Kelly Werth, the new Customer Service Manager at the Duncan Aviation facility in Provo, Utah, actually had to wait until he turned 18, per Paint department requirements, to start working Duncan Aviation. He’d been going to school for Auto Collision, and he’d worked in some auto shops, but he really didn’t see much chance for career advancement in the auto industry. He had heard about Duncan Aviation from a childhood friend’s dad, and the work really appealed to him.
“I had just finished high school, and I was going to SCC (Southeast Community College) in Milford, Nebraska, to learn about painting cars,” says Kelly. “Not long after I turned 18 in September 2005, I started in the Paint Shop, and I worked weekends stripping planes.”
Kelly was blown away by what he saw in the Paint Hangar at Duncan Aviation.
“I’d never even flown on a commercial flight; we drove everywhere when I was a kid,” says Kelly. “I didn’t know anything about business aircraft; I was completely in the dark about privately owned aircraft. This was a brand-new world for me that I had never even considered. I’d painted about 5 or 6 cars and friends’ cars as projects for school, but it was a real eye-opener when I saw how big the large-cabin aircraft were and how different from painting cars it was going to be!”
In January 2007, a month after he’d graduated from SCC, he started working on the first shift. He’d liked working weekends because they were pretty calm and consistent, but he believed the real excitement and intrigue in the industry was in paint, and first shift was where he wanted to be.
He caught on quickly and advanced through Paint Specialist I to II by January 2007 and to Paint Specialist III by November of 2008. In 2011, he took two big leaps, becoming a Master Paint Specialist in July and making Crew Leader in November.
Kelly held the role of Crew Leader on the large aircraft team for 5 years, and for a little more than 2 years, he moved to Detail as a Crew Leader before moving to Provo, Utah, in 2018.
In Provo, he was Team Lead for the brand-new Paint Hangar, and that was probably one of his greatest challenges in his years at Duncan Aviation.
“We had a bunch of talented team members—some in the aviation industry, some from the automotive industry. The thing was, none of us had ever worked together as a team before,” says Kelly. “I had confidence in everyone’s abilities, but we were taking on our first paint project, and it was a challenging paint scheme, a black to gray fade on a Global. In the years since, the customer has been back for maintenance a number of times now, and we’re still amazed by that paint scheme and how great it looks!”
The next few years were a blur of new roles for Kelly. In August 2019, he became the Scheduler; in February 2020, he became Assistant Manager of the Paint Shop; and in June 2021, he was promoted to Manager of the Paint Shop in Provo.
All the while, Kelly really liked what he was doing, he liked the good feel at the company, and he especially liked the good relationships he’d developed through the years.
“The relationships are what kept me here. I had great relationships with all the leaders in the Lincoln Paint Shop, and all of the teams I’ve been a part of over the years developed into really tight-knit groups,” says Kelly. “We were putting in some 10-12 hours a day of decently difficult physical work, and there’s nothing better than that to build camaraderie.”
In addition to learning quickly and developing good working relationships, Kelly is an ambitious guy who enjoys every new challenge he faces.
“There’s no advancement without challenge. Before things feel stale, I look around, always with an eye toward opportunity and advancement,” says Kelly. “I was realistic about my opportunities in Lincoln. I grew up with those guys; many of them have been in their roles for a decade or two. I love those guys, but there was no doubt less opportunity for me there.”
After discussing the move with his wife Dani, they decided it was a low-risk move for them.
“She was a Senior Product Designer at Hudl and could work remotely,” says Kelly. “We are no strangers to traveling, and in the Provo area, there are all kinds of outdoor activities within minutes of the city. We felt the move came with many rewards, and not just for my career.”
For the first 4 years Kelly and Dani were in Provo, they went camping often. They’re also only 20 minutes from several ski resorts. Their 2 kids, Kennedy and Mason, have plenty to do, and this past year Kelly got his son Mason into downhill mountain biking. One other big bonus is that Dani’s parents (Marie and Eric Caler) also live nearby.
Kelly is especially excited about his new position as Manager of Customer Service because every aspect of it will be new to him. It’s definitely a challenge.
“For the first time since I’ve been at Duncan Aviation, I’m out of Paint. I loved what I did, the teams I’ve worked with, and hitting the metrics we did. There was always plenty going on, but I had started asking myself, ‘OK, what’s next?’ Paint is what I’ve done and talked about for almost 20 years, so I’m embracing the change.”
Because Kelly has been in Provo for nearly 7 years, he knows and has worked with the Project Managers on various projects.
“This is a good team, and we’re going to make sure going forward that we’re exceeding our customers’ expectations on every project,” says Kelly. “I have a major passion for things being on time, and I feel we are responsible for upholding our end of the deal with customers.”