Rob Drapaue

As a kid, Sean Bond was like every other boy in America: He lived for baseball and summer, loved his mom and longed to sail through the sky, defying gravity and all expectations as a pilot or an astronaut. Unlike other boys, however, Bond didn''t give up on his childhood fantasy; instead, he pursued it. As a young man, he may not have known or been able to translate the Latin motto ad astra per aspera — to the stars by way of hard work — but Bond understood it perfectly. He accepted the challenge of hard work and followed his passion for aerospace in earnest. He earned a bachelor''s degree in aerospace engineering from the University of Maryland, studied aerospace at the United States Naval Academy and, shortly thereafter, went to work in the aerospace and defense industry. He took a job with Pratt & Whitney where he was responsible for business development and management in various projects, including the Joint Strike Fighter. After Pratt & Whitney, Bond went to work for Bell Helicopter Textron in Fort Worth, Texas, where he led the V-22 Osprey program. After being at Bell, Bond served as the president of platform solutions for BAE Systems, a global aerospace and defense business headquartered in New York. In that role, he was responsible for leading a business providing high-integrity power and control systems for aircraft and ground vehicles across the world. Although becoming the president of a global aerospace and defense business isn''t quite all the way ad astra, it''s pretty high up there. But, a funny thing happened on the way to the stars: He defied his own expectations and grew up to be the chief executive officer (CEO) of a facilities management company. To some, the move from the aerospace and defense industry to facilities management might seem unusual and unexpected, but unusual and unexpected moves aren''t always bad things. To anyone who hasn''t seen one, the Marine Corps'' V-22 Osprey looks like something straight out of a summer blockbuster: It''s part helicopter, part airplane and all awesome. In other words, it moves in unusual and unexpected ways. This agility and adaptability makes the V-22 more than just an impressive piece of hardware; it makes it an ideal, integrated solution to some of the military''s most critical combat challenges. Understood in this way, the people behind the development of the V-22 aren''t simply engineers, they''re solutioneers. Solutioneers work within the parameters of a given situation to produce out-of-the-box results — this is what Bond brings to ISS Facility Services. Throughout his career, Bond has completed executive programs in business management at Oxford University, the Wharton School of Business, Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute and the Thunderbird School of Global Management. This combination of strong leadership and principled problem-solving is what took him to the top of the aerospace industry. They are the same things that position him to be an effective leader in facilities management. For him, there is no discontinuity between the exalted work of aerospace and the down-to-earth work of facilities management. "I''m very excited to be leading the United States business team. My experience delivering global capability with a local face is an exact fit with ISS," he says. "We will leverage the expansive knowledge of our global company to develop, tailor and deliver service solutions for our customers here in the United States." As CEO, Bond heads up the U.S. operations for ISS and is responsible for the day-to-day control of the company. Upon Bond''s appointment, his successor, outgoing CEO Darrell Glover, who founded the U.S. organization over 30 years ago and retired in March of this year, conveyed his optimism about his successor. "Sean brings a breadth of business experience to the table for ISS. I am extremely comfortable that a bright future is in store for Sean and the management team." A native of New Jersey, Bond has lived in Florida, Texas and Upstate New York where he was corporate chairman for the Juvenile Diabetes Research Foundation (JDRF) and an ardent supporter of the Jericho Project to solve homelessness. He enjoys traveling, cultural studies, skiing and photography. He is married with a family of four children and Murphy, a chocolate Labrador retriever named after a certain Irish beverage. Bond recently fulfilled another childhood dream when he threw the opening pitch at an Arizona Diamondbacks game.

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Rob Drapaue

Writer and Freelance Editor

Articles by Rob Drapaue

A Future As Bright As The Stars

Facility Management

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