Tania King has been appointed chief operating officer at New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy.
Tania King has been appointed chief operating officer at New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy.
This summer the Chronicle is bringing you another look at some of the best content of 2019. This story originally ran on July 4, 2019
Whanganui Girls' College principal Tania King is taking flight for a new job opportunity with New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy (NZICPA).
King has beenappointed chief operating officer at NZICPA, based at Whanganui Airport, as the flight school takes on new initiatives and plans further development.
After five years in the top job at Whanganui Girls' College, King finishes on August 23 and starts her new role at NZICPA in September.
"It's still in education but in tertiary instead of secondary. It wouldn't feel right moving to another secondary school in Whanganui.
"I appreciate the way NZICPA started and has grown and the number of exciting changes in the pipeline.
"When I read the position description I thought 'wow'. My business acumen is transferable and I could tick just about all the boxes. It's good to have an opportunity in a different sector in an organisation that I believe has great values and ethos."
King and her husband Shane moved from Palmerston North to Whanganui in 2003. She became head of physical education at Whanganui Girls' College and has worked there for most of the past 16 years, taking breaks to have her children and leaving for a year for a different job. She has been principal since 2014.
"I've learnt a lot in my time as principal and this opportunity will broaden my professional skills," she said.
"These opportunities don't come up very often in Whanganui and we didn't want to leave - we love it here."
NZICPA chief executive Phillip Bedford said the organisation has been growing "at quite a quick pace" and is about two-and-a-half years ahead of its strategic plan.
Recent developments meant his workload was now too big for one person and the new chief operating officer role had been created.
New Zealand International Commercial Pilot Academy chief executive Phillip Bedford (left) with Tania King who will join the organisation in September.
King and Bedford have previously worked together on the board of Whanganui & Partners and in international marketing.
"We know how each other operates and how high our standards are," King said.
"I look forward to working in this environment where there's a high standard of quality and expectation.
"We have a fantastic, amazing staff - and students - culture at Whanganui Girls' College and I will miss that but the staff culture here is great as well."
Bedford said he and King would be a "complementary team with slightly different strengths".
"Tania is a high calibre professional, accomplished at operating at the highest level in an organisation," Bedford said.
The recently-announced contract to train pilots for leading India airline IndiGo had put the organisation into a different place as a training operation.
"It creates a lot more work internally and opens doors to partner with other airlines," Bedford said.
"Our job first and foremost is to develop economic development in Whanganui. We will grow as quickly as we can do safely while not risking damaging our reputation."
King's role would include a key audit component, Bedford said.
"We are heavily audited so there's a big role in audit and compliance. We recently had a Civil Aviation Authority (CAA) audit with no findings which is nearly unheard of."
NZICPA is also audited by Public Trust, TEC, NZQA and Audit New Zealand.
Budgets, financials and websites will be key tasks for King as NZICPA expands to cater for the new cadet programme. The acquisition of another 19 aeroplanes will require a new hangar to be built and an engineering facility may be incorporated into the operation.
"I think we will quite quickly outgrow Whanganui Airport and need to look at other airports for pilot training," Bedford said.
Whanganui District Council Holdings has bought the former Nazareth rest home to accommodate the IndiGo cadet pilots, with a small amount of refurbishment needed to create 50 rooms.
"We need to think where the next 50 students are going to go," Bedford said.
Bedford said the Nazareth development would create local job opportunities, with catering, laundry and possibly driving roles being required.
Bedford said it was possible NZICPA would look at using other sites for fixed wing pilot training once the Whanganui site reached capacity.
There was potentially a bigger market for theory training and airline pilot ratings conducted in flight training simulators and NZICPA was seeking funding through the Provincial Growth Fund to become an advanced aviation hub.
"Pilots from other schools could come to Whanganui for top-end training in simulators," Bedford said.
A coming trip to India for the IndiGo cadet programme will be followed by a visit to Vietnam to explore education opportunities with four airlines.
NZICPA has achieved New Zealand Trade and Enterprise (NZTE) Focus 700 status which gives the organisation the ability to work with embassies and high commissions around the world, providing access to trade commissioners in its target markets in India, Vietnam and China.
