions here in San Antonio. We are the VIP interior completions division of BT San Antonio Aerospace, and we occupy one of the big orange hangers at the San Antonio International Airport. And our primary line of business is we design, build, and install custom interiors in airplanes, heads of states, Fortune 500 companies, high net worth individuals, and it's a business that's been here in San Antonio for quite a long time. I'd like to say that I'm very happy to be here this afternoon. I've spent a good portion of my career in aviation here in San Antonio as a graduate of Hallmark Institute and then spending 10 years with the D. Howard Company. So thank you for having me this afternoon. Great. Thank you, Ron. And gentlemen, thank you again for being here. After this set of questions and answers, I will open up the questions for the audience. So as we go through these questions, please be thinking about questions to ask the panel once we're through these. All right, Rick, I'm going to ask you to answer the first question, if you don't mind. And here we go. During the first aerospace luncheon in July, Brian Cove from Aviation Week discussed global market trends that indicated the aerospace market continues to grow globally. Commercial aircraft and engine orders are at historic highs and the sustainment market seems very healthy. Question. Each of your companies competes in a global MRO and service market. What are the key differentiators you promote that allow you to compete globally? So when I first came to Standard Arrow four years ago, one of the things that struck me about the company was what they call operational excellence. Other people call it lean, six sigma, whatever the buzzword is, but in Standard Arrow it's called operational excellence. And one of the things that struck me was the enthusiasm and the effort and the work that they do around the operational expertise in managing a business or a system. And they do an excellent job. And that allows us, I think, to give our customers the greatest value possible when we do work for them. Relative to the local facility here, one of the things is their expertise in engine MRO, right? It's not a simple thing to bring an engine in, tear it down, totally overhaul and put it back together. But they do such a good job at it. When they put it back together, we generally have power that's 105% of what it normally might be prior to the shipping of the engine to the facility. So from an engineering standpoint, we do a very good job. We understand the dynamics of doing MRO so we can manage that process very well for our customers. The engineering expertise about reliability and maintainability, we've built models for the Air Force and some of our other customers as far as how to manage our engines, their engines actually, and get the boast bang for their buck when it comes to engine MRO. With that, we focus on our customers. What do they need? We're very adaptable, right? So we don't have two or three systems that we figure out how do they fit everybody else. But when that customer comes to us, we try to put together a package that meets their needs and their requirements. And a lot of time, there's a lot of discussion that's required. Because a lot of times our customers come to us, they don't exactly know everything they want. They say, hey, we need engine MRO. Well, okay, that's a pretty broad statement. So when we start talking about what they really need, we're very agile, we're ability to adapt to their requirements, you know, to their requirements, and then put together a unique package that satisfies them. And so when we go to the marketplace, I think we're very competitive when it comes to that. You know, on our biggest challenges as we go forward, really, for us locally, near term is more about the US government wanting to in source things and wanting to do more and more of their own work. And, you know, in some instances, that may make sense, but not in every instance. And you have a, you have specifically here, you have a workforce that's been doing T56 engine overalls for over 20 years. It's hard to fathom that there's more expertise somewhere else that can do that. So we need to understand how do we manage that in sourcing, whether it be the T56 or any other program that they may be thinking about. When we talk about long term, you know, it's about, you know, making sure that we have the right talents and to, you know, diversify the workforce. Right now, we're 100% military. So what are the things we can do to kind of diversify around, you know, away from the military side, so we're not as dependent. And those are challenges, you know, as you've heard in the past. But, but I think, you know, there's, there's opportunities there. And then we need to be positioned to be able to diversify as we move forward. And we got a lot of emphasis on that today. You know, within the, within the business structure that we're doing. Thank you, right. Let me pose the same question to Ron. Each of your companies competes in a global immoral service market. What are your key differentiators you're from? Well, in the VIP interior completion business, there's only about a dozen companies in the world that do this type of business. And we like to market ourselves as doing interiors at the, at the birthplace of VIP interiors. This type of work has been going on in San Antonio since the 1970s at the D Howard Company. And, you know, the thought of having one of these businesses right here in San Antonio is, you know, a really good thing for the, for the local aviation industry, there's a, there's a very skilled workforce here in San Antonio that can do this type of work. A lot of the specialty vendors that supply the entire industry are located here in San Antonio. We've got custom cabinet makers, window shade