- December 24, 2024
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When Tampa International Airport CEO Joe Lopano announced his retirement in February, it kicked off the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority Board’s quest to find his replacement. Nine months later, the 4-1 vote to appoint general counsel and executive vice president Michael Stephens passed, and the future of leadership for the $381 million airport began to gel.
Stephens has been with the airport since 2015 and Lopano’s direct report his entire tenure, so he won’t exactly be flying blind into the next chapter. “There is a profound sense of excitement because I know what this community means to me. I know what this airport means to this community,” Stephens says, “I've been in this community before Joe and the team came here. I was in this community for 20 plus years. My kids [ages 16 and 14] were born here, and I'm just excited about where we can take this to the next level.”
Stephens was raised in Daytona Beach and graduated from Morehouse College in Atlanta and American University in Washington, D.C. before finding his way back to Florida, where he worked in human resources at USF and as chief business enterprise and safety officer for Hillsborough Area Regional Transit Authority (HART).
Stephens stresses his leadership style is ‘people-centric,’ citing his service in the U.S. Army and the U.S. Air Force as shaping his approach. “You have to learn that it's not about you, that it's about the team, that you have to build each component of the team. You have to see people as individuals as well as how they fit into the bigger tapestry,” Stephens says.
“I try to see folks as who they are, but more importantly, for what they can be. And then I try to give them something to rally around, to get them there."
Lopano helped develop Stephens' leadership skills within the airport and is looking forward to the transition. “I think that Michael is most excited about the future of technology, and he's a very curious man,” Lopano says, “That's what you need as we go forward. Where we are now is a beautiful place, but it needs to go higher and better. And Michael will do that.”
Lopano’s leadership over the years has also influenced Stephens' approach. Although hired as general counsel, Lopano took the time to get to know Stephens and picked up on his interest in technology and his background in human resources. Recognizing those strengths, Lopano expanded his role and even got him to testify in front of Congress on two different occasions.
“It's doing that for other people; finding where you can unlock additional opportunities, value, passion that they may have and point them in that direction, and there's no expectation of anything back. I just love people, if I'm being honest. I mean, I'm just one of those guys. I dig people. I want to find out about them. I want to know where they came from. It's that curiosity,” Stephens says.
People first, indeed: More than 10,000 airport employees work to get 25 million travelers through the airport each year, with 15 million more annually expected to fly out by 2040.
For Stephens, it’s about more than just the numbers. His grandfather, who grew up in Jim-Crow era Alabama, taught him that it's how you treat people that counts. “He always taught us to make sure that you always carry yourself with dignity. Make sure that you always treat people with dignity and starting from there, you can build from that,” he says.
The challenge ahead, according to Stephens, is not only maintaining the positive reputation and experience of the airport, but surpassing expectations despite the increased traffic and strain on infrastructure.
He notes, “You want to be able to reduce the stress that people feel. You want to be able to give them a better experience as they come through the terminal. So I think that those are the biggest challenges, getting that volume in much faster than we've been doing before.”
Despite what’s ahead, Stephens is confident in the organization’s ability to rise to the occasion. “Adversity is going to come to us. Sometimes you're going to have successes. Sometimes you're going to have defeats, but fall forward, fail forward, and how you push through is really what's going to make the difference.”
Another aspect of Stephens CEO tenure, much like for any airport CEO, will be to handle the changing ways in which we get around.
Electric vertical takeoff and landing (eVTOL) aircraft, or air taxis, for example, ran a successful crewed test flight with German-based company Volocopter at an airfield at the Tampa airport in November 2023. The goal of the tech is to move people and goods around town in short-to-medium range flights, according to a press release from TPA.
Currently the Hillsborough County Aviation Authority has a committee to spearhead conversations about how to bring this Jetsons-esque technology to fruition in the next five to 10 years and part of that conversation revolves around FAA regulations.
Stephens’ particular blend of cybersecurity and legal background positions him to be at the forefront of those discussions.
In the military as an Army JAG (judge advocate general), he was assigned to a communications electronics command, where he was tasked with providing legal support around ‘future war fighters’ battle technology that included drones and radio systems.
“It's just a space that I'm very comfortable in and always curious about what's over the horizon that we can bring and prepare for today,” Stephens says.
With that in mind, the next horizon is in sight with his leadership appointment. No transition plan has been announced yet, but Lopano notes he will be spending the remainder of his tenure making sure Stephens is familiar with the key players and in on all the necessary meetings. There isn’t much of a knowledge gap, as the two have been operating in the same circles for the better part of a decade.
He describes himself as ‘passionate’ and ‘bullish’ about the future and the crew.
“We've got one of the best teams in the business, so I'm super excited about just that. I come here and I’m like, ‘What can we do today?’ And I know we have just scratched the surface in many respects what this airport can do for this region.”
