Larry Alexandre has been appointed president of Heli-One, replacing Neil Calvert, who has announced his retirement after a 30-year career. Heli-One is the world’s leading independent third-party helicopter MRO organization.

Mr. Alexandre joins Heli-One with an extensive history in aerospace manufacturing and helicopter maintenance. Most recently, Mr. Alexandre was the CEO of Sagem Avionics, a member of the Safran group of companies. He has also held leadership positions with Turbomeca as Chief Operating Officer of that company’s business unit and was responsible for covering the USA, Canada, and Brazil, and Teleflex’s aerospace business unit.

Mr. Alexandre has extensive international experience and his background is ideal for the role at Heli-One, said CHC Helicopter president and CEO, Bill Amelio.

“Mr. Alexandre has the helicopter background necessary to understand the needs of our customers and he has the business background that will support him as we restructure and grow Heli-One,” said Amelio. “Larry has had tremendous success in his career with similar challenges and we know he can bring that experience to bear in his new role as president of Heli-One.”

Alexandre has an impressive record of driving cultural change in the companies he has led. He has successfully led initiatives to increase synergies between business units, reduce inventory, improve customer service levels, improve productivity and reduce lead times – all of which are high priorities within Heli-One.

“I am looking forward to the challenge of solidifying Heli-One’s leadership in the global helicopter MRO marketplace,” said Mr. Alexandre. “There is a huge amount of enthusiasm and potential in this company and I look forward to working with customers and employees around the world to ensure Heli-One leads in every aspect of this industry – and specifically safety.”

Neil Calvert, the founding president of Heli-One, will remain will with Heli-One in an advisory capacity for some time.

Heli-One is a division of CHC Helicopter, the world’s largest helicopter services company, specializing in the transport of personnel to offshore oil platforms. The CHC Helicopter group of companies is also a world-leader in the provision of civilian Search-and-Rescue operations with major contracts in the UK, Ireland and Australia and a world leader in helicopter maintenance through its Delta, British Columbia-based division, Heli-One.