makers, composite shops, custom upholstery shops. And these are, these are companies, as I say, that service the entire VIP interior completion industry. I think also having the, the military here, ex military personnel that go into the commercial sector, we've got a skilled, readily available workforce. There's a lot of skilled workers that know how to do this type of work. We've got the Alamo academies and places like Hallmark. So there's, you know, up and coming technicians and people in the pipeline, you know, to come into this industry. So I think, you know, those are some of the key differentiators and things that we use to market ourselves to perspective customers. Very good. Just a side question. Do you feel that the, you feel that resonates with, with your customers that this is the birthplace? Very much so. Very much so. It's, it's, it's not, it's not disputed at all. It's good. That's good to hear. Great. Thank you. And Brian, second question. So first of all, when I separated from the military, these guys wouldn't give me a job at the birthplace. Okay, so we have a unique combination of physical space, capabilities, commercial and defense capabilities, major heavy maintenance, as well as sophisticated avionics test flight, high performing workforce. I'm proud to say we're 40% veterans. So as stated earlier, we got an incredible workforce and the more challenging things that customers ask us to do, the more we realize how talented that workforce is. We enjoy a great relationship with the port. Some of that business engagement has allowed us to compete for things. Currently, we probably have 50 aggressive pursuits going on right now that we couldn't compete for two or three years ago. So as you know, as all of us have very talented folks, this is a rich aerospace experience corridor. But the business environment is also supported. So I think that's our competitive advantage. Very good. Thank you. Was that 15 or 50 initiatives? 50. Oh, wow. 50. Really good. I'm writing that one down. And that, you know, in this environment, that's what it takes. That's great. Second question. There's an interesting trend that deserves particular attention. While aircraft maintenance of statement and upgrade work is strong, there's a clear trend towards less heavy maintenance as more sophisticated platforms come online. This drives the need for skilled workforce that is leading edge and globally competitive. Question. What are some of the short term, mid term and long term workforce opportunities and challenges that you see? And Ron, if you wouldn't mind taking that. Sure. Well, in our, in our business, we think that the we discussed this all the time. As a matter of fact, the short term and mid term workforce and resources here in San Antonio look pretty good. But one of the things that that worries me a bit is I look around at the the workforce that does the interior completion business. And I see a lot of gray hair and a lot of guys that, you know, have been in this business for a long time. And I don't see, you know, the the quantity of people getting into this type of business and coming up through the ranks that are going to replace all these guys. So that's a that's a concern that we have. And, you know, we're, we've talked about ways to try and plug some of the holes that we know are going to be coming up. But, you know, it's, it's, it's a reality for us. And, you know, something that's going to need to be addressed. Brian? Well, I think it's, it's a compilation of strategies and tactics starting with the education. And I know this area is doing a lot to transition education to focus on it. The future needs, I'm actually part of SA Tech Initiative, chartered by Judge Wolfe and Mayor Taylor, working with Alamo Colleges to shape that future workforce. It's got to be very agile. I mean, Cybers, an area that's this, this, this challenging for all of us. And then the sickly nature of the business, how do you retain? So we talked about balance. But we can't just depend on our internal trainings and OJT approaches of the past. The troubleshooting, the technical aspects are much more sophisticated than when I was an airman and a crew chief myself. So it warrants a total different skill set. And it's really upon us right now. So I think the educational aspect and making sure that's where we had to get us there sooner. Thank you, Brian. Rick? Yes, I think short term, really, that the challenge, you know, for us locally and standard arrow has just been balancing the workload and the workforce that we have and making sure that we're making the best use of everybody that you know, we have on the team. I got to agree with some of the comments, you know, previously made as far as, you know, an aging workforce. I think standard arrow is seeing the same thing. And the challenge then is how do we get the young people to get excited about technical degrees and not specifically talking about engineering degrees either. I mean, as we want to try to diversify products and we want to bring in newer technologies, then you're going to have you're going to have people that have to deal in different, you know, different aspects of the job. Today we have people that can turn wrenches and, you know, bang sheet metal. But, you know, in the future, you're going to need people to know how to compare how to repair composites, right? That's a whole different animal than the things that we're doing today. And if we're going to bring those types of, you know, products in here to become a more diverse work, you know, aerospace workforce, we're going to need to develop those expertise, right? And so they're, to me, I call them technical expertise, but maybe not engineering degrees, but people who, you know, want to work with their hands, want to take on challenging jobs, be involved in