Eren Ozmen Becomes the Fourth Woman to Receive the Howard Hughes Award
On October 3, the Aero Club of Southern California gave out its 45th annual Howard Hughes Memorial Award at The California Club in downtown Los Angeles to Eren Ozmen. Dating back to 1978, the Howard Hughes Memorial Award has been presented to people from a wide variety of backgrounds who have made major contributions to the advancement of aviation and aerospace.
Eren Ozmen is the Chairwoman and owner of the Sierra Nevada Corporation, one of the most influential aerospace and defense companies in the United States today.
Eren immigrated to the United States in the 1980s with her husband Fatih from Turkey. The Ozmens began working at the Sierra Nevada Corporation when it was still a fledgling startup and in 1994, they decided to take a leap of faith and purchase the company, using their house as collateral. Today, SNC has grown into a multi-billion dollar corporation with thousands of employees. The Ozmens have also leveraged the success of SNC to purchase and maintain a large portfolio of smaller aerospace companies.
The ceremony and guest of honor were impressive on their own, but for two Pacmin Studios employees, Stefanie and Nadya, this year’s award was particularly special.
Eren was just the fourth woman in the 45 year history of this award to be selected, highlighting both the lack of gender diversity in the aviation and aerospace industry, while simultaneously signaling much-needed progress towards more inclusion.
As of 2020, the U.S. Labor and Statistics estimated that only 15% of workers in the US aerospace industry were women. This statistic is no surprise to Nadya and Stefanie, who have both had to push through outdated expectations of their roles as women to pursue their career goals.
Stefanie, an account manager at Pacmin Studios, has aspirations of managing a large portfolio of companies, very similar to Ozmen. Having grown up in an environment where she felt the pressure as a woman to pursue a more domestic lifestyle instead of a career, Stefanie found comfort and inspiration in knowing that not only is she not alone in her ambitions, but that her goals are more than possible.
“I’m a firm believer that you are who you surround yourself with. Being at the Aero Club’s event surrounded by wonderful, ambitious people reminded me to keep my chin up and keep going with my aspirations,” says Stefanie.
Nadya felt similarly empowered. Nadya’s ambitious nature has led to a lengthy career at Pacmin Studios in multiple departments, finally landing her in sales as a Senior Account Manager. A department she initially felt intimidated by, Nadya is not only comfortable in sales, but is finding an innate talent for it.
Regarding the ceremony, Nadya remarked, “I was truly inspired by the accomplished women in the room; each person I spoke with had a strong presence and held an important role in their field.”
The award is a positive indication of the industry beginning to open up to more diversity but it begs the question of what would happen if those boundaries ever fully dissolved. What would our industry look like if women like Nadya and Stefanie didn’t feel like they were breaking through the norm to follow their ambitions. How many women out there had the same desire to follow in Eren, Nadya, and Stefanie’s footsteps but weren’t able to even get through the door?
While there is still much work to be done towards helping women pursue and attain their goals in the aerospace industry, Eren Ozmen’s success and acceptance by a longstanding organization such as the Aero Club gives hope. We hope that stories like those from Eren, Stefanie, and Nadya inspire other women to pursue their goals in aerospace and look forward to the valuable innovations and contributions they will inevitably make.
The Aero Club of Southern California is a charitable aviation industry non-profit. If you’re interested in learning more about their work, check out their website here.
By Max Ouweleen
In addition to his work in Post Production in the television industry, he enjoys exploring the more esoteric aspects of aviation as a creative contributor to the Pacmin Studios newsletter.
About Pacmin Studios
Pacmin Studios has been serving the aviation and transportation industries with creative physical and digital models and exhibits since 1946.
Known for producing high quality custom aircraft display models, Pacmin Studios has evolved to provide a suite of additional services, including graphic design, CAD, CGI rendering and animation, livery design, and other transportation marketing solutions.
