Bombardier Names Nick W. Verdea Recipient of 2021 Safety Standdown Award

• A long-time Safety Standdown supporter, Verdea has demonstrated exceptional safety leadership throughout his 25-year aviation career
• Influential award recognizes exceptional efforts to improve aviation safety throughout the industry
• Bombardier’s Safety Standdown celebrating 25 years of aviation safety stewardship and education

Nick W. Verdea, a Certified Aviation Manager (CAM) and Global Leadership Professional (GLP), has been named the 2021 winner of the Bombardier Safety Standdown Award, as selected by the Safety Standdown Advisory Council members. Verdea, Director of Aviation and Corporate Travel for The Williams Company in Tulsa, OK., is a long-time supporter and advocate of this highly influential event.

Verdea accepted the award on November 3, 2021, during the 25^th annual Bombardier Safety Standdown event in Wichita, KS. The two-day, in-person safety gathering brought industry professionals together for enhanced learning opportunities, compelling workshops, presentations and more, laying the foundation for safety training and professional development. For a quarter of a century, Bombardier has led the industry in providing aviation professionals with critical knowledge-based aviation training and lifelong professional development opportunities.

The Bombardier Safety Standdown Award is presented annually to an aviation professional who has demonstrated exemplary dedication to improving aviation safety through the Safety Standdown principles of Learn, Apply, Share. Verdea was nominated for his leadership in aviation safety management over the course of his 25-year aviation career by Richard Westmoreland, Director of Aviation for First Horizon. At The Williams Company, Verdea oversees the daily operations and priorities of a high-performing team of 13 that operates corporate aircraft. A major part of his responsibilities is to execute and expertly manage the annual travel services budget with a compliance concentration on travel experience and cost containment. Verdea’s commitment to safety excellence is admirable and this is clearly reflected in his many leadership roles over his career. He is a dedicated life-long learner and has an impeccable flying record of more than 13,000 accident-free hours in the cockpit.

“On behalf of Bombardier, I wish to congratulate Nick Verdea for his outstanding career and unwavering commitment to Safety Standdown and to promoting aviation safety and professionalism at all levels of our industry for a quarter of a century,” said longtime Bombardier executive, Andy Nureddin, who stewards the Safety Standdown program. “Nick embodies precisely what the Safety Standdown Award stands for: celebrating individuals who are role models in the field and have made a real difference day-to-day. He is the ideal ambassador for our Safety Standdown mission.”

Bombardier’s Safety Standdown is one of the most comprehensive safety conferences in the industry. This year’s in-person event celebrated 25 years of safety stewardship and this year’s theme, “Learn, Apply, Share” reminds aviation professionals and organizations to learn new skills, apply them and share their knowledge to make an impact as a role model.

About Safety Standdown

Conceived in 1996 as a human factors safety-training event for the Learjet flight demonstration team, the conference quickly garnered a reputation for excellence beyond Bombardier’s customer base. In 1999, in response to growing interest within the industry, Bombardier opened the seminar to all pilots. In 2010, Safety Standdown expanded beyond the seminars into a year-round global human factors program offering online resources. Since 1996, more than 10,000 corporate, commercial and military aviation professionals have attended Safety Standdown seminars around the world, live and through the webcast, including in Brazil, Canada, China, Mexico, Switzerland and the USA.