aerospace, be involved with making sure that airplane or engine flies appropriately and is repaired appropriately. And I don't know how we get them engaged because it is a challenging, you know, role, but I think that's the thing that we need to step up to as a community. And I've taken away the, the grading workforce, obviously, is an issue. And I think there's a lot of folks that come with that background, either from the former Air Force bases that were here locally. There is a large pool of talent there, but as you said, they are in the process of working the way through retirement. And then having the diversity for the newer technologies that are evolving, whether it's composites or whether it's new engines or whether it's new airframes. And then, Brian, you mentioned the cyber aspect of it all. You know, a lot of people don't associate the cyber community with the requirements within aircraft. And I think that's a growing area. So I appreciate those comments. Third question, and looking at my watch, I'm going to ask one more set of questions, and I think we'll open it up for audience questions. So be prepared. Third, San Antonio has long been has a long and storied relationship with aerospace and the aviation industry. San Antonio is known to have a great pool of skill talent, but more may be needed to compete globally, particularly as so many industries look to shorten supply chains and consolidate and work centers. Question, what can San Antonio do in the near term to assist aerospace companies retain and expand aerospace work? Brian, I'm going to ask you to start that one off. So I think we have to think about it as not just an activity of getting the local presence or growing in local presence, but more as an entree into the global aerospace environment. And that that yields a different strategy. You know, as we said that we talked about the educational piece, but the the legislative process, the tax process. You look at some of the recent placements of a significant work scope in places like Alabama, you know, that community brought forth 150 plus million dollars to incentivize those long, steady state, high tech jobs that we need here in this area. So it's really, you know, a real village. It takes it takes all of us legislators, voters, community educators to usher us into where our space is going. And it's a real race. It's not just a capability challenge anymore. The geographical challenge is just as competitive. And speaking of legislative brand. What's the impact of the XM Bank? And if that does not get supported, what's the potential impact for going? Yeah, I think just in Texas, I believe there were over a million jobs supported by XM, whichever whichever side of the political pendulum you're on. I don't think we can debate that it return over a billion dollars to the Treasury. Not many of our tax investments can can can tout that. And you know, a lot of medium and small companies are benefactors to the to the tune of millions of that of that process. So I think, you know, my common sense side says it's a good thing. Understand. Great. Thank you, Brian. Rick saying question. What can San Antonio do in the near term to assist aerospace companies retain and expand aerospace work? Yes, I just like to add a little bit to what Brian was saying. You know, there is a lot of competition out there. We face it every day as an industry. I think, you know, the cities and the ports face it or the states face it when they try to bring business into their, you know, into their their area of the country that they want to, you know, bring businesses. And so there's a challenge there. And, you know, when I talk to the OEMs around the world about, hey, how can we how can Standard Arrow help you? They always talk about reducing risk. Like what what can we do to reduce risk? And so I think we need to be start to need to think about it in that manner is what can we do to reduce the risk of bringing business here? Sometimes it might be taxes. Sometimes it might be other benefits as far as reducing the risk of bringing a business here. We're bringing some technology here that in the long run is going to be very advantageous. And so, you know, when we think about the competition, you know, it's more than just going out and winning, you know, a contract from somebody. But then it's, okay, how do I bring that contract into the local environment? You know, what is it? You know, what is it that's going to reduce my risk? And I'll give an example where I live in Cincinnati in Ohio, they lost a bid to GE to put the world headquarters of GE in Cincinnati. And the CEO is from Cincinnati. And the reason is because other states, other municipalities are giving them better deals than the state of Ohio is. Now, you know, whether there's other, you know, you hear a lot of political reasons why. But frankly, I think at GE, and I used to work there, it's all about money. And as long as they feel they're getting the best deal to reduce their risk to move their corporate offices, that's where they're going to move them. And so, you know, I think the way to talk about it is how do we reduce businesses risk to move to San Antonio? What is it that we can do to be able to do that? And if we can come up with an economical solution where they feel or we feel like the risk is reduced and there's a benefit long term, we have to make those moves. Just a comment on XM Day and that our global competitors have these kind of benefits. Exactly. So we're really making it hard on us locally. Thank you. Thanks Rick. Ron? Well, I think the city of San Antonio, anything that can be done to encourage, promote, and incentivize aviation from encouraging special training classes to support the aviation industry, to creating a friendly environment for businesses to relocate to San Antonio or grow