Captain Jan Becker AM

Captain Jan Becker AM has a history of breaking boundaries and making impact within her career. She’s a CEO, helicopter pilot, midwife, international leader, and Griffith University Masters graduate, who has carved out a unique business path, combining her passion for flying with her skills as a midwife. As the CEO of the largest helicopter pilot training Academy in the Southern Hemisphere, Jan coordinates emergency responses in floods, bushfires, and other emergencies as well as overseeing the training of the next generation of pilots. That's alongside the joy of helping to bring a new life into the world, in the midwifery training clinic in she founded in Tanzania. Last year, Jan received an Order of Australia Medal for her service to aviation and community health, through neonatal organizations. And now she’s also the 2021 Outstanding Alumnus Award winner for Griffith Sciences.

“When I found out I’d won the Outstanding Alumni Award I was really elated because, you know, Griffith University has such a large pool of that kind of talent, especially in the science technology and aviation sector,” Jan said. “I was really proud. Hopefully that inspires somebody else to kind of get out there and make a difference.”

Jan co-founded Becker Helicopter Services which started in a humble tin shed in 1996, in part to defy expectations and keep a promise she made herself when she started her career. “I remember sitting down with one of my early bosses as a sales rep and she said, ‘What are your goals?’ I said, ‘Well, I'm going to be CEO of my own company one day.’ I'll never forget, she just laughed. I remember thinking, you know what, game on!”

And she’s continued to make waves ever since; as CEO of Becker Helicopter Pilot Academy, she’s helped the company to turn over $20 million a year and employ a staff of 70. Jan was even appointed Chair of the Helicopter Association International, in the US.

“When I was first appointed to the board, I was the first woman on the board in 58 years, and I just finished a year as the Chair,” Jan explained. “When I first got on the board, my mission was to then inspire other women, there's now three women on the board and that’s the first time ever in history they’ve had that. I feel like having my Masters in Aviation Management definitely gave me so credibility to be put forward for some of these programs.”

Having worked as a registered nurse and midwife in hospitals and remote settings across Australia, New Zealand, Papua New Guinea and Africa, Jan has seen first-hand how life can change in an instant. As a registered nurse and midwife, Jan is passionate about reducing child mortality and improving maternal health in some of the world’s most under-resourced countries. She is the co-founder of Midwife Vision Global with her daughter Chase, which offers education, professional support and resources to midwives at Amana Referral Hospital in Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.

“When you walk into a labor ward in Tanzania, you don't know what you're going to get. And in a shift, which is an eight to nine-hour shift, you might deliver 20 babies, or you might deliver 40. It's not like planning the helicopters. You know you're going to do 10 flights in that day, and you plan it out. In delivery, in the labor ward, it can be a hot mess. It's like, ‘Oh, flip, we got seven babies being born and there's four of us.’ Or there might be nothing for a couple of hours. So, I like the difference, and to be honest, I need that difference.

“At times the work load was overwhelming in Tanzania ,alongside local midwives who are incredible. But as overwhelming as it is, being a global citizen we must all pledge to reach out—it’s about a touch a smile a conversation to say you are visible, the world sees you.”

Jan said she could never have made the impact she has without the success of Becker Helicopters, and that it is important as humans that we use our success to give back in any way we can.

“To me, it is not enough to be successful in business, or in a relationship or in life without giving back. We need to change our thinking give back and not necessarily for the whole world, even just for one. You might say ‘Look, I couldn't do what you do.’ Well, you know what you do? You could spend $5 a week and donate that to an organisation for whatever your hot-button issue is.

“We have a responsibility globally to each other. Otherwise, you're just in a vacuum. You are just a tree that stands on a hill alone. We are part of a forest, and we need to be part of that ecosystem and nourish it, so it grows.”