Ronald Mathieu
Ronald F. Mathieu (born 1962 in Port-au-Prince, Haiti) is the president and CEO of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth International Airport.
Mathieu and his mother emigrated to the United States in 1967, rejoining his father, Emmanual, who had moved to New York three years earlier. He graduated in 1980 from Forest Hills High School in Queens, where he was a member of the Aviation Club. He completed a bachelor of science in aviation management at the Florida Institute of Technology in Melbourne in 1985. He earned his pilot's license there and interned during the summers for the Port Authority of New York and New Jersey, John F. Kennedy Airport, and with consulting firms.
In 2002 Mathieu was named director of operations for Florida's Fort Lauderdale Hollywood International Airport. In 2006 he was hired as deputy executive director for Little Rock National Airport in Arkansas. After two years he was promoted to executive director for the facility, which was renamed the Bill and Hillary Clinton National Airport in 2012.
In 2017 Mathieu was diagnosed with polycystic disease, which caused his kidneys to fail. His wife, Yasmine, proved to be a candidate for a match. Despite a complication, she labored to find a medical team willing to risk the operation with her kidney, which saved his life.
Mathieu was invited to apply for the vacancy in Birmingham while attending a conference in Hawaii. With the encouragement of his wife, Yasmine, he interviewed and was hired in 2019. Since taking the job he has helped arrange reductions in debt service while also overseeing significant updates to facilities.
References
- Wilson, Haley (February 9, 2022) "CEO Ronald Mathieu’s $8.3M Transformation of Birmingham-Shuttlesworth Airport." The Birmingham Times
- Wilson, Haley (February 9, 2022) "How Yasmine Mathieu’s Persistence Saved Her Husband, Ron’s, Life." The Birmingham Times