Chris Wills
Head of consultancy operations, Ascend by Cirium
Why do you think Cirium is a great place to grow your career?
The team and the people. The support, mentoring, flexibility, ethos, culture, diversity, freedom and team spirit (to mention a just few of the key reasons) make this a place where anything is possible. If you have the desire and focus to develop the opportunity and support to achieve your goals is here. This is only possible due to the people and the business culture to develop individuals. There are a multitude of training courses as well as all the on the job training, external courses and qualifications available. The ideal of developing everyone who joins this business to the point they are sought by the market and then making this the place they want to stay, sums up the philosophy. Cirium covers almost every potion of the aviation industry and there are multiple disciplines across the organisation and thus so many different ways to develop with multiple career paths options. Direct exposure to the market provides team members the opportunity to build their own brand recognised across the industry, with access to leading figures offers huge growth possibilities. While we want to keep our team members as long as possible, we always celebrate if they move on to a new part of the industry and we regularly refer to them as Alumni. It is great to have ex-team members in all facets of the industry (and beyond) from aircraft manufactures to lessors and highlights the career growth opportunities from working at Cirium.
Why do you love working in aviation?
Planes! Since I can remember I had an affinity for aircraft. From RAF stories from my grandfather to watching Concorde take off at night, I have always liked the metal. After time in the Air Cadets, my career started at a flying club in operations, including some flying, furthering my enthusiasm for the industry, and led to a degree in air transport management. That gave an even wider understanding of the sector but I didn’t know what I wanted to do after leaving University apart from working in aviation. So when I saw the advert for a role at Ascend (later becoming part of Cirium) tracking the global aircraft fleet in a database it seemed perfect (not to mention being based at Heathrow)!
Later moving into the Consultancy team and starting aircraft appraisals showed me a whole new career path and part of the industry I had no idea even existed. That really has showed me some other great parts of this industry: being able to go and physically inspect the aircraft is a highlight, getting to build long lasting relationships with senior people, in a relatively close community, is great, knowing that you play a hand in the growth of the global fleet, coving multiple asset classes and having leading industry figures rely on your opinion is an honour. Plus you get to travel and of course flying itself is a key reason why the industry is awesome! As far back as secondary school (at the height of my plane spotting) I imagined a job with an office by the runway at Heathrow watching the departures and arrivals, while having an influence on the industry – quarter of a decade later it takes a second to remember that is the reality I’m privileged to enjoy!
