Her Success Story 34 - Candace McGraw

Candace S. McGraw

Chief Executive Officer, Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport

www.cvgairport.com
Twitter: https://twitter.com/CVGairport

Airport Council International-North: https://www.aci-na.org/

Candace McGraw was appointed Chief Executive Officer of the Cincinnati/Northern Kentucky International Airport (CVG) in July, 2011. Since joining CVG, Ms. McGraw has focused on positioning the airport for the future by completing a 2035 Master Plan Study; attracting both domestic and international low cost air carriers; consolidating operations into a renovated terminal facility; and diversifying revenues through targeted cargo, land and concessions improvements.

Since becoming CEO, landing fee expenses paid by carriers have been reduced by 50%; local passenger growth has increased by 63%; CVG’s annual economic impact has grown 22%; and approximately 250 acres of land have been developed for commercial and non-aviation use. CVG will also become the home to Amazon’s new Prime Air Cargo hub and is currently home to the North American superhub for DHL—its second largest global operation.

Ms. McGraw is proud to lead a team that has been recognized as the Best Regional Airport in North America for seven of the last eight consecutive years. CVG was also recognized as the World’s Best Airport serving 5-10 million passengers by Sky Trax World Airport Awards. Ms. McGraw is also proud to serve as chair of Airports Council International-North.

In this episode we discuss:

From attorney to CEO and how it happened Stepping in as CEO at an unexpected time and working to stabilize an airport that at the time had many problems Navigating family life and business life and the important lesson she wished she learned a lot earlier on In 2017, finishing the year as the fastest growing airport in the US for passengers and why it wasn’t an overnight success The deals she has worked on with DHL and Amazon What is working for women in the C-suite and what isn’t working and why women do this when applying to a job and men don’t The importance of her community of women leaders and what they do every month A negative twist she had to work through in the workplace that really surprised her and how to win people over utilizing these traits