their business, I think are things that, you know, have to be done in order to sustain our aviation industry here in San Antonio. BT San Antonio Aerospace is making a significant investment in their future here. There's plans to add another, another hanger to the, to support the MRO activities and for our VIP completions business. We're just getting ready to start construction on a 14,000 square foot shop addition along with a 7,000 square foot interior design, sales, and marketing building. So we're going to be increasing our workforce pretty significantly in the next 12 to 18 months. So I think, you know, whatever can be done to, to cause people to want to relocate here, grow their business here, I think those are things that we need to be looking at, you know, the, the reference to what's going on in, in Alabama over the last several years is just phenomenal, what they've been able to do, and there's no reason it can't happen here. We've got a great facility in the Port San Antonio, a lot of room to grow, a lot of infrastructure, and I think, you know, it's up to us to figure out how to get people to come here. Thank you, Ron. And is there a, you mentioned the expansions, 14,000 square feet, 7,000 square feet, is there an associated number of jobs that are anticipated? Once, once we bring all of this online, we'll, we'll probably double our existing workforce in the VIP interior completions. Very nice. I'm writing that one down too. Very good. Thank you for those comments. Again, I think we want to save some time for audience question and answer. So, if there's any questions that you may have in the audience, please raise your hand. These gentlemen are ready to answer anything you may have. Yes, Richard. So, one of the things that I'm always curious about is, and it's a challenge, bringing quality people here. And we're trying to grow folks, Ryan, Robert, Bob, and I say the type of thing, making sure that our young people have opportunities and understand that, you know, they can go to fields that are very rewarding. But the challenge that I hear a lot is getting folks to move to San Antonio. You know, I grew up here, I've lived in other places as well, but I came here by choice, not because I had to, because I love the lifestyle and to get the raise of family. What are some of the challenges to telling that story to people so they can fund them? To me, it seems to be a very easy story, but clearly it's not, because we're competing against cities all over the world. So what are your thoughts on what can we be doing as a community to tell that story to more of a pathway to attract additional talent to our community? Well, I'll talk. I think that, having recently relocated here, I lived here almost 30 years ago. And I think that the nation, I mean, San Antonio is a very historic city in the history of the country, but I think a lot of folks have an equated perception, Richard, of what San Antonio is now, including myself, until I came back. The other things, I mean, we see going on close to us cities like Austin, Mass Transit, you know, other progressive things that, you know, newer, younger workforces expect. And I know there are a lot of activities going up, you know, to try to enhance that, but we got examples right there. So San Antonio has to catch up. Wrong? Rick? Yeah, the only thing I would add is I came back two years ago. I had been here maybe 20 years ago. So again, it's been a long gap between, and it's not what I imagined it was going to be when I was coming back here. And I enjoy coming to San Antonio. There's a lot to do. It's a great city. And, you know, again, I think you need to figure out what are the good aspects that would bring a younger workforce or a diversified workforce here, or whether it's, you know, if we want to attack a specific, you know, industry like aerospace, how do, what do those people want, right? What type of lifestyle do they want? And what can San Antonio offer from that lifestyle, right? And I'm not that young anymore, so I don't know. I go to bed a lot earlier these days, but so, but I do think, you know, when I think, you know, because I moved away from Cincinnati and moved back, you know, 15 years later, and that city has really evolved, and they evolved, interestingly enough, around food. And the place went from a very German-centric food to a multicultural today, where you can get any type of food and really good food, and it's the talk of everybody, like, where are you going to go eat, right? And so the young people come in there, and there's areas where they feel like they can go, you know, and whether it's dinner and food or meet with their friends, there are areas in the city that's evolved, and I think changed, you know, again, but I think, you know, Cincinnati has similar things that people, you know, interpret as being more old fashioned and everything, and my favorite quote, I'm saying, W.C. Fields for everybody who knows who he is. W.C. Fields once quoted that, when the world ends, I want to be in Cincinnati because they're 10 years behind everybody else. So, so, I mean, it can be done, those things can change, but you got to, I think you have to figure out what is that youth, what do they want to see in their lifestyle, and then figure out, and in Cincinnati, it's just small pockets of areas that I think are unique and bring people to the city that it wasn't there, you know, 15 years ago. From our standpoint, we've had a pretty positive experience in recruiting people to come to San Antonio. Everybody knows about the Riverwalk and Fiesta, Texas, and SeaWorld, and they know about the variety and restaurants and the San Antonio Zoo, and so it's, we treat it as a perk, and, you know, most people that we talk to are pretty excited about the prospect of coming here to San Antonio, so, you