SKY'S THE LIMIT

Nelson Bradshaw ’02 has grown his Executive Aviation company to Canada’s largest private ground handling outfit

By Diane Jermyn Portraits by Jaime Hogge

ON A SUMMER DAY IN 1992, when Nelson Bradshaw ’02 was eight years old, his dad took him up for his first flight in the family’s Cessna 182, which was kept on a grass runway near their home. Nelson was too small to see out the window, so he sat on a cushion to peek over the side. It was transformative.

“I remember watching the wheels leave the ground and it changed my life,” says Nelson. “It was so cool. I’ve been interested in aviation ever since—wanting to go to air shows, and just interested in everything to do with airplanes, float planes, military planes. I ended up doing my pilot’s licence while I was still in high school at HSC. I could actually fly an airplane solo before I could drive a car.”

Nelson, named as one of the Top 20 Under 40 in Canadian aviation and aerospace for 2022 by Wings magazine, is the president and owner of Executive Aviation, Canada’s largest privately owned ground handling company. Since taking over the business seven years ago, Nelson has grown it from operating at a single airport in London, Ontario, to 20 airports across Canada. He currently employs 1,000 people, providing services to commercial airline partners, private aviators, executive travellers and crews.

When he started in 2015, Nelson saw there were dozens of ground handling companies across the country with all kinds of different equipment and levels of service, so he recognized an opportunity to do it better.

“If you look at pilots, they’ve got clean uniforms, a crisp cockpit, flow charts and checklists, but I didn’t see that on the ground handling side,” says Nelson. “We brought that standardization to our business, plus we’ve been a pioneer in the systems and transparency we introduced.

“With our system, I can see all our flights, equipment, maintenance and training history on one dashboard and we give our partners access to that. For instance, my WestJet counterpart can log in and see how many ice trucks we have in Saskatoon today because there’s a snowstorm coming. That transparency isn’t common in the industry and it’s given me a huge leg up.”

Nelson usually works from home and is in his office, coffee in hand, before the sun comes up. The teams do an operations log at the end of every shift for every airport, so there are hundreds of reports to read, followed by BNN Bloomberg, but Nelson still finds time to be hands on.

“I love getting on the ramp, so I’ll often go for a drive at four in the morning and just show up on the ramp in Waterloo or London to see how the teams are doing,” says Nelson. “I’m not trying to sneak attack them but I like to see what’s real out there without a big heads-up and connect with my team.”

Nelson likes to be as personal as possible so he tries to get out to every base at least once a year. He credits his wife Monica, whom he met at university, for how they present their friendly and fun culture. With her background in marketing, Nelson says she’s had a huge impact on the company’s branding and social media. “We try to run it like a family business,” says Nelson. “I sign everything on behalf of Nelson and Monica in our corporate communications.”

Born in Simcoe, Ontario, Nelson grew up in Waterford, later moving to a horse farm just outside the town when he was nine. The only boy and a middle child wedged between two sisters—Stephanie ’00 and Nikki ’03—he credits them with teaching him patience and empathy, saying people know him to be “a very patient person.” An active kid who was “always outside on my bike or digging in the dirt,” he recalls his mom patching the holes in his pants instead of buying new ones because he’d just wear right through them.

The family was very entrepreneurial—his dad ran Bradshaw Fuels, the family business originally started by his grandfather in 1956, with gas stations from Sarnia to Niagara Falls—so Nelson learned early on to pump gas and help out. By 15, he was running a business of his own after financing a hay baler that he’d take round to neighbouring farms.

“I did that every summer during high school and university,” says Nelson. “By the end, I had two tractors, employees, and was shipping hay down to Florida. It was a decent little farming business.”

For a long time, Nelson held on to his dream of becoming an airline pilot, enrolling in the aviation management program at Western University so he could complete the flying at the same time as his degree and end up with a commercial pilot’s licence. That changed in his second year after he talked with a few pilots who were in the industry and understood more about the lifestyle.

“You can fly to Cancun, but then you turn around and come back, or you have a few days in Tokyo but you’re by yourself in a hotel without friends,” says Nelson. “That didn’t appeal to me because I knew I wanted to have a family and be home for my kids.

“It was my dad who said, ‘If you like business and like flying, be a businessman and fly on the side.’ That made it a really easy decision. I switched into finance and graduated with a business degree, working in tax practice with a Calgary firm for my first job.”

Finance was a good fit as math was his favourite subject during his years at HSC, particularly stretch assignments with extra problems.

“I remember Mr. Kersley for algebra and geometry and the way he’d push us to find our own answers and not just give them to us,” says Nelson. “I think that’s one of the things that helped set me up for success and problem solving. There are different ways to get there, but it’s either right or it’s wrong—no grey zone.”

Nelson started at HSC in Grade 6 because his parents liked the smaller classes and having more input on education. The school bus picked him and his sisters up at the end of their road for an hour and a quarter drive—each way. The memory of that long bus ride stuck, so after his oldest daughter started at HSC, the family moved to Ancaster to be 10 minutes from the school. All three daughters are students: Charlotte (Grade 3), Elizabeth (Grade 1) and Julianna (JK).

“I feel fortunate I can give them the same opportunities I had,” says Nelson. “Although I travel a lot, I stay very involved. I own a Socata Tobago plane and have taken my girls up a bunch of times since they were six months old. They love it!”

Besides his dad, Nelson credits his executive coach, Ron Bremner ’67, for having the biggest impact on his leadership. He started working with Ron about three months before taking over the company in London and still has a weekly one-hour standing phone call with him.

“Ron challenges me with books and different approaches to think about because when you’re running a business, you’re kind of an island,” says Nelson. “Having somebody with experience to bounce ideas around with has been very helpful.”

From day one, Nelson has been conscious about building the business around empowering youth and connecting with that demographic. The company has formal partnerships with colleges across the country, such as Mohawk College in Hamilton which has an aircraft mechanic school right at the airfield.

“We’ve set up those partnerships so our business can be a stepping stone for people who want a career in aviation—not just pilots, but mechanics, flight attendants and operations people,” says Nelson. “Having a high standard for safety and quality is first and foremost and we challenge our teams to deliver their best every day. We’ve only got a handful of long-term career roles here, so I love to see people get experience with us and move on.”

Another passion is sustainability, and the company has recently rolled out various initiatives, including more electrical equipment in the fleet.

“I want to do my part, not just in reducing emissions, but recycling batteries and even the neoprene gloves we use in cleaning the aircraft,” says Nelson. “That’s really resonated with Gen Z and sets us apart. Companies absolutely need to be accountable.”

With Nelson in the cockpit, his own company seems sure to keep flying ahead of the pack.