Q&A with Courtney A. Beamon, P.E., President of Delta Airport Consultants, Inc.

November 12, 2015
Client describes her experience working with the Robins School's Executive Education division

Courtney Beamon serves as president of Delta Airport Consultants, a privately held specialty firm that practices exclusively in the aviation industry. Established in 1978, the firm provides a wide range of services to airport clients across the United States. In addition to its headquarters in Richmond, Va., Delta has additional locations in North Carolina, Oklahoma, Ohio, Pennsylvania, Georgia and New Mexico. 

Beamon joined the firm in 1996 and initially served as a project designer and project planner. She was continually promoted over the next decade and became the company’s chief financial officer in 2007. Five years later, in 2012, Beamon was named president of the highly successful consulting firm. 

We asked her recently about the benefits the firm has enjoyed through its partnership with the Robins School of Business. An edited transcript appears below.

When and how did Delta Airport Consultants’ relationship with the Robins School come about?

Our exposure to the Robins School came about through a Management Series sponsored by the Virginia chapter of the American Council of Engineering Companies. I believe my first course was “Successful Negotiations” in November 2012. Another member of our leadership team attended “Managing Client Relationships” a few months later. This was a great introduction to the Executive Education experience and faculty.

How has Executive Education met your needs over the years?

In late 2013, we engaged the Robins School to help us with a customized training that included both negotiation and communication skills. We worked closely with the director of Executive Education to tailor these two sessions to match the needs of our teams. All in all, our professionals were really impressed by the experience and felt like it was a good investment of their time.

Our next opportunity to partner with the Executive Education team came in early 2014.  We brought all of our project managers in from across the country for a session with Doug Bosse, PhD. He worked in advance with Doug to tailor a program to cover Client and Account Management. 

Beginning with the work for this program, our relationship with the Robins School has really taken off (a great pun for an airport consulting firm). We’ve continued to work with Doug in a variety of ways and have relied heavily on the Robins School to help us identify strategies and develop programs to help improve ourselves – as individuals and as a firm. From “off the shelf” programs to highly customized consulting, we have clearly benefited from our relationship.

What has made Professor Doug Bosse a good fit for working with Delta Airport Consultants?

Without a doubt, one of the best parts of working with Doug has been his willingness to listen, ask questions and seek a better understanding of our firm and what makes us unique. He has devoted quite a bit of time to the hard work of getting to know us and understand our business challenges. I truly enjoy sitting down with Doug and noodling over hurdles that our team is facing. It’s an overused expression, but he really “gets us”! 

Of course, his background in management consulting and expertise in business strategy has helped us in a practical way, as well. He has helped us to focus on next steps, has facilitated key meetings and provided models and other resources to help us further refine our goals and strategies.

We trust Doug. We have introduced him to some of our best clients and given him free reign to meet with them one-on-one about the service we provide and ways that we can improve. I cannot recall another consultant that we have entrusted with this sort of role with our clients.  It says a lot about Doug as a professional advisor to our organization.

What has been the biggest benefit of working with Executive Education?

No question, it’s the commitment to “get it right”. From investing the time and energy needed to customize programs and products, to accommodating employee needs during training days, to catering and even invoicing, the entire Executive Education team is clearly dedicated to providing a high level of customer service. We can count on the Exec Ed team to not just meet our expectations, but to exceed them.