ABL Aviation Appoints Rodrigo Simoes as VP Technical/Head of Casablanca Office

Rodrigo is VP Technical and Head of the Casablanca Office. In this role, Rodrigo oversees the whole team in Casablanca and support the CTO in related technical subjects. Working with a team of enthusiastic and passionate aviators to assess and ensure opportunities and asset values without compromising with regulation and safety is at the corner of his various experiences.

Rodrigo started his career more than 20 years ago at EMBRAER as Certification Engineer. In this role, he was responsible to assure that the new developed aircrafts reached any applicable requirement of PART 25 from European, North American and Brazilian aviation authorities.

Moving from the OEM to the operators, Rodrigo held several positions in different Airlines. From Project manager to Heavy Maintenance Production Planning Manager, Rodrigo led several projects to increase savings and optimize operational costs by reducing the Turn Around Time of aircrafts and major components during its shop visits.

Rodrigo also served as Deputy Technical Director in a major MRO in Central Europe developing and incrementing the production processes at the hangar, while supporting and enhancing the relationship with the customers during the preparation of proposals, the progress of the checks and the settlement for invoicing the clients.

As Aviation Consultant, Rodrigo had the opportunity to support airlines and lessors during transitions of commercial aircrafts to assure the achievement of the contractual redelivery conditions after the end of leasing period.

Other than Aircraft Manufacturer, Airlines and MRO’s Rodrigo successfully change the mindset of Ground Support Equipment maintenance, drastically increasing equipment availability whilst reducing operational costs of the biggest GSE fleet in Brazil, becoming reference in this country.

Rodrigo is graduated in Electronic Engineering from Fundação Armando Alvares Penteado – São Paulo and holds MBA in Project management from Fundação Getúlio Vargas, São Paulo and MBA in Operations, Products and Services from Escola Politécnica of University of São Paulo.

Out of the office Rodrigo is an enthusiastic of classic cars and aircraft model. He also loves to travel the world to discover new cultures, foods and customs.