Press Release

Jan 5, 2018, 2:05am PST

 

New AIM Aerospace CEO and President Daniele Cagnatel has big plans for the region’s fourth largest aerospace company.

“I’ve had my feet under the desk for five months now and had time to figure out where the company needs to go,” Cagnatel said. “Big changes are coming because the market around

us is changing.”

 

AIM has 1,050 employees in Renton, Sumner, and Auburn. Those low-tech facilities produce high volumes of air conditioning ducting components and structural and interior components for Boeing and some airlines.

Cagnatel said AIM will strengthen that business by modernizing plants and introducing carbon fiber technology automation in 2018. AIM will use know-how from the Quatro Composites automated manufacturing unit it bought in 2017 to ready the region’s facilities for carbon fiber and thermoplastics work.

 

Cagnatel landed at AIM after it acquired Quatro, which supplies Boeing’s Dreamliner and Insitu drone unit. He was CEO of GKN Aerostructures North America until Liberty Hall Capital Partners, the private equity firm that acquired AIM in 2016, hired him to succeed retired CEO John Feutz.

 

AIM will seek new business for composite jet engine and space components, Cagnatel said.

A few years ago, only 6 percent of a jet engine involved composites. That’s since surged to an unprecedented 43 percent, Cagnatel said.

“We will retain our core competencies but revamp. It’s going to be significant,” Cagnatel said. “The business that doesn’t change is the business that will go into extinction.”

 

Andrew McIntosh

Staff Writer

Puget Sound Business Journal