Management, fellow employees, and family members convened in the boardroom at PJIAE last Friday for a pre-retirement send-off for Vernon Romney, Manager of PJIAE’s Electrical Department.
Vernon Romney has worked for the Princess Juliana International Airport company (PJIAE) for 26 years. In April 1986, fresh from his studies in The Netherlands, Romney took an entry-level position as an electrical technician at the airport.
The young technician was challenged to develop leadership skills from the very start. Romney recalled that within three weeks of his employment in the department, "my superiors left on vacation, leaving me to hold down the fort." Several years later he was promoted to supervisor.
In 2001, Romney moved up the ranks to manager of the Electrical Department.
At the reception last Friday afternoon, tributes to the soon-to-be-retired 60-year-old poured out, some were humorous, some were emotional and others inspirational.
Norma Brill, Manager of Human Resources, said that Romney was "dedicated to his job; an inspiration and guide to his team."
Mirto Breell, the Technical Department Manager, called Romney "a technician at heart (who) loved to get into the field. There were times that he would get into the process of executing projects when he could have simply delegated others to do it."
PJIAE Managing Director Regina LaBega said that she was moved to hear how Romney’s co-workers credited him for managing them as "a team."
When it was his turn to address the gathering, Vernon Romney said that he felt good leaving the company knowing that he did a good job. He attributed teamwork as the key to the success of the Electrical Department. "Because of the nature of the job, dealing with electricity, a partnership among team members (that) can look out for each other" is essential, said Rombley.
Romney encouraged his successor, Denniscio Boasman, to keep the team positive. He also joked about being willing to be on-call even after his formal retirement date of October 1, 2012.