IAWA Selects 2014 Aviation Industry Woman of Excellence Award Recipient: Renee Martin-Nagle

The International Aviation Womens Association (IAWA) is pleased to announce the recipient of the 2014 IAWA Aviation Industry Woman of Excellence Award as Renee Martin-Nagle. This award recognizes women who are leaders in the field of aviation, have demonstrated a commitment to the advancement of women in the industry and are respected as team players by men and women alike. As a woman who epitomizes these attributes, IAWA is honored to recognize Renee Martin‐Nagle as the third recipient of this award.

Martin-Nagle has demonstrated an unwavering commitment to the advancement of women in the aviation industry. She has been a member of IAWA since 1991 and served on IAWA's Advisory Board. In addition, she served on the board of directors of Women in Aviation and established the Airbus Leadership Grant to support women pursuing aviation‐related degrees. IAWA Past President, Julie Ellis spoke of Martin‐Nagle, "Renee has never met a challenge she did not embrace and solve successfully with diplomacy and aplomb‐‐ always taking on leadership roles to advance our industry and mentoring men and women, who become life‐long friends, along her amazing life's journey. Renee is a Woman of Excellence."

Martin‐Nagle masters change as easily as she embraces diverse, global relationships. Currently, she is Founder, President and CEO of A Ripple Effect, PLC, an environmental consulting firm; a Visiting Professor of International Environmental Law and Policy at her law school alma mater, the University of Pittsburgh School of Law; a Visiting Scholar at the Environmental Law Institute, a senior editor with global water publication OOSKAnews, and a prolific author of publications that address environmental policies, specifically those that impact global fresh water and aviation.

Renee began her aviation career and a long line of "firsts" in 1986, by joining Aerospatiale Helicopter Corporation and Aerospatiale General Aviation in Grand Prairie, Texas, as their first General Counsel and first and only female executive. In 1990, she joined Airbus Americas, Inc. in Herndon, Virginia, as its first in‐house lawyer, and during the next 21 years achieved the positions of Vice‐President, General Counsel, Chief Compliance Officer, Head of Environmental Affairs, Board Member and Corporate Secretary before Error! Unknown document property name. "retiring" in 2011. For 19 of her 21 years with Airbus Americas Renee was the only woman in executive management.

Consistent with her commitment to link personal values with professional activities, the birth of the first of Renee's two grandsons in 2007 inspired her to focus her energies on making the planet a better place for future generations. So, that same year, while still working her full‐time job at Airbus Americas, she went back to law school at George Washington University, earning an LL.M. in environmental law in 2010 with highest honors and winning the inaugural Jamie Grodsky Prize for Environmental Scholarship for her thesis on fossil aquifers. While learning about environmental issues in the classroom, she assumed the position of Head of Environmental Affairs at Airbus Americas and established a vibrant internal program that encouraged environmental awareness and activities at all the company's North American sites.

Renee Martin‐Nagle was raised in rural Appalachia, and her coal miner father did not have the opportunity to finish high school. Every stereotype that this description brings to mind, including the family outhouse, featured in her early life. Having given up a scholarship to Johns Hopkins University half‐way through the first semester, Renee learned early about the impact and consequences of poor choices. By the age of 20, Renee was a divorced welfare mother with no job, no money, no education, no car and no driver's license, living on twenty acres in the sylvan mountains. The strength and instinct to survive and achieve "kicked in" for Renee, who started nurse's training as a way to support herself and her beloved daughter, Tanya. As she puts it, "I kept going to school 'til I had my J.D., using scholarships, grants, loans and part‐ time jobs to fund my education, since my parents were too poor to help financially." She stayed close to home so that her parents would have a continuing relationship with her daughter, graduating from Mount Aloysius College in 1979, Saint Francis University in 1981 and the University of Pittsburgh School of Law in 1984.

In 2006, Renee was named a Distinguished Alumna of St. Francis University and in 2010 Mount Aloysius gave her a similar award, recognition of her courage and will to succeed. Renee's own life's lessons have made her a champion of promoting and funding scholarships for women. She has worked tirelessly to ensure opportunities exist for other women in the field of law and more broadly, in the aviation and space industry. As a member of the prestigious Advisory Board of the International Aviation Women's Association, Renee has helped create numerous scholarships for women throughout the world, and she has promoted women's interests through her service to IAWA and other aviation organizations, such as the ABA Forum on Air and Space Law.

Renee is a distinguished aviation, space law and environmental law professional. She is respected as one of the most accomplished aviation lawyers in the world, having been involved in numerous highly complex sales contracts valued at more than a billion dollars each. Interestingly, many lawyers with whom she has negotiated confirm that Renee's demonstrated negotiating talents across the table taught them some of their best learned skills. Likewise, Renee has served as a key member of the expert aviation teams that manage the consequences of aircraft accidents.

Renee honors her own career achievements by ensuring she supports future leaders in the aviation industry and the law. She has created legal positions for interns and lawyers within Airbus and has actively sought and hired women. Mentorship is a calling for Renee, and she counsels and advises law students and new lawyers-both women and men‐‐ on a regular basis. Her track record is good, for many of her mentees are now successful lawyers and executives at major national law firms and corporations. She Error! Unknown document property name. stays in touch with most mentees, and many, even after decades,still refer to her as their "mentor", which she claims is the most rewarding title one can earn. Renee personifies mentoring to perfection.

Renee Martin-Nagle's professional and personal achievements are cause for recognition and appreciation by all in our aviation industry. She is one of the outstanding aviation lawyers in the world, who is respected by men and women alike for her professionalism, her leadership qualities, and her unwavering commitment to mentoring and providing scholarships to those interested in aviation. But, when you talk to Renee's industry colleagues and friends, while all of them appreciate her contributions, they also celebrate and value her enthusiasm, grace, integrity and infectious sense of humor. Renee's life's achievements are a testament to her upstanding commitment to enhancing the legal profession and the aviation industry. IAWA proudly awards her the Aviation Industry Woman of Excellence Award for 2014.


Submitted: 09/11/14
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