{"id":18933,"date":"2015-05-21T14:27:20","date_gmt":"2015-05-21T18:27:20","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/?p=18933"},"modified":"2015-05-21T14:27:20","modified_gmt":"2015-05-21T18:27:20","slug":"high-flyer","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2015\/05\/21\/high-flyer\/","title":{"rendered":"High Flyer"},"content":{"rendered":"

Air travel guru Marion Blakey ’70<\/strong> racks up corporate connections faster than frequent fliers collect miles. So when the soon-to-retire president and CEO of jet-engine giant Rolls-Royce North America asked her to lunch last winter, she took it in stride.<\/p>

“I thought it was just part of the ongoing discussions I tend to have with him and others,” said Blakey, who realized during the course of the meal she was being courted for the job. “You could’ve knocked me over with a feather.”<\/p>

She took the reins this month, the first woman to lead the London-based company that employs 9,000. It’s just one of the boundaries Blakey has broken in a high-flying career that’s made our skies – and our country – more secure.<\/p>

\"Blakey_HP\"<\/a>
Photo courtesy of AIA\/Dan Stohr<\/figcaption><\/figure>

 <\/p>

Back in 1966, she opted to travel by land, boarding a northbound train from her Gadsden, Alabama, home to an all-women’s college. She reached Fredericksburg before the sun that summer morning, steamer trunk in tow.<\/p>

Making her way to Mary Washington, she couldn’t have known the heights she would reach. Looking back now, she isn’t surprised.<\/p>

“It never crossed my mind it would be any other way,” Blakey said in her sultry-smooth Southern voice, springtime sun beaming on the Potomac outside her 17th-story office, where she headed Aerospace Industries Association for the past seven years.<\/p>

She majored in “pre-foreign service,” now “international affairs” at UMW, and under the guidance of the late Professor of Philosophy and Asian Studies Kurt Leidecker, graduated with honors.<\/p>

With college friends, including “bestie” Grammy-winning HBO documentary producer Susan Wagner Lacey ’70<\/strong>, Blakey moved to Washington, D.C. She studied Middle Eastern affairs at Johns Hopkins’ Paul H. Nitze School of Advanced International Studies, landed a clerk’s job at the National Endowment for the Humanities and took flight faster than a 747 on a blue-sky day.<\/p>

By the time she left, she was director of public affairs.<\/p>

Next came a string of presidential appointments – in commerce, education, and transportation – and a daughter! In a quest for work-family balance, Blakey switched gears.<\/p>

“I think you have to accept … that if you’re going to throw yourself heavily into your career, it will be at the expense of other things,” she said.<\/p>

She launched consulting company Blakey and Associates, and ran it for nearly a decade, leaving after 9\/11 to chair the National Transportation Safety Board. American Airlines flight 587 went down in Queens, New York, that same month, and Blakey led the investigation into the second deadliest air crash in U.S. history.<\/p>

Also on her log book: Five years at the helm of the Federal Aviation Administration, the safest period in public air travel; a slew of boards and committees; numerous awards, including the 2013 Wright Brothers Memorial Trophy for leadership in aviation; and one of Blakey’s pet projects – the Next Generation Air Transportation System.<\/p>

She’ll continue to support “NextGen,” a multi-year strategy using satellite-based technologies to improve air traffic control, at Rolls-Royce. It’s a slight change in her flight plan, but Blakey’s still full speed ahead.<\/p>

“It’s fulfilling to know when you get up in the morning that the work you’re doing really matters in the daily lives of people in this country and around the world,” she said. “We’re supporting our national security. It’s tremendous.”<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

Aerospace leader lands top job at Rolls-Royce.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":90,"featured_media":18934,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_acf_changed":false,"umw_cb_additional_links":[[]],"_genesis_hide_title":false,"_genesis_hide_breadcrumbs":false,"_genesis_hide_singular_image":false,"_genesis_hide_footer_widgets":false,"_genesis_custom_body_class":"","_genesis_custom_post_class":"","_genesis_layout":"","jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false,"_advisory_expires_time":"","_advisory_meta_include":false,"footnotes":"","_links_to":"","_links_to_target":""},"categories":[4,81],"tags":[],"class_list":{"0":"post-18933","1":"post","2":"type-post","3":"status-publish","4":"format-standard","5":"has-post-thumbnail","7":"category-show","8":"category-umw-home","9":"entry"},"acf":[],"yoast_head":"\nHigh Flyer - Great Minds<\/title>\n<meta name=\"robots\" content=\"index, follow, max-snippet:-1, max-image-preview:large, max-video-preview:-1\" \/>\n<link rel=\"canonical\" href=\"https:\/\/www.umw.edu\/greatminds\/2015\/05\/21\/high-flyer\/\" \/>\n<meta name=\"twitter:label1\" content=\"Written by\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data1\" content=\"Lisa Chinn Marvashti\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:label2\" content=\"Est. reading time\" \/>\n\t<meta name=\"twitter:data2\" content=\"3 minutes\" \/>\n<script type=\"application\/ld+json\" class=\"yoast-schema-graph\">{\"@context\":\"https:\\\/\\\/schema.org\",\"@graph\":[{\"@type\":\"Article\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/21\\\/high-flyer\\\/#article\",\"isPartOf\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/21\\\/high-flyer\\\/\"},\"author\":{\"name\":\"Lisa Chinn Marvashti\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/#\\\/schema\\\/person\\\/eab3b9dd084c2488474792f0c391b8e7\"},\"headline\":\"High Flyer\",\"datePublished\":\"2015-05-21T18:27:20+00:00\",\"mainEntityOfPage\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/21\\\/high-flyer\\\/\"},\"wordCount\":566,\"commentCount\":1,\"image\":{\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/21\\\/high-flyer\\\/#primaryimage\"},\"thumbnailUrl\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/wp-content\\\/uploads\\\/sites\\\/20\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/Blakey_HP.jpg\",\"articleSection\":[\"Show on Great Minds\",\"UMW Home Page\"],\"inLanguage\":\"en-US\",\"potentialAction\":[{\"@type\":\"CommentAction\",\"name\":\"Comment\",\"target\":[\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/21\\\/high-flyer\\\/#respond\"]}]},{\"@type\":\"WebPage\",\"@id\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/21\\\/high-flyer\\\/\",\"url\":\"https:\\\/\\\/www.umw.edu\\\/greatminds\\\/2015\\\/05\\\/21\\\/high-flyer\\\/\",\"name\":\"High Flyer - 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