SYNERG STORIES
Jet Setting
Transportation has been at the core of Greensboro’s economy since the early 19th century when Greensboro rose to prominence because of its access to railroads. Continuing that legacy, Greensboro has transitioned into leader in aviation services in the Southeast attracting a high energy 21st century workforce. Steve Kash is one of the young professionals who was drawn to Greensboro for a career in aviation.
Steve is an Engineering Manager for B/E Aerospace’s Main Cabin product line -- they design the aircraft seats for tourist, business, and first class and perform crash testing to meet FAA requirements. (He claims they design for comfort but also admits it’s becoming even more important now to design for weight. The lighter the aircraft seat, the less fuel required.) Steve was born in Fayetteville, NC, but as part of an Air Force family, he’s lived in Arkansas, California, Maryland, Ohio and Honduras (where by age 8 he was more fluent in Spanish than in English!). He became a mechanical engineer at Purdue University and earned an MBA at Xavier University.
One of the perks of working at B/E Aerospace is the travel. Steve visits Boeing located in Seattle, as well as Airbus located in both Hamburg, Germany and Toulouse, France. In addition, his company has a major manufacturing site in Kilkeel, Ireland near the Mourne Mountains. And on top of it all, sometimes he visits his customer’s locations. He was in Kuala Lumpur, Malaysia earlier this year visiting Air Asia, and he’s holding out for a trip to visit QANTAS in Australia--or one of the Island carriers in some tropical paradise.
With all the international travel, Steve likes to keep his roots in Greensboro. Steve is a big tennis fan, and loves that Greensboro has courts everywhere and tons of leagues to join. Also, the Davis Cup is held in Winston-Salem at one of the largest tennis facilities in the US. Steve says Greensboro has its own feel and he’s starting to see a lot of people out and about who he knows. He says Greensboro has definitely grown on him, and after traveling from place to place, Greensboro definitely feels like home.
