Page 54 - Australian Defence Magazine June 2019
P. 54

FROM THE SOURCE
KATHERINE ZIESING | CANBERRA
Rockwell Collins Australia rebranded earlier this year into Collins Aerospace in the wake of some major moves at the international level. ADM Managing Editor Katherine Ziesing caught up with Australian VP Nick Gibbs to check in about what it means at the local level.
Nick Gibbs
Vice President Customer and Account Management Collins Aerospace Australia
Graduated RMIT University, Bachelor of Communications Engineering
Fellowship Awarded – Rockwell International – Moved to US
Grad Eng – HF Communication – Collins Aviation and Communication Division
Program Technical Director – HF Ground Programs – Rockwell Collins
Programs Manager – Rockwell Collins Australia
General Manager – Rockwell Collins Australia
Managing Director – Rockwell Collins Australia
Vice President – Australia – Collins Aerospace
ADM: The Collins business globally has gone through a lot of changes over the past 12-18 months. Can you walk us through what those are and what they mean for the Australian business? GIBBS: There are two parts to this; first the global changes, and I’ll cover off those and then move on to what does they mean for activities in Australia. As people probably know, United Technologies acquired Rock- well Collins in November 2018 and merged Rockwell Collins with United Technologies Aerospace Systems, UTAS, as it was known and created Collins Aerospace, one of the largest aerospace component companies.
The intent of that acquisition and then merger was to create a new company with a mission to redefine aerospace, especially in the areas of intelligent aircraft, inte- grated and optimized aircraft products and services, and advanced defence systems. I think the way to look at it is that the leaders have brought together the best parts of the UTAS business and Rockwell Collins and created a truly great aerospace company, in terms of the breadth of capabilities that it can offer our customers globally.
The primary reason for that and the strat- egy behind it has been for the company to be better able to solve some of our cus- tomers’ toughest challenges through the breadth of technology and experience that we now have, effectively under the one roof.
How that’s translated into Australia? In order to be better positioned to satisfy our customers’ really tough challenges and stra- tegic needs. The organisation has created some new functions and I transitioned into one of those from my role as the Managing Director for Rockwell Collins Australia to become the Vice President, Customer and Account Management of Australia, a role I moved into on day one.
That role was created in a handful of key markets of which Australia is one and the purpose of it is to actually be able to engage with our customer base in those markets and apply the broader capabilities of the organisation. So the important point is Australia and the ADF is a key customer for Collins Aerospace.
ADM: The Rockwell Collins business was quite well known in Australia before the acquisition and merger. What was the UTAS business like in Australia before the merge?
GIBBS: Their activities have mostly been selling products and MRO services from a distance. So they had some local BD people supporting key customers in the commercial and military area but they had a very light footprint in country. And I guess going back to the creation of Col- lins Aerospace, one of the things when I transition from that role, Sonny Foster stepped into the Managing Director posi- tion running what is now called Mission Systems in Australia, which is aligned with one of the six business units within Col- lins Aerospace, the others being Avionics, Aerostructures, Power & Controls, Interi- ors and Mechanical Systems.
ADM: What’s the split like between civil and military business? Is that likely to change much in the near future? GIBBS: At a global level it’s about 25 per cent military, 75 per cent commercial. UTAS had a very large presence on com- mercial platforms, as did Rockwell Col- lins. So I think the answer is no, I mean the military is still a very, very large part of the work in Australia and is obviously a focus for the footprint that we have established in Australia through the Mission Systems business which pretty much solely deals with the military.
ADM: So does that 75/25 split hold true in Australia as well?
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NICK GIBBS
PROFILE
54 | June 2019 | www.australiandefence.com.au


































































































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