AgustaWestland CEO Daniele Romiti came to the 2013 Heli-Expo show in Las Vegas less than a week after his sudden appointment to succeed Bruno Spagnolini in the wake of well-publicized allegations of bribery relating to the deal to supply AW101 helicopters to the Indian government. The legal fall-out from this case is still subject to court hearings and government probes but, speaking to AIN ahead of this week’s Heli-Expo in Anaheim, Calif. Romiti was candid in acknowledging that the task of protecting the manufacturer’s reputation was a primary focus for him in his first few months in office. But more recently, he has been able to focus on the multiple new aircraft that AgustaWestland is now bringing to market, including the AW119Kx, the AW169, the AW189 and the AW609 Tiltrotor.
“My goals were very different at the time [in March 2013],” he said. “We had to face quite a challenging period with reputational issues, and this resulted in strong activity to reinforce our internal organization to deal with compliance issues. The new and updated procedures have resulted in a better approach.”