know, I think, you know, in the people that we've been talking to, it's been a, it's been a real positive attraction for them. Thank you, Ron. Thank you, gentlemen. Next question. Wayne. It is what I follow up on Richard's question, and Ron's sort of answer. In our experience with the data, well, in 1982, and in 1982, we had 250 people. In 1988, we had over 1,500 people, and all that growth, and growth at Earth War, was tied to innovations, new products, new technology, and when we came up with a new technology, we hired more people, we added more buildings, so my question is, you know, I'm not in the workforce today, and you've been there, but, and I'll ask the panel, is there a significant difference? And the other thing that I would say is that we, our experience was people were delighted to come to San Antonio, and our customers who were for a global love come to San Antonio. So, what is different today than what it was in the 1980s? My point is that it's technology, products, innovation that drives employment, and then if you have those now, you'll have the jobs, and you'll have to come. So is that different today, or is it, or is it now fully dominated by purpose from the government? No, I don't think it's different today, I think on a personal level, a lot of people you approach with an opportunity would love to come to San Antonio. I don't think it's different at all, especially for those technological jobs and advancements, high tech opportunities. I think if you talk about a significant percentage growth in the population in San Antonio, that's different than you growing your business a significant percentage. And that takes a different brand as a city level on a national stage. So it's solid two different problems. Now what you said makes sense at a company to company level, if we all do that, we'll get there eventually, but at what pace? So I don't think it's changed no, but I think what San Antonio's trying to do as a significant part is an additional strategy, an additive strategy. I would agree with Brian if we can offer the job and the advancement for people, they'll move here. I don't think there's any negative connotation when San Antonio, so I think if the jobs are here, you can get people to move here, it's just we need to bring in those types of jobs that are going to people are going to want and come to San Antonio. Wayne, I think your points about technology are pretty much spot on. We don't have the Ed Swarengins building new airplanes here in San Antonio and developing new products and we don't have the new technology that was being developed by the D Howard company. We're kind of at a plateau right now and we're not seeing that kind of new technology being developed here in San Antonio at the pace it was I think that's certainly going to have to be something to look at in the future and therefore our discussion about getting new businesses to locate to San Antonio and what can we do to get the people who are driving the industry and developing new products to consider an investment in San Antonio. Yes, sir. Thank you, Wayne. Gene Bowman with the Academy. I don't really have a question. I want to just tell you publicly, I want to thank all three of you for your aerospace mindset and innovating this and creating a program like the Alamo Academy's way back in 2001 and helping to create that pipeline. It's a unique model that you guys built that has become the best model in the nation for a work with a pipeline and it's exciting that not only did you build it but you put your money where your mouth is you walk the talk, you've had internships and you hired those interns into the job. So from an individual that works with these high school students here we're very grateful to have some of our seniors here that you've had this internship. We want to thank you publicly for what you've done in investing to help this community have that pipeline and that educational source to give you kids great opportunities and achieve their American dream. So thank you for what you've helped do for the aerospace academy. Thank you for saying that. Thank you. Thank you Gene. Great job. I've met some of them and they're very good students. We enjoy having them and the workforce enjoys having them and we try to give them meaningful work when they're at standard arrow and it's a good thing for everybody involved. We also had a positive experience with our interns and are planning on taking some more so we think it's a great program. I just had a luxury of spotlighting at our business level review one of our, one of the past interns was now a manager with us, so ditto. Great. Very nice. Thank you Gene. Jim. Yeah, I've got a, if you'll indulge me yourself but correct you know, one thing I wanted to say is companies are looking to de-risk their options and we hear that from operators all the time we want one stop shopping for those detailed capabilities. I've got a lot of friends in this room and folks have made it to the data difficulty knowing where some of the capabilities are in San Antonio. I've seen major employers like some of the companies up on the dais actually go out of town so here's my selfish question here's where I need you to help me help the board help San Antonio what capability gaps do you see here in San Antonio what types of industries and what types of employers and what types of capabilities would really help drive the work to the big shops that will blow that work there and do we have in San Antonio? Well I mean and I can only speak for standard era so one of the the issues is you know we're on legacy platforms so it's not so much a technology as it is a process and improving that process you know to bring more in I think you know goes back to the diversification like how do I get newer products or products on different platforms