Maria Deacon is senior vice president of technical operations at United Airlines. In this role, she oversees United’s maintenance operations, ground service equipment and facilities maintenance, supply chain, technical services and planning and strategy.

Maria also helps shape the continued growth and investment in United’s Calibrate apprenticeship program, helping the airline expand and diversify its next generation of maintenance employees.

Prior to joining United, Maria served as GE Aerospace’s general manager of maintenance, repair and overhaul (MRO) where she was responsible for delivering revenue across a mix of more than two dozen global GE and partner sites worldwide.

As general manager of CFM Services at GE before that, she oversaw the financial aspects of the largest in-service fleet in commercial aviation and the joint venture relationship for all CFM and LEAP engine services.

Maria holds a CPA from the University of Cardiff in Wales, U.K. and is a certified investment management accountant.

James joined United in September of 2023 as Vice President, Heavy Airframe Maintenance and leads the organization focused on planning and operational execution of the United Technical Operations $1.2B annual Heavy Maintenance portfolio, including United’s internal locations as well as the comprehensive network of external maintenance service providers.

Before joining United, James was SVP and General Manager of Aftermarket Services-Americas for Parker Meggitt with divisional P&L responsibility for the material distribution and repair services business across the full portfolio of Parker Meggitt products.

James has spent the majority of his career with GE Aviation’s commercial Engines Services organization, with over 18 years in multiple operational and business strategy roles of increasing leadership responsibility. James is a graduate of the University of Cardiff, Wales in the United Kingdom, and has a demonstrated track record of driving improvement in operational financials and key business performance metrics and developing high performing teams. Originally from the Cardiff in the UK, James and his family relocated to the United States in 2015, and as a true Welshman is an avid supporter of the Welsh Rugby team.

Rodney currently serves as the Vice President of Maintenance Operations for United, which includes Line Maintenance and Technical Operations Maintenance Control (TOMC). Previous to his July 2021 promotion, Rodney served as managing director for Line Maintenance, which includes nearly 5,000 technicians at 48 stations around the world.

Before leading the Line Maintenance organization, Rodney was managing director of aircraft maintenance for the IAH hub and Central Region. Before that, he served as managing director of Continuing Analysis and Surveillance System (CASS), with responsibility for ensuring our maintenance program was effective in providing safe and reliable operations. While in this role, his organization played a significant role in achieving an FAA-approved Safety Management System and a Single Operating Certificate following the 2010 United-Continental merger.

Rodney earned his Airframe and Powerplant Certification in 1985 from Colorado Aero Tech and joined Continental in DEN, moved to LAX as a maintenance supervisor and then Houston (HOU/IAH) where he started the RAMS (Recovery and Maintenance Specialists) team. Rodney went on to hold positions as a shift manager and senior manager. During his tenure at IAH, he was recruited to serve as director of Reliability Engineering. “That was a huge turning point for me,” Rodney said. “My whole career up to that point had been about turning wrenches on airplanes. This change in career paths gave me a better understanding of the why and how we produce safe and reliable airplanes.”

Rodney is a certified Six Sigma black belt. He also is United’s FAA-designated Director of Maintenance.

Mara is Vice President of Engineering and Reliability at United. In this role, she leads fleet engineering, aircraft and customer experience engineering, services engineering, powerplant engineering and the reliability and maintenance programs. Under her leadership, the engineering group makes up about 450 of the 14,000+ Tech Ops employees at United.

Mara has worked in the aviation industry since 2001. Prior to joining United in 2023, Mara led Global Technical Operations for Amazon Air where she was responsible for the performance of Amazon’s fleet as well as the long-term strategy and tactical execution of fleet reliability, maintenance operations, aircraft conversion and heavy maintenance, engine maintenance and repair and overhaul (MRO), including vendor selection, contract negotiation and execution.

Before taking over the division, she was General Manager of Amazon Air’s regional air hub at RFD (Rockford, IL), with 1,200 employees across three shifts. Prior to Amazon, Mara worked at GE Aviation in systems engineering, manufacturing engineering, quality engineering and in manufacturing operations.

Mara earned her bachelor’s and master’s degrees in systems and controls engineering from Case Western Reserve University and holds an MBA from Indiana University.

Tarundeep serves as the vice president of supply chain planning for United. In this role, he oversees the supply chain planning organization which has 2,000 employees and includes the warehousing and distribution group, component and engine overhaul and repair, and provisioning, repair services, and rooling teams. He will jointly lead United’s relationships with some of the company’s largest suppliers for engines and component maintenance.

Tarundeep started at United in 2007 as a Lean/Six Sigma Black Belt and later served in Contact Centers as manager of customer solutions, in Airport Operations as senior manager of continuous improvement, and in Finance as director of business and technology resource strategy. He joined Tech Ops in 2015 as director of process improvement and project management and took on his current role in July 2019.

Tarundeep earned his bachelor’s degree in Production and Industrial Engineering from Delhi College of Engineering in India, and his master’s in Industrial & Systems Engineering from the University of Wisconsin–Madison. Prior to joining United, he was an Advance Industrial Engineer and Lean Six Sigma Coach for the Supply Chain and Distribution division of the 3M Company.

John Wiitala is Chief Engineer and Vice President of Safety and Compliance for United Airlines, the world’s leading airline. He is responsible for the safety and compliance of all work done to United aircraft. His team includes quality control, quality assurance, CASS, safety, and aircraft records.

Prior to this role, John was VP of Technical Services. He joined United in 1992 and held several engineering jobs throughout the organization including director of engineering and managing director of project engineering.

John began his aviation career in 1988 in project engineering at Aircraft Modular Products in Miami, Florida.

John received his Bachelor of Science degree in Mechanical Engineering from University of Iowa. He is married and has two children.