Metro Magazine, September/October 2015
56 mETRO mAGAZINE SEPTEMBER OCTOBER 2015 metro magazine com Paul Soubry joined New Flyer as president CEO in 2009 Prior to New Flyer he worked for 24 years with StandardAero joining as a marketing assistant in 1984 before leaving the company as its president CEO METRO recently spoke with Soubry about the companys advancements including updating NABIs Anniston Ala plant making the most of Brazil based Marcopolo S A s 115 million investment in 2013 and the companys focus on sustainable propulsion systems including electric buses and fuel cell technology A COUPLE OF YEARS AGO WE SPOKE ABOUT THE TRANSFORMATION OF NEW FLYERS CULTURE HOW THAT IS PROGRESSING We have worked very hard to make every New Flyer facility look and feel the same Operate with the same policies and New Flyer Chief Talks Corporate Culture Sustainable Propulsion Effortssystems Same level of safety Treat and develop people the same We are thrilled with the progress and buy in from our teams We are now on a regular cycle of employee satisfaction and engagement surveys and the last two have had a response rate over 85 This tells me our people are giving us their honest feedback both good and bad My goal is to have our people want to come to New Flyer everyday to satisfy our customers and not because they have to I am also very pleased with our teams embracing a common understanding of our Core Values and our Built to Rely On culture meaning our product services parts company structure and people can all be relied on We have been around for 85 years and want to be around for another 85 We are proud of our history and excited about our future We are focused on continually getting better and improving our competitiveness ALSO DURING THAT TIME MARCOPOLO S A HAD JUST RECENTLY MADE A 20 INVESTMENT IN NEW FLYER HOW HAS THAT INVESTMENT BEEN USED Marcopolo made their investment in New Flyer in January 2013 taking a 1999 ownership share of the company They have been a fantastic strategic investor and we have worked on a number of projects with them sharing ideas back and forth Given that they annually build over 30000 bus and coach bodies around the world we have been able to bounce ideas off them and discuss innovation and technologies with them As part of their investment in New Flyer we secured first right of refusal for North America for any of the Marcopolo products To date we have done market President CEO Paul Soubry discusses revamping NABIs Anniston Ala plant the companys focus on using multiple propulsion systems and the future of green technologies including hydrogen fuel cells BY ALEX ROMAN Managing Editor
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