About

Having led the Irish operation of the global aircraft leasing company, Intrepid Aviation, Thomas Schmid has built a team of highly skilled professionals who have become known internally for their great sense of camaraderie in supporting future growth. To improve speed and efficiency of work within the function, Schmid recently brought a senior lawyer and a highly experienced contract manager to the team. ‘As a result our processes are far more robust, not only in terms of entering new contracts, but also in terms of the management of existing arrangements from aircraft leases to vendor agreements and contracts for the provision of corporate support services’, he says. Recently Schmid’s team experienced a significant challenge in the form of an insolvency of one of its largest airline customers, which resulted in the in the repossession of 7 aircraft, which were laid off for a significant period whilst a new lessee was identified, leases were negotiated and the aircraft reconfigured. Whilst the insolvency was a highly complex process and put significant strain on the business, through a very integrated approach across all the various disciplines within the business, Schmid and his colleagues successfully achieved a positive outcome following a two-year process. Whist at his previous employer, CIT Aerospace, Schmid moved internalised most of the legal work to generate a far more efficient and responsive process in addition to saving on significant costs. He started his in-house legal career at TUI Group in the UK, where he was involved in a mix of aviation regulatory work, commercial contracts and aircraft leasing.