Good News Florida

Corporate Planes flying into Fort Lauderdale Executive Airport are welcomed to the beautiful Key West style Banyan Air Terminal where friendliness is the norm and pilots can ex- pect top-notch service. Behind it all is Don Campion, a South Floridian who was raised in Nigeria by missionary parents. A family man with a heart for community, Campion has built a company culture second to none. He recently completed a lofty effort to restore the missionary hospital in the African bush of Egbe, Nigeria, where his father was the founding missionary surgeon. Don Campion is a Lifework Leadership alum and a major sponsor of the leadership class that is dedicated to transforming leaders by clar- ifying their calling, challenging their minds and engaging their hearts for service. He sat down with me at the BayanAir Terminal to share his Life- work Leadership experience. Good News (GN) - Tell me a little about Banyan Air and the serv- ices you provide. Don Campion (DC) – I started Banyan Air Service in 1979 as a 24-year-old kid, really as a little maintenance shop looking after private aircraft, just small little 4-6 seaters. Our company has grown over the years... Being a very team driven company that was connected serving our customers, those teammates that were part of our company would come up with different ideas as to which departments we should pur- sue other than just airplane maintenance. So now we are kind of a ma- rina for corporate aircraft. They fly into executive if they have business in South Florida or a home or perhaps they’re coming for an event, and we can store their airplane. We refuel their airplane, offer catering, offer rental cars and so forth. We have another division that does full maintenance on the aircraft and inspections. We’re an FAA certified repair station, and we do modifications and repairs. We then upgrade the airplane’s electronics and avionics and, of course, everybody wants WIFI in their airplane and televisions and telephones. There are packages called office in the sky packages that are quite extensive, taking the airplane all apart and installing a lot of new electronics. And then we also have a pilot shop, and we sell aircraft parts and all kinds of pilot supplies. We are also in aircraft sales. A lot of people don’t know that Honda, the car company, has an aviation department now, and we’re the Honda Jet Dealer for the Southeast. We’re also a Kodiak dealer for the Southeast, so we sell and service those airplanes in seven southern states and broker aircraft. What we’ve tried to create here at Banyan is an experience for the customer where they come to a Key West Tommy Ba- hama feeling kind of terminal and on one side of the terminal we’ve go a pilot shop, which has a bit of a Disney flair with airplanes hanging from the roof and runway markings on the floor, and on the other side of the terminal is the Jet Café, which is open six days a week and caters to those in the surrounding areas, pilots flying in and people in the air- port. GN - Haven’t you even used your hanger for events recently? DC - We really feel that one of the ways to help Christian organizations in the South Florida area is to allow them to use our hanger as a venue for their events. So whether it be the Fellowship of Christian Athletes or 4KIDS or First Priority or Calvary Chapel, Christ Church – a lot of different organizations like to have an annual banquet or gala, and when we are able to take the hanger, leave several airplanes in the hanger, have some up lighting, set up tables and so forth, it ends up being a fabulous venue. Our team gets very involved in that too as far as set up, clean up, helping with parking, in order to try and make that event as successful as it can be for that Christian nonprofit…A lot of them have their most successful galas here at Banyan. As it gets dark out, you see all the blue runway lights out there. And the door’s wide open, so it’s kind of like you are in a completely different setting. GN – I know that you have a strong company culture and that you were involved in Life- work. What is the corporate culture you are trying to create? DC – Well, the corporate culture is really a desire to do everything with excellence. And to do it where a teammate comes – we call our employees teammates – where they join Banyan for a career as opposed to a job, and Banyan then invests in those teammates. Our corporate culture has six different pillars. The first one is we honor God in all we do. We inspire trust by being trustworthy. We help our teammates grow and develop. We serve our customers in remarkable ways. We strive for continuous improvements. And we contribute to the communities we serve and beyond. So, really it’s a matter of caring for each other as we serve the customer in remarkable ways, but doing it with excellence as we stand out in the industry as a different kind of company. GN - Where did Lifework come into that picture? DC - Where Lifework came into the picture in my own personal life was, as you pursue excellence and you try to build an organization that’s unique, that’s actually honoring God as a form of worship. As you come and serve, when you serve with all your heart, you’re honoring God in that He gave you those talents. He gave you that new day and how you use that day and how you use those talents is in effect a form of worship. For us to try and set that bar high in the industry, high within our own internal interaction, has been a huge desire that I’ve had. And it’s been, I feel, a huge attraction to many of our teammates. A lot of teammates love it when they know what the company stands for. They love it when there’s clarity in what the objectives are. They love it when you don’t accept mediocracy… Where Lifework really did help me the most was realizing how the business could fit into Kingdom work, and how I look at Banyan now as a ministry. Then I felt that God had prepared me for the ministry of the revitalization of Egbe Hospital, which I never dreamed of in a millions years that somehow I would have influence in the rebuilding of a ministry that would then look after tens of thousands if not hundreds of thousands of sick in the bush. As a result of that, many of them would come to know the Lord. And that’s where Lifework kind of connected those dots. GN - How did Lifework help you make that connection with Egbe? DC – Well, it’s part of moving from success to significance. We were being success- ful and building within that great culture at Banyan and having a lot of super teammates that are growing in their career and many of us, including myself, saying, “Oh wow, I never thought life had this in store for us. Nor did I think we would ever become of the capability of being able to work on some of the most advanced aircraft on the planet, flown or owned by the most influential people on the planet. So, here we are a little com- pany, now serving that kind of clientele. So that, I felt, was my privilege and success, and let’s do that honoring God. But I felt Lifework then said, “Oh no, Don, there’s more for you.” It was the stories and the accomplishments and the networking of other Christian CEOs that really broadened my scope of, “Well, Lord, if you have something more in mind, reveal it.” LIFEWORK LEADERSHIP 10 JANUARY 2018 Good News • South Florida Edition Banyan Air’s Don Campion Defined His Mission at Lifework Leadership Shelly Pond, Editor Good News (Continued on page 12) Don and Sueanne Campion at Banyan Air, Fort Lauderdale.