Meet 10 of the Fascinating People Taking GE Aerospace into the Future
December 16, 2024 | by Chris Norris
Virtuoso craftsmen, courageous managers, social leaders, and selfless veterans: These are the people who helped GE Aerospace take its first steps as a standalone public company, 52,000 people strong. Each one represents a slightly different version of the company’s innovative spirit — and the force propelling GE Aerospace’s 132-year legacy into the future.
In 2021, electrical engineer Jojo Shaw, who had previously worked on bomb detectors for the U.S. military and robotic ghouls for Disney World, made the most daring move of her career. She left GE Energy (now known as GE Vernova), where she spent 10 years, and moved to GE Aerospace, where the self-described “guinea pig” of a new training program overcame impostor syndrome to thrive as an engineering project manager.
The Brickmaster: Michał Janczak
In an astounding feat of imagination, dexterity, patience, and determination, Michał Janczak created a spinning Open Fan model of CFM’s RISE program demonstrator engine from 19,000 LEGO bricks. Tapping a childhood passion for LEGO Technic sets and the company’s BrickLink 3D design app, the Warsaw-based advanced lead engineer and 18 colleagues celebrated the transformative engine in a way that translates across age groups.
The Chief Inspector: Nicole Tibbetts
At the 66th annual Laureate Awards in March, Nicole Tibbetts won recognition for the vital array of inspection technology she supervises at GE Aerospace: ultrasonic immersion, the AI-enabled Blade Inspection Tool (BIT), and the robotic Sensiworm, among others. With a PhD in radioactive isotopes, Tibbetts brings an explorer’s enthusiasm to her role as chief MRO engineer: “Every part that comes out has a new problem to solve,” she says. “It’s its own unique puzzle.”
As GE Aerospace Research’s chief AI scientist, Peter Tu has spent years studying artificial intelligence. One of the more surprising things he’s discovered about AI, beyond its ability to augment technological development, is how it could unlock more secrets about the way humans think. “At GE Aerospace, we’re trying to understand AI’s implications and what aspects of AI the business should take advantage of,” Tu says. “It’s about seeking comprehensive strategies to integrate AI in a more holistic way.”
The People Person: Roman Seele
At this year’s Internationale Luft und Raumfahrtausstellung (ILA), Roman Seele returned to the air show he first attended as a college student raised behind the wall in East Berlin — now as a leader of GE Aerospace’s Munich-based future of flight and sciences team supporting the CFM RISE* program. “It’s a nice challenge to bring all of these technologies and people together,” says Seele, who worked at company headquarters in Cincinnati for seven years before returning to Germany. “In interviews, candidates ask me what I like best about GE Aerospace, and while it may sound cheesy, I say it’s the people.”
Decades after helping his stepfather restore a 1935 open-cockpit Davis D-1-W monoplane, which he flew to the Experimental Aircraft Association’s annual summit in Oshkosh, Wisconsin, at age 13, Nick Hurm, a supply chain communications leader based in Cincinnati, set off in pursuit of a new goal: rediscovering and rebuilding an ultra-rare Vulcan American Moth monoplane — his “holy grail of airplanes” — in time for its 100th birthday.
The Free Spirit: Aya Saleh Alaudhli
One of the first cadet pilots to successfully complete Etihad Airways’ multi-crew pilot license program on a Boeing 787 Dreamliner, First Officer Aya Saleh Alaudhli this year became one of the few women in the United Arab Emirates to command this powerful jet and its formidable analytics technology, including GE Aerospace’s FlightPulse app.
The Guardian: Terri Braun Voutsas
Thirty-five years after a deadly airline crash gave her career a new mission, Terri Braun Voutsas, GE Aerospace’s executive director of flight safety, celebrated a year with zero engine-related events, thanks to her team’s vigilance, innovation, and gift for crunching numbers.
The Senior Engineer: Tony Rosa
When Tony Rosa first signed on at GE, engineers used slide rules and computers were so large they filled entire rooms. Now at age 93 and newly retired, GE Aerospace’s longest-serving employee reflects on 73 years at the forefront of technology, where “whenever you think your job is becoming stale, things change and new experiences evolve.”
This summer, Zach Webb stepped away from being a final test manager at GE Aerospace to stand before a packed auditorium and receive the Armed Forces’ Distinguished Flying Cross. “I was sure I was gonna have a heart attack,” Webb says of the ceremony itself. As for how he got there — shepherding Afghan refugees through “hostile airspace,” per the citation, “under indiscriminate machine gun fire” — Webb calls it just another day as a primary loadmaster in the U.S. Air Force Reserve.
*The CFM RISE program is a product of CFM International, a 50-50 joint company between GE Aerospace and Safran Aircraft Engines.
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GE Aerospace is a world-leading provider of jet and turboprop engines, as well as integrated systems for commercial, military, business and general aviation aircraft.
