BACK IN THE GAME

Dynamic and innovative, the Canadian aerospace industry experienced a tremendous expansion during the 1990s, led by world-class companies such as Bombardier, Pratt & Whitney Canada and CAE Inc. But underneath the surface were problems: lagging R&D investment, inadequate productivity and a supply base that was unprepared for stiffer global competition (AW&ST Dec. 4, 2000, p. 54). Those problems were laid bare during the commercial downturn that began in 2001. Today, Canadian aerospace is an industry in transition. While still a world leader in many fields, its companies are scrambling to become leaner and better focused in an era of globalization. Their success, or failure, will determine whether Canada retains its enviable position in global aerospace.

During the 1990s, Robert E. Brown helped build Bombardier into an innovative and admired airplane manufacturer. He rose to CEO, but was forced out after the company fell on hard times. Now he's in the CEO's chair at CAE Inc., attempting to restructure the world's leading flight simulation company in an era of brutal global competition.

It's a story that might be called Brown's second act, except that there have been many acts for the 60-year-old aerospace veteran. While he doesn't have the high profile of CEOs such as L-3 Communications' Frank C. Lanza or Southwest Airlines co-founder Herb Kelleher, the low-key Brown is something of an icon in Canadian business circles.

Remember the privatization of aircraft builders Canadair and de Havilland in the 1980s? Brown managed that as a high-ranking government official.

The initiative that convinced Bell Helicopter to open a major production facility in Quebec? Brown again.

The revolutionary creation of the regional jet market in the 1990s? Brown and Bombardier CEO Laurent Beaudoin led the way.

Brown was even there last year for Air Canada's restructuring and emergence from bankruptcy protection, playing a key advisory role as chairman of the airline's board.

"Bob has worked across a wide swath of Canadian aerospace and aviation activity," says Cliff Mackey, president of the Air Transport Assn. of Canada and a former protege of Brown's in the government. "He is an extremely accomplished manager."

Listen to admirers such as Mackey and you might think that Brown has nothing to prove at CAE. But perhaps he does. After building Bombardier into the world's third-largest aircraft manufacturer by sales--complementing its role in mass-transit rail systems--he won the company's top job. Then, in a stunning reversal of fortune, he was replaced in December 2002 amid disappointing earnings, declining sales, questionable accounting and poor employee morale. Bombardier, observed Aviation Week & Space Technology shortly after his departure, "is fast becoming the aerospace industry's poster child for what can go wrong, seemingly all at once" (Mar. 10, 2003, p. 24).