Assistant Director Promoted To Top PTIA Post

Sept. 30, 2010

GREENSBORO --

The changing of the guard at Piedmont Triad International Airport became official Tuesday when Kevin Baker was promoted to succeed longtime PTIA Executive Director Ted Johnson as the airport’s top administrator.

Baker, 44, was expected to advance from assistant director to executive director following Johnson’s announcement last month that he would retire effective this Thursday. Baker’s new role with PTIA takes effect Friday.

“I’ve got the biggest shoes in the world to follow,” Baker said at the Piedmont Triad Airport Authority meeting as he gestured across the conference table to Johnson. The authority, PTIA’s governing board, unanimously voted to appoint Baker during its meeting Tuesday.

Johnson, 70, retires after a 42-year career at PTIA, including serving as executive director since 1993. Johnson’s tenure saw some of the most significant growth in the airport’s history, including the addition of the FedEx Corp. national cargo hub and the Honda Aircraft Co.’s HondaJet facility.

Baker said he hopes to live up to the example set by Johnson.

Baker has become a familiar face in local aviation and business circles the past 12 years. He served as a consultant to PTIA for nine and a half years with the FedEx project and airport expansion before becoming PTIA assistant director in 2007.

Authority member Dr. Earl Barbour, a High Point chiropractor and head of the personnel committee, said the committee examined 10 other applicants before deciding on Baker. When Baker was hired as assistant director three years ago, there was an expectation that he was being groomed to one day succeed Johnson.

“Because of his involvement in many key projects over the last 12 years, Kevin knows the working of this airport as well as anyone. He will be able to hit the ground running,” said authority Chairman Henry Isaacson, a Greensboro attorney and civic leader.

Barbour said the authority doesn’t have immediate plans to fill Baker’s assistant director position.

This article appeared in Thursday's edition of the High Point Enterprise.

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