Augusto Salgado da Rocha, Product Strategy Sr Manager, Embraer Executive Jets.

Originally from Manaus, he also lived in Fortaleza for six years prior to moving to São José dos Campos in 1995, when he started the Engineering Course at ITA (Insitituto Tecnológico de Aeronáutica).

Graduated in 1999, he joined Embraer in the following year to work in the Aircraft Performance Software team, building computational tools for the airlines flying Embraer products.

He went back to school in 2001, starting a post-graduation course at UNICAMP (Universidade de Campinas) in the area of Object-Oriented Programming. In the same year, he moved to the Operations Support team, where he had the chance to be in close and intense contact with customers in different countries, supporting Embraer products introduction at new clients as well as keeping existing operators up to date with the latest technical information. Many days were spent on the road with visits to customers, conferences and start-ups.

In 2003, he graduated at UNICAMP and was invited to lead the Operations Support group. As a Team Leader, he had his first management experiences, blending his previous technical and customer knowledge with the challenges of building the processes, the structure and the team to cope with the needs of a fast growing number of customers world wide.

By mid 2005, he moved to New York to join JetBlue Airways. Originally planned to be a start-up mission, he ended up being invited to work for the airline. On loan from Embraer, he spent eight months working as a true member of JetBlue’s Engineering. ”This was an unparalleled experience to me, professionally and personally. New York was an amazing city to live in and JetBlue, an outstanding opportunity to work in a truly international environment”. In 2006, after returning from New York, he was invited to be the Manager for the Airline Operations Support.

In early 2008, after eight years within the Commercial Aviation customer support, he was invited to move to the Executive Jets unit as a Senior Manager for Product Strategy, his current position. Reporting directly to the Director of Market Intelligence for the Executive Jets, he is responsible for two main work fronts: sales engineering and product strategy itself.

Sales engineering looks at the existing products and comprises building technical sales tools and strategies, competitor´s analysis, product training to the sales force, technical support to marketing and press interfaces. Product strategy, on the other hand, looks at the future, building the product roadmap and defining market requirements for new airplane developments as well as for the evolution of existing products, always looking for the best competitive positioning.

He joined FIA by mid 2009, starting his International Executive MBA as a member of class #37.

”I joined the International Executive MBA for a couple of different reasons. First, I felt like going back to school, without quitting my current professional activities. I missed the academy, the interactions and the learning experiences from the University. At FIA, I found a very competent and renowned team of professors, mixing solid academic backgrounds with rich market experiences. Second, my current position requires a broader and more strategic view of business. The course offers a very interesting mix of disciplines and subjects covering several dimensions of the problem in an integrated way, complementing my technical background and helping me to expand my understanding and managerial skills. Third, I wanted to do it together with an experienced group of students, with different industry and academic backgrounds. And that is definitely there. Finally, I really appreciate the concept of the international modules, from the academic experience to the technical visits. They are a plus in this MBA program”.

Contato: rocha_augusto@hotmail.com