Tulsa World: Ex-airport marketer lands seat on board

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Ex-airport marketer lands seat on board
Mayor Kathy Taylor makes the appointment.

REPLACING CARL CLAY
Smith: The vice president of aerospace business development at SpiritBank was airport marketing director from January 2000 to 2006.

By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer
Published: 6/4/2008 2:09 AM
Last Modified: 6/4/2008 3:26 AM

Mayor Kathy Taylor makes the appointment.

A former director of marketing at Tulsa International Airport has been appointed a trustee of the Tulsa Airport Authority by Mayor Kathy Taylor.

Mary Smith, who served as airport marketing director from January 2000 to 2006 and is vice president of aerospace business development at SpiritBank in Tulsa, will assume the airport board position of Carl Clay. Clay's four-year term expired on April 30.

Smith, who is a licensed pilot, said she is excited and honored to be a trustee.

"The development of aerospace businesses at the airport in a strategic way and air service development are important tasks before the board," Smith said. "It's important to see that northeastern Oklahoma gets the best air service possible."

Airports Director Jeff Mulder said Smith's aerospace experience will be a welcome addition to the board.

"Mary Smith obviously has a good background in aviation and will be a positive and helpful addition to the airport board," Mulder said.

Clay, who was appointed to the airport board by former Mayor Bill LaFortune, was a budget-conscious trustee who voted to close down the $40 million aircraft noise mitigation program operated by Tulsa-based Cinnabar Service Co., which he said had high administrative costs.

The board advertised for new program managers, whose administrative costs have been a fraction of Cinnabar's, airport officials said.

Clay also favored an increase in parking rates, which increased parking revenue significantly, and he opposed a PikePass automated-pay parking system at the airport that would cost the authority 6 percent of its PikePass-generated revenue.

Clay could not be reached for comment.

"Carl brought a lot of positive things to the board, some good scrutiny on financial issues, reporting and accounting," Mulder said.

Smith's term will expire on April 30, 2012.

The other board members are: Chairwoman Meredith Siegfried, whose term expires on April 30, 2011; Vice Chairman Charles M. Sublett, whose term expires on April 30, 2009; Trustee Dewey F. Bartlett, whose term expires on April 30, 2010, and Taylor, who is an ex officio member of the board.

D.R. Stewart 581-8451
don.stewart@tulsaworld.com
By D.R. STEWART World Staff Writer

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iflyfast, (6/4/2008 7:32:40 AM)

Not sure how I feel about Mary being back. The couple of times I had contact with her, the answers I got to my questions or suggestions was very short, and seemed to have an underlying tone of "I don't have time for you to ask me this or give me a suggestion on what needs to happen at the airport". I know some others at RVS and TUL that didn't have good experiences as well.

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