Sean, Kate & Eric Gillespie of Flying Colours

Trent University Luminaries: Sean, Kate & Eric Gillespie of Flying Colours

3 minutes, 22 seconds in length

Description: Sean, Kate & Eric are standing outside on a tarmac with a plane in the immediate background.

Kate Gillespie Ahrens, class of 2005.

And I'm Sean Gillespie, class of 2003.

I'm Eric Gillespie, class of 2004, we all took Business Administration at Trent University. We're Flying Colours, an aviation completion centre based in Peterborough, Ontario. We have another facility in the U.S., so we do everything from heavy maintenance to completions and refurbishment modification, interior/exterior, avionics upgrades.

We work with various manufacturers and various partners worldwide, customer base and on the vendor-side, and we employ about 300 people in North American, so 200 here out of our facility in Canada, and another 100 in the U.S.

Eric and I collectively, I mean, we both do the sales and program management here at Flying Colors so we oversee, we deal with the clients on a day-to-day basis and also oversee all the different programs that we have here and at our facility in the US. We're looking to expand both here in Peterborough and in our St. Louis location, but the next big, big step is global expansion, so we're hoping to have a base of operation most likely somewhere in the Asian area within the next probably 12-18 months. We've already been negotiating with different partners for the last probably 12 months, so it's something that doesn't happen overnight, you kinda gotta do your research, but we're certainly excited about it because again, right now I mean over 50 percent of our client base is globally-based, they're not based in North America, so I mean, I guess our branding is working, we're getting overseas, but we have to have a base of operation there, just to support the products, so that's the big next thing. And then obviously we continue to grow in different aircraft platforms and as we continue to grow the company, that'll continue to grow too.

My favourite thing about attending Trent was the size, generally speaking class size was nice so you can get a good group, you got to know them, that's part of the culture I think at Trent, at least when I was there, it's still much like that from what I've heard, and it's one of those things where class size is good, the University itself is something you can go to, you can go to class, you get to know where your class-- you get to know your professors 1-on-1.

Obviously the campus and the geographic location and how it's on the water and the architecture, it's just a unique school and especially -- just to kind of comment on the Business program, I mean, it's a lot of variety you know, it gives you a little bit of each type and skill in terms of business, and I think that goes a long way, I mean you can see it has evolved now into your work, into your workplace where you get -- it teaches you to think, it gives you the avenue, and again from the business side, it gives you a little marketing, you can formulate all the different skills on the business side, and I think it definately pays off in the long run.

And Trent is such a great, diverse group of people going to it, and the reasons why they're going. So I think the quality is definately there, and small class sizes and everything, it allows you to care, they really care about the learning experience and especially the undergraduate experience and what you're taking there, as an individual.