Her Story
About Brooke
I've been in the aviation industry since 2018, and I'm currently a Managing Director on the commercial team at Landline, where I focus on contracted revenue. I've been with Landline for almost six years and have held a few different roles during that time. I just recently transitioned into this commercial team role after coming back from maternity leave with my three and a half month old son. My day-to-day involves reviewing the upcoming week, setting weekly priorities, looking at quarterly accomplishments and priorities for the remaining year, going through my inbox, and reaching out to people I need to connect with both internally and externally to make sure relationship development is progressing. My main area of expertise is really just building teams and finding synergies, both internally and externally, amongst different companies to build partnerships. Before Landline, I worked for Embark Aviation, which is a consulting company for airlines, and that's where I got exposure to the airline industry. Prior to that, right out of college, I worked at In-Q-Tel, which is the intelligence community's venture arm. There I got exposed to startups and how startups scale and the relationships that they build, both with government entities and the private sector. I was really interested in this smaller startup world and being a part of scaling that. The transition from In-Q-Tel to Embark Aviation was appealing because of the exposure to the small startup environment, but something that felt a little bit more challenging, where you could get integrated with a company but not fully. It felt like almost a new environment, a third environment from private sector and government, but then this consulting world where they overlap with both entities. Getting into aviation was also appealing to me because there aren't a lot of women in aviation, and I've been really interested in what that looks like as it's growing and emerging into more of a women-inclusive field. Understanding the technical parts of the world while also being exposed to more of the administrative or classically female-dominated world, and how those merge together, has been really fulfilling. It's been both a challenge and a major success being able to merge into more of a male-dominated field.
Her Interview
Ten minutes with Brooke
01What advice would you give to young women entering your industry?
I would say to be exposed to as much as you can. Just because one employer doesn't necessarily see the value, you can get so much value from saying yes, whether that's additional projects that are out of scope, whether that's staying late or arriving early. Don't ever compare your work to someone else's. If you have a drive and want to accomplish something, just continue to work at it independently of other people around you and their actions, because if that employer or that manager doesn't see the value, you'll be accelerated to opportunities where people do see your individual value and your contributions.
02What are the biggest challenges or opportunities in your field right now?
One of the major aspects of aviation right now is that there aren't a lot of women in the field, and what that looks like as it's growing and emerging into more of a women-inclusive field is both a challenge and an opportunity. Understanding the technical parts of the world while also being exposed to more of the administrative or classically female-dominated world, and how those merge together, has been really fulfilling. I would say that being able to merge into more of a male-dominated field is both a challenge and a major success. There's an aspect where you have to become more chameleon-like and adjust certain parts that feel unnatural to you to fit into a space that isn't historically receptive to women's natural temperaments and tendencies. It's refreshing to see certain things change to where it can be more inclusive, but I've never seen it as women versus men, it's all collective. There is a space where sometimes details or additional things are needed, and the benefit that women bring to the workplace is pretty pronounced.
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