Written by: Chelsea Clute, Executive Director, CSM Foundation
Article Originally Published:https://www.csmd.edu/news/2021/avian-president-and-ceo-kevin-switick-joins-csm-foundation.html
The College of Southern Maryland (CSM) Foundation announces retired U.S. Navy (USN) Commander Kevin Switick has joined the Foundation’s board as its newest director. The Calvert County resident is the president and chief executive officer at AVIAN Inc., an employee-owned business in Lexington Park.
“We are very excited to have Kevin join the Foundation and bring his wealth of experience to support our students and CSM’s role as an economic partner in our communities,” said CSM Executive Director of the CSM Foundation Chelsea Clute. “His leadership and ties to our military communities will be invaluable.”
Switick’s company, AVIAN, is a defense aerospace services company that has consistently grown over the past 16 years and has been recognized by Inc. Magazine as one of America’s fastest-growing private companies for 10 consecutive years, as well as one of the nation’s Best Places to Work. AVIAN has more than 300 employees serving more than 80 clients in 13 states with annual revenues exceeding $50 million.
“Supporting the CSM Foundation mission is an opportunity I am really looking forward to,” Switick said. “Access to education and making meaningful connections are two passions of mine. I look forward to being a member of the board and sharing thoughts and ideas that ultimately support education seekers in our tri-county area that can’t afford to fund their educational goals.”
Switick is a graduate of Villanova University, the University of Tennessee Space Institute, the U.S. Air Force’s Air Command and Staff College, and the United States Naval Test Pilot School (USNTPS). He served as a naval officer, as a member of the Department of Defense’s Acquisition Professional Community, the USN’s Space Cadre, and the Navy’s Aerospace Engineering Duty Officer Corp from 1986 to 2006. Switick is a Desert Storm veteran and has supported the Naval Air Systems Command (NAVAIR) in Patuxent River, Maryland for more than 30 years. His professional experience at NAVAIR includes serving as a test pilot and instructor for the USNTPS, a product team lead for the MH-60R Program, and the chief operational test director for Air Test and Evaluation Squadron (VX) ONE. His tours included HSL-42 and HSL-37 flying attack helicopters from small combatant warships. From 1999 to 2002, Switick was assigned to the Navy Warfare Development Command and he served in the Concepts Development Department as the Unmanned Systems Concept Development Lead. In 2009, he was a key architect for what is now known as NAVAIR University.
The CSM Foundation, a nonprofit, 501(c)3 charitable organization established in 1970, helps increase access to higher education at CSM through scholarship funding and assures the excellence of that education by raising and managing funds for college projects and objectives – including workforce development in Southern Maryland. The CSM Foundation is comprised of a tri-county, all-volunteer board of directors.