into the facility so that we can then expand and you know until that until that product shows up or I have an inkling of what it is I'm not sure what my gaps are today I think the workforce that we talked about earlier is available and maybe just for a short time so it goes back to the training but I don't know what to train a man so either we you know you could pick a couple things that says I want to you know San Antonio we want to be an expert in this, this or this and then how do we go about doing that right now you know we're in the mode that we're in I would think Boeing is a lot of what I would call maintenance overhaul or alterations you know we're not I don't think we do a lot of new make we don't do a lot of new builds we don't do you know so those to me and it was mentioned earlier I think that's where more of your technology ends up so if we want to do that how do we go about doing that right but you know that's today as I sit and look at the workforce and what we're doing do I see big gaps other than the aging workforce and maybe you know when we bring a new technology in so I don't know if there's big gaps today but in the future there could be and we just need to keep an eye on that as we go forward but you know again we gotta we gotta decide do I bring in some of these other things to become more on the high end of the technology you know range so so I think for us we do some of that technological upgrades as part of our business and shortages our gaps I see one very basic is paint right we talked about that but software engineering so a lot of the I mean the E4B is the most sophisticated flying machine in the air and a lot of those technologies require that very special skills limited and where we have center engineering centers of excellence they're all struggling to attract and retain that skill that then spills over into cyber and some of the things we'll need as a future skill so that's a problem today it's just gonna be exacerbated with stem gaps and everything that's going on nationally. For the interior completion business it's a little bit different most of my supply chain and vendor base is right here in San Antonio in the surrounding areas my only problem is my competition I'll do that too. So yeah I mean I think as far as the for the for the amount of time that interior work has been done here in San Antonio you know the the supply chain and the vendors have sprung up to to meet the demand here I can have my cabinets made my my composite panels a lot of my electrical components things are done all right here in San Antonio custom showers custom window shades all of that's done right here in San Antonio. Just one other thought that in Winnipeg one of the relationships that has been developed with Standard Arrow is through one of the local colleges and we have a thing called the CAT Center and it's a technology center where the university or college owns the tech center but Standard Arrow runs it and we have access to the things to the equipment and so there are students come in to get trained we develop new repairs and we've actually developed two new repairs that will be the only repair stores in the world on these two repairs have come out of this center and so there's a huge benefit there and maybe you know maybe we need an incubator type place where the local university and engineers working with the local companies have a place to develop new repairs or new whatever it is that we you know whatever we think needs to go after but you know specifically around Standard Arrow it's more about repairs right and so it's been a big benefit and we're continuing to figure out how to use it more effectively because sometimes you know again you're a big business and you forget about this little and it's really just a little you know incubator area with some very nice equipment in it and some very smart people looking at how to develop repairs and you know maybe there's something there that very on a small scale gets you into some new technology and even though repair work is kind of at the lower end of things people but there's some really high tech repairs out there that are very interesting and we're going to use lasers to do some repairs you know that on some commercial engines that have never been done before so maybe there's something like that that can be developed Thank you gentlemen I think we're out of time but I want to thank everyone for your questions and I want to thank you gentlemen for your expertise and your experience this concludes the panel session Rick, Brian Scott, thank you very much Gentlemen thank you very much for being a member of our panel today so we generally give folks a token of our esteem and appreciation what we wanted to do today instead of giving you something we wanted to give it to the library but in your name so we have these books that we're going to be donating to the San Antonio Public Library it's an aircraft book so that young people hopefully can get stirred to getting involved in the industry that you all represent here today so thank you very much let's hear another round of applause for them and a fantastic job Thank you so we'll get these to the library and we appreciate all your good thoughts we all know that we have something very special in the aerospace industry in San Antonio but we also know that it's fragile and we need to work every single day to make sure that it is the best that it can be and that it continues to grow and hopefully we can use that to get our brains thinking about what we can do as a community together to enhance the fantastic work that's going on here also want to thank Wayne Fagan for the artwork out in the four years we came in it's really neat to see that amazing history of innovation and uniqueness that is San Antonio so we appreciate that very much