Finding his 'true calling'

Mike Espenes took a few years to decide on an engineering career. Today, this Wisconsin native is our 2006 Corporate Engineer of the Year for Commercial Systems.

By Kathy Hogan

It's quite obvious — from the excitement in his voice — that Mike Espenes loves his work as a systems engineer at Rockwell Collins. Ironically, it took this native of La Crosse, Wis., a few years to find his true calling.

"This is my fourth career," admitted Espenes. "I started out in construction, I tried to sell real estate for awhile, and then I worked as a union painter."

But when the 1980s home construction boon took a dive, Espenes decided to return to college to pursue a degree that might eventually help him find a way to combine his passion for airplanes with his interest in math and science.

"I always did well in math and science," said Espenes, who also is a licensed pilot. "But writing software was always really my thing. I originally wanted to work with aviation simulators."

Today, more than 12 years after relocating to Cedar Rapids, Iowa, and joining Rockwell Collins, Espenes spends his days developing advanced flight management features for flight deck avionics.

His most recent project, and one for which he was honored recently as the 2006 Corporate Engineer of the Year for Commercial Systems, included working closely with our customers from Gulfstream, a top producer of business jet aircraft.

"My job is to interface with our customers, to listen and understand their requirements and their architectures," he said. "On occasion, I host them when they visit our facilities in Cedar Rapids, and sometimes I am required to travel to their facilities to show them our new software and products."

Despite his recent success, Espenes remains humble and is quick to give credit to the teammates that help him apply innovative applications to our aviation products and software.

"Working within a team is essential — nothing would get done without my colleagues," he said. "We can't do everything ourselves — we're not super engineers."

But given Rockwell Collins' success in recent years, some might beg to differ. For the third consecutive year, our company has delivered results that either met or exceeded long-term performance goals, thus leading to industry-leading financial results.

"Our customers really want our products and services, and they keep coming back," said Espenes. "It's really exciting that our products are in so many different airplanes. Our customers know they can trust us, and that's a good feeling."

With all of this recent success comes a schedule that Espenes admits can be challenging to manage. Still, this graduate of the University of Wisconsin — La Crosse, can't imagine doing anything else.

"We're oftentimes asked to turn things around very quickly," he said. "Somehow, we're able to keep up and we often exceed expectations. That's what makes this career so exciting and so rewarding."