Bristow Leadership Changes But Commitment to Safety, Customer Service Stronger Than Ever

More than 200 Bristow employees from around the world gathered in Houston in late July to honor retiring CEO Bill Chiles and welcome former CFO Jonathan Baliff as the company’s new leader.

Baliff officially assumed his responsibilities as Bristow’s President and CEO after the annual meeting on July 31. Chiles will continue to play an active role in the foundation of HeliOffshore, a global organization formed by offshore helicopter operators that will focus on developing, sharing and applying best practices to ensure safe operations, creating and using advanced technology, and advocating for harmonized flight standards.

Commitment to safety, serving clients

While drawing praise as a “transformative” leader who oversaw a period of tremendous growth for the company, Chiles will be most remembered for his commitment to safety that led to the creation of the Target Zero program, and a safety record that is unparalleled in the industry. Appareo Systems, a longtime supplier of avionics, awarded Chiles a Safety Leadership Award recognizing the success of Bristow's Target Zero program and its impact on the industry.

Baliff will continue to make safety the top priority, and cited the company’s achievement of one year of Target Zero safety for its oil and gas operations. “The strong operating performance is a true reflection of the passion and professionalism of our Bristow employees worldwide as we achieved Target Zero safety,” he said. “We are now positioned for an excellent fiscal year 2015 as we prepare for U.K. SAR operations in fiscal year 2016, while also being laser focused on serving existing and new energy clients with safe, value-added services.”

The vision going forward, Baliff says, is that “Bristow will be more client-centric and be the first call for a client’s safe and essential aviation logistics needs. Period. We are putting the people and processes in place to help make this vision a reality.”