Kern Award Recipient Grover: Teamwork Is Essential for Safety

Max Grover, recipient of NBAA ‘s 2023 Dr. Tony Kern Professionalism in Aviation Award, describes the progression of his career as falling upwards, being at the right place at the right time with the right network.

Now a Gulfstream captain for Liberty Mutual Insurance in Boston, safety has been the guiding influence from the start – when he secured an internship with EMC Corporation in 2008. Overall, Grover has learned during his career that safety is about teamwork.

“It’s one thing to say we practice teamwork, it’s a whole other thing to understand the nuts and bolts that make it happen,” Grover said. “It’s an incredible exercise in learning, understanding and humility that forces you to be a student of the whole science of aviation. You must be open to new ideas, to act on ideas from those around you, because the end goals and success of the group at large is more important than self.”

Grover discovered business aviation at the end of high school, when “I got hooked up with Marquis Jet, a large jet card ownership operation,” Grover said. “Making cold calls was part of the job, and I made a lot of great contacts.” Attending the University of Massachusetts-Amherst, he secured a NetJets internship, but it disappeared with the great financial crisis of 2008. Rather than squander the semester, he sent resumes to every Boston-based NBAA member. “I got a great response from the director of aviation at EMC.”

Grover began his 13-year career at EMC after college.

“Someone left, so they brought me on as a contractor; then they needed full time; then I upgraded to captain; and then was the safety officer for seven years. By the time of my departure, I was covering most of the assistant chief pilot duties.” Along the way, Grover also started a safety consulting business.

In his current position, Grover said, Liberty Mutual is thinking outside the box to optimize its safety management program.

“Liberty is rewriting its documents not in academic safety-speak but in direct, operational language of the frontline personnel who deliver safety every day. In my experience, Liberty has been constantly looking to evolve the nature of the operation and build on our generative culture” added Grover. “Aviation is a dynamic endeavor, and you can’t rest on your laurels. Continuous improvement is the cornerstone of professionalism.”