![\"\"](\"\/wp-content\/uploads\/RickySmith-300x400-1.png\")
\u201cAirports play an essential role in strengthening local\neconomies and promoting workforce diversity within our industry, which is\nbeneficial to the communities we operate within,\u201d said Kevin M. Burke, ACI-NA\nPresident and CEO. \u201cI congratulate Ricky Smith for the work he has done to\nlevel the playing field and empower women and minority-owned businesses within\nthe aviation industry.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Over the last 15 years, Smith has served as the CEO of\nBaltimore\/Washington International Thurgood Marshall Airport (BWI) and\nCleveland Hopkins International Airport (CLE). The Guardian Award is awarded to\nSmith as a result of his focus on increasing opportunities for minority\nbusinesses as well as empowering, motivating and rewarding employees \u2014\nprimarily women and minorities \u2014 for new employment opportunities.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cI am deeply grateful and humbled by this honor, which is\nnamed on behalf of Leon Watkins, a giant in our industry for his longstanding\ncommitment and lifetime of work supporting diversity and inclusion,\u201d said\nExecutive Director Ricky Smith. \n\u201cThroughout his life, he courageously worked to foster equality and\nencourage full opportunities for minorities and women in employment,\nprofessional development, and business participation. Leon was a friend and mentor to me. Thank you to ACI-NA for this recognition, and\nfor memorializing Leon Watkins\u2019 legacy in such profound manner.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Throughout his time in the airport industry, Smith founded\nseveral outreach programs including Synergy, which requires airport tenants,\nprime concessionaires, and professional service providers to attend and\nnegotiate partnering opportunities with small and minority entrepreneurs. He\nalso founded LaunchPad, a program that allows women and minority-owned micro\nbusinesses to open retail kiosks without initial investment.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
\u201cLeon Watkins\u2019 entire career was devoted to helping minority\nand women owned businesses that had been traditionally excluded from\nopportunity. The spirit of this award\nembodies all that he sought to accomplish\u201d said his wife of 40 years, Kit\nWatkins. She also said that he was\ncognizant of his legacy. According to\nher, a week before he passed he said that he wouldn\u2019t be able to help people\nanymore and she told him \u201cthat it was okay because all of those you helped will\nhelp others.\u201d<\/p>\n\n\n\n
At BWI and CLE, Smith\u2019s team has increased women in the\nworkforce by 34 percent and 47 percent, respectively, and senior management\npositions by 129 percent and 167 percent respectively. For minorities,\nworkforces have increased by 44 percent and 42 percent respectively, as well as\n300 percent and 189 percent in senior management positions. To achieve those\nresults, Smith committed to partnering with Historical Black Colleges and\nUniversities and minority-focused trade organizations to enhance the airports\u2019\nability to recruit and retain a broad pool of minority candidates.<\/p>\n\n\n\n
Smith\u2019s proven leadership and sustained commitment to the\nvalues of diversity and inclusion have earned him the ACI-NA Guardian Award for\n2020.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"
Airports Council International-North America (ACI-NA) recently announced the recipient of the 2020 ACI-NA Leon C. Watkins \u201cGuardian Award\u201d for Excellence in Business Diversity: Ricky Smith, executive director and CEO of the Maryland Aviation Administration. The new Guardian Award recognizes a business diversity leader who has promoted the growth and evolution of minority- and women-owned businesses […]<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":3,"featured_media":16511,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":""},"categories":[43],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-16510","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","has-post-thumbnail","hentry","category-maryland"],"jetpack_featured_media_url":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/Ricky-Smith-2020-watkins-award.png","jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16510","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/3"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=16510"}],"version-history":[{"count":1,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16510\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":16513,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/16510\/revisions\/16513"}],"wp:featuredmedia":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media\/16511"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=16510"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=16510"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/stateaviationjournal.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=16510"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}