Northwest Aerospace News June | July 2019 Issue No. 9 | Page 34

Salvage Mission
Having acquired Color Craft, Stewart’s first goal was to ensure that the company’s relationships survived the financial
crisis that it was facing. Fortunately, his career to that point had left him well-prepared for the challenge.
He had spent several years with Goodrich Aerospace, a publicly traded, Fortune 500 company where he worked as a
member of the management team in the Aviation Technical Services business unit, based in Everett, Washington. ATS
was then the largest commercial aircraft maintenance and repair facility in the United States, and Stewart eventually
rose to the role of vice president of operations.
After leaving Goodrich in 1999, he established WolfBay Equity, a closely held investment vehicle, and began to
accumulate underperforming businesses in the materials testing industry. After 10 years, his flagship business was
recognized as the largest independently owned non-destructive materials testing business in the Pacific Northwest. And
in 2004, Caliber Inspection was named the “Fastest Growing Business” by the Puget Sound Business Journal. Caliber
continued to grow and in 2010 it was purchased by a publicly traded company. The following year, Stewart acquired
Color Craft.
“During those first few months, I spent a lot of time convincing those customers that they should continue to make a bet
on Color Craft,” he said. “To succeed, we needed to become extremely focused on solving the customer’s problems.
“We try to know as much about our customers’ supply chain needs as they do, and sometimes, we even know more.
Let’s face it: when you’re building an airplane, a lavatory placard is not at the top of your list of things to worry about.
However, if that placard isn’t right, it will stop the airplane from flying. We’ve had situations where a 150 million dollar
airplane is sitting in the delivery area and it can’t take off because of an incorrect placard.”
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