Winner Aviation’s Meg Bianco is that rare aviation business executive who didn’t come up through the ranks by pumping gas, putting in the hours as a primary instructor, or keeping the books. In fact, heading up Winner is her first job in aviation.
Bianco’s career has been defined primarily by her ability to turn around struggling companies. Anyone who has been part of a turnaround effort knows they can be gritty and emotional affairs, but Bianco exudes calm, and a genuine interest in the people at Winner as well as the company history.
Her unlikely path to running an MRO and ground services company came after a chance meeting with owner Rick Hale. Bianco and Hale grew up together in Youngstown, and a mutual friend got them together for dinner when Hale was visiting Las Vegas, where Bianco currently lives. From there they started talking, with Bianco helping Hale informally. After another of Bianco’s turnaround projects finished, Hale asked her to come on fulltime in late 2018.
Bianco’s diverse background includes working for St. Jude Children’s Research Hospital. She has also run a global technology company for 14 years and at the end of the spectrum a degree in fashion, and designs clothes and stage costumes in her free time.
Coming to Winner has opened her eyes to aviation and the people and their passion for airplanes. The business, she said, is straightforward. It’s all about numbers. But the community is special. “I love any industry where people are so passionate, they will stay in it for 40 years,” she said. “You build strong businesses by having people stay and be trusted experts.”
Her office at Winner overlooks the runway, and early in her tenure she would catch herself just staring outside watching airplanes. “It’s just mesmerizing.” When one of the traveling warbird groups came to Youngstown, she got a ride in a biplane, probably her top aviation experience so far. “I would never have imagined or expected the experience would be as great as it was,” she said. “It was like floating on the wings of angels.”
Meg Bianco, Winner President, left and Kelly Campbell, Winner Marketing Manager
