I have known Sal san Filippo for fifteen years. Prior to joining Air NZ in Los Angeles, Sal was a respected executive of BAX Global, America’s most successful airfreight forwarder. Sal’s life’s story is true to form as an example of living the American dream. Bought up in a tough Catholic area of Boston, Sal was mowing lawns and doing odd jobs from an early age initially to supplement his family’s income but later on to pay his way through college. His dad was a product of the depression and typical of that generation Sal was brought up in the tradition that family values, hard work and integrity went hand in hand. Sal behavior to this day has never wavered from the belief his life has been blessed with so much opportunity. He wears his humility and heart as a good and decent human being on his broad shoulders only as the son of a proud immigrant to America can do.

Sal has been an outstanding executive for Air NZ. He treats his staff as he does good customers with fairness and understanding and never wavers from looking after his company’s best interests. He is as honest as the day is long. I have always been amazed at how he balances his business life with his personal one. For many years, Sal has popped by my office on a Friday afternoon about once a month. Once the business end of the conversation is concluded we revert to chatting about family and subjects of mutual interest. For the best part of ten years, I have listened to wonderful, sometimes heart rendering, stories about Sal’s personal experiences. He is a devoted family man, he loves his work and the people around him. He is loyal to a fault when it comes to Air NZ, his colleagues and old friends. In fact Sal is his father’s son. His “Italian joie de vivre” is omnipresent.

I am nothing but utterly disgusted that the court system in NZ is an extension of their Commerce Department, just like the Supreme Court in the USA is a servant of the Department of Justice. If convicted, Sal faces fines and even possibly a jail sentence for becoming ensnared into something outside of his realm and that he has had nothing to do with; decisions that were made by executives higher up with Sal being forced to execute, just because he was the senior manager in the field. Sal has busted his chops since he was that little bloke beaten up by the street bully, to stand up and always do the right thing, even if it meant defending himself against all odds. When he is called upon the witness stand to give evidence in the N.Z. court, the judge and jury will quickly realize this man is no criminal; he is an outstanding citizen, who can hold his head up high in any company. It is so cruel that for the last two to three years this nonsense has occupied his mind every morning he awakes and doesn’t leave him until he falls asleep each night. Sal, if you need a character witness in court, I will put the bastards straight. Very few men possess the same ethics as you. It is the Sal san Filippo’s of this world, who inspire and drive me to try and emulate them as best I can.

A large American retailer has been expanding into Australia and when they recently opened a Melbourne store, the first two weeks sales were 700% over budget! The supplies on the water would not arrive in time to fill the empty shelves. They made the decision, no matter what the cost, airfreight was the only solution to get them out of the embarrassing situation. In the last two weeks of August hundreds of tonnes were moved via Qantas and FedEx. Who was at the center of all? Yes, none other than the inimitable Mr Burford. He even organized the successful handling and shipping tens of thousands of kilos of perishables as well.

Our operations headed by VP Mike Castro works like a well oiled machine. I literally sat back and watched in awe as CII LAX performed above and beyond to satisfy our customer, one of the largest logistics companies in America. It was an honor to be chosen to move the freight and the team led by Graham and Mike did an awesome job. Pete and I sat back and watched all the “young blokes” operate as though this huge shipment was an every day event. I don’t know whether to feel sad or happy that not one workmate asked for my input! I think Pete feels the same way too.

September has started off with a bang and if the momentum continues I might be speaking like Fed chief Bernanke, “What recession?” Right now it is still wishful thinking.

We will never forget when Ron Labac and Mike Scanlan of FedEx supported and endorsed our application for credit in 1993 and our first schedule had us supporting FedEx to every destination. By the end of 1993 we had secured IATA registration and this allowed us the benefits of expanding our horizons. For the first two years, every night we followed our freight to the airlines to make sure we went home knowing we had done everything possible to ensure the consolidation would ride as booked. We love the challenges that moving over size freight brings. Our very first shipment on FedEx was a forty foot long packaging machine ex Monroe, Louisiana that we shipped to Melbourne. Because of the weight and dimensions it took all our powers of persuasion (and Peter’s intimate first hand knowledge) with the loadmaster to center load the freight with spreaders. We won! The twenty-six tonne machine was three days after dispatch being installed at Coca Cola’s plant.

Fast forward to 2007 and Peter convinced Qantas to divert their freighter into Nadi, Fiji to drop off a twelve tonne spool of cable ex N.Y. to meet a cable laying vessel held up in port eagerly awaiting its arrival. Tony Feist, now our VP Special Projects approached us with his dilemma while working for another forwarder. CII made the impossible happen and while the shipper and consignee were ecstatic that 24 hours later the spool was being loaded on board the vessel in Lautoka, we received not one word of thanks from the forwarder, apart from Tony being over the moon. The rest is history. Tony decided to join a company that put a can do spirit mingled with unbridled passion into everything it does.

When we negotiated with new South Pacific entrant Air Pacific back in 1994, we promoted the service as “Coconut Express”. Back then we had a competitor in the name of Patrick Keelaghan. His life was tragically taken from him some ten years ago and we still mourn his death. Patrick was a character in the truest sense of the word. For a few weeks our twice weekly fax broadcast was full on about “Coconut Express”. Patrick decided he needed to counter this nuisance promotion so he faxed everyone around the airport, “No, we have no coconuts today. If you want some, use the competitor. You can sit under a palm tree in Fiji enjoying eating it while your freight is also stuck there. If you want your freight to arrive as per schedule on a prime carrier better that you ship with us!” Dealing with a competitor whose passion matched ours actually brought so much more fun into our everyday lives. Imitation is the greatest form of flattery and with the one or two motley competitors in the marketplace today, watching and copying our every move, we still yearn for the days of Patrick Keelaghan. Without going head to head with him in those halcyon first five years, that burning desire to provide great service with a passion would not still be in our veins today. What a shame there has been not one competitor to even come close to Patrick.

Our team is a little larger today, but Pete and I rest happy the culture of our company is engrained in every team member. Examples; Graham Burford our VP Global Sales elects to travel Sundays when visiting out of town customers, so first thing Monday morning he sees his first customer. Pete and I don’t expect that of him. That is what he elects to do himself. The man is driven by passion to pack as many productive hours into each and every day. Both Mike Castro, VP Operations and Lyne Enzweiler, VP Admin arrive at work at seven every weekday morning. And they don’t leave at five either. Both will burn “the midnight oil” if there is still work to complete! The same can be said of Greg Melissinos in N.Y. and Christian Calderon in Atlanta. Thanks Pete for helping us build a company we can all be proud of.