MAC hires Minnesota native to lead commission

Leading a major hub airport has long been Brian Ryks' dream job.

And that's what the Lake­ville native will be doing come May, when he assumes the helm as executive director and chief executive officer of the Metropolitan Airports Commission (MAC).

The fact that his new job is based at Minneapolis-St. Paul International Airport in his home state makes the move that much sweeter.

The MAC unanimously approved Ryks' appointment Monday following a nationwide search. He will succeed current executive director and CEO Jeff Hamiel, who is retiring after 39 years at the commission.

Ryks, 52, now executive director and CEO of Gerald R. Ford International Airport in Grand Rapids, Mich. — a highly ranked facility for service quality — said he was "honored and humbled" to return to the MAC, where he began his career in 1986 as a noise and operations technician after graduating from St. Cloud State University.

Ryks will be paid $280,000 a year at the MAC, where he will lead a staff of 580 employees and oversee a $300 million annual budget.

He joins the MAC at a critical time. As the number of passengers traveling through MSP continues to grow beyond 37 million annually, the commission has embarked on an ambitious $2.5 billion overhaul over the next decade that will remake Terminal 1, also known as the Lindbergh terminal.

Ryks said he will engage all stakeholders — including MAC staffers, community members and the traveling public — to work on challenges facing MSP, as well as the six smaller metro-area airports under the MAC umbrella.

While MAC members unanimously endorsed Ryks, at least one commissioner said he favored Dennis Probst, chief operating officer and a finalist for the top job. Probst "was my first choice," said Michael Madigan, noting Ryks' jump from Grand Rapids to MSP "is not a two-tier jump, it's a three-tier jump."

Madigan nonetheless voted in favor of Ryks' appointment.

MAC Chair Dan Boivin said the salary at MSP is far lower than similar jobs at peer airports, and that was a factor in the number of people who applied for the job. Ultimately, the contest came down to three finalists — Ryks, Probst and Tammy Lee Stanoch, vice president of corporate affairs at Carlson Cos.

Boivin said the process was a long one that he tried to make as "open and inclusive" as possible. "Coming from the private sector, interviewing finalists in public" was a bit different, he noted.

As executive director of the Duluth Airport Authority from 2002 to 2012, Ryks was involved in securing a financing package for a new terminal that included $47 million from federal sources. He helped establish a partnership that leveraged $3.1 million in private and public funds to develop the North Business Development industrial park for aeronautical businesses.

In 2012, he moved on to the Grand Rapids position, where he worked on $30 million in private and philanthropic support for a $45 million terminal expansion.

Janet Moore • 612-673-7752