INDIANAPOLIS — On the west side of Indianapolis, people fly in and out to travel, work, and vacation. By the end of this year, Indianapolis International Airport may break a record with more than 10 million passengers passing through its two concourses, and Mario Rodriguez is leading the facility’s success.
“People here are the most generally nice people I’ve ever met in my entire life, and I’ve been around the world genuinely nice and generally hard-working with a good heart. That really is the magic sauce. It’s the people,” said Rodriguez.
Rodriguez, who arrived in Indianapolis in 2014, marked a decade this year in his leadership post as the executive director of the airport known as IND around the world.
“I’ve reached the point in my career that I don’t believe my own B.S. You know, I truly believe in collectivism. The entire team, as long as they are pointed in the right direction and trying to do the right thing will come up with the most brilliant ideas that we could implement for the community and make our community better.”
The executive, with nearly 40 years of industry experience, has instilled that work culture, which has resulted in IND becoming one of the best airports in North America for more than a decade. The airport has also received acknowledgments from the prestigious J.D. Powers, which has noted its high customer service delivery.
And following the COVID-19 pandemic, Indy’s airport hasn’t just *survived but has also thrived.
Rodriguez has experience navigating through catastrophes after what he saw in 2005 when Hurricane Katrina hit New Orleans.
“It showed me the depths of positive energy that human beings have and the positive care that they have for each other.”
He worked as the Deputy Director of New Orleans International during the Katrina catastrophe, which forever changed the face of that historic city.
“I still have nightmares. We had 22 deaths, unfortunately, in the terminal. We have 20 births in the terminal. It was humanity and its humanity at its worst. I could solidly say That our team helped people and saved people’s lives.”
While the airport never flooded, it became the hub for evacuations, helping those sheltered in place for the storm fly to cities across the country.
“Your first priority is to take care of the people in the community. Everything else is insignificant.”
He added, “People try to control what they cannot control, so they use up their resources doing things that don’t matter instead of concentrating your resources and things that actually matter.”
Between New Orleans and IND, Rodriguez had some layovers in leadership roles in Hong Kong, Kuwait, California, New York, and Florida.
In Indianapolis, Mario works with a team of 525 people and oversees an operating budget of $123.4 million and $300 million in capital fund appropriations.
He has to juggle many high-level decisions daily, but if he got the chance to announce the airport’s public address system, you’d hear this:
“Welcome to Indianapolis, Where you will realize what really isn’t important in life and what support of life is you, your friends, and everybody that surrounds you.”
