Joseph Czyzyk is chairman an CEO of Mercury Air Group, an aviation services company. His company's headquarters is in Westchester, but the firm is expanding worldwide. "We are, whether we like it or not, a global economy. And there's no reason this local company in the South Bay should not be part of that," he said.
(Robert Casillas / Staff Photographer)

From his corporate headquarters in Westchester, Joseph Czyzyk scans the globe like an airplane passenger 40,000 feet up may see the ground below: with a broad, panoramic view.

Yet, for Czyzyk (pronounced Chizzick), the ground below is within his grasp.

The chairman and CEO of Mercury Air Group Inc., an aviation services company, is expanding his firm's worldwide reach.

The private company recently opened the Middle East's largest private air terminal facility, at Kuwait International Airport. The company is considering opening facilities in other countries including India.

Mercury Air Group already provides services in many parts of North, Central and South America, Asia, the Middle East and the Mediterranean region.

Customers include corporate aircraft operators, major airlines and the U.S. military.

"We are, whether we like it or not, a global economy," Czyzyk said in a recent interview. "And there's no reason this local company in the South Bay should not be part of that. And we are."

Czyzyk, 60, joined the company in 1984, and steadily moved up the ranks amid turbulent times for the firm. These included a painful downsizing that cut the workforce in half, a move to take the company private after many years as a public entity and growth that has brought the firm about $1 billion in annual revenue.

Because of Mercury Air Group's operations abroad, Czyzyk often finds himself on a plane heading to or from an exotic location.

"We at our company still believe in the personal touch, and we'll get on a plane and fly to Asia to let our customers know we appreciate their business," he said.

He added: "It's rare I'll take a personal vacation without tying in some business with it."

Czyzyk's firm currently employs about 1,500 people, with up to 900 in California and roughly 600 in the South Bay.

Mercury Air Group was founded in 1956 by three members of the legendary Flying Tigers, which flew combat missions in the Pacific during World War II.

The firm's largest business by revenue is MercFuel, which sells aircraft fuel mostly to the fractional aircraft and charter aircraft industries in the United States. This business is the largest independent provider of aviation fuel to the nation's fractional jet industry. (Fractional aircraft allow private individuals or organizations to become part owners of a plane, thereby sharing in the use and cost.)

Another Mercury Air Group business is Maytag Aircraft Corp., which provides the U.S. military with aircraft refueling, air terminal and ground handling services, base operating support and other services.

Maytag is the U.S. Air Force Air Mobility Command's largest worldwide provider of air terminal and ground handling services.

Maytag Aircraft has supported military operations in Bosnia and Iraq, and has even serviced Air Force One.

Through its Mercury Air Cargo Inc. business, Mercury Air Group also provides cargo handling and warehouse services, logistics services, air cargo charter and airline cargo sales worldwide.

While Czyzyk's business perspective is global, his civic interests are local. In 1999, he was appointed by Los Angeles Mayor Richard Riordan to serve on the city's Department of Transportation Commission.

From that group, the city created the Board of Taxicab Commissioners, where Czyzyk has served as president since 2001.

Also in 2001, Czyzyk was elected to the board of the Los Angeles Area Chamber of Commerce. Since 2003, he has served on the board's executive committee. He is currently co-chair of the board's aviation committee.

"This company that's really probably unknown to most citizens of Los Angeles simply has its wings all over the globe," said Gary Toebben, president and CEO of the Los Angeles chamber.

Toebben recalls attending a dinner party thrown by Czyzyk and his wife Faye, and realizing how "international" they are.

"This is a very international couple and many of their friends are international," Toebben said. "There were 12 of us, and I think eight of the people were born outside the United States. They have friends from all different nations around the globe."

Toebben added that Czyzyk represents the American Dream and "believe(s) in this country as a place for immigrants and children of immigrants to succeed."

Czyzyk and his family immigrated to the United States from Montreal, Canada, 45 years ago. But Czyzyk traces his family's first immigrant experience even further in the past.

Czyzyk was born in 1947 in a small town outside Warsaw, Poland. Two years earlier, his Jewish parents had been hiding out in the Soviet Union to escape the violence of World War II.

Czyzyk's father worked as a furrier, making fur coats. But after the war, the family moved around Europe before finally immigrating in 1949 to Canada, where his father took on odd jobs.

In 1963, the family moved to Los Angeles, where Czyzyk attended Fairfax High School. He graduated two years later. His father purchased and ran a nursing home in Lynwood.

After high school, Czyzyk took classes at Los Angeles City College for two years. Then he joined the Navy, and learned civil engineering skills with the Seabees.

He spent about two years in Vietnam during the war.

When he left the service in 1970, Czyzyk looked for work in civil engineering, but found nothing. So like his father in Canada, Czyzyk took on odd jobs including as a bank teller and flower exchange broker.

About a year later, he took a job with United Airlines in Los Angeles as a sales rep, selling cargo space on airplanes. He was 21 at the time.

Six months later, he landed a job selling air cargo space for El Al, the Israeli carrier.

"I learned a lot about the business," Czyzyk said. "At the start, it was just me and my shadow working out of a rented office near LAX. I built it up to 40 people."

In the process, he also found time to acquire his pilot's license.

After eight years with El Al in Los Angeles, he moved to New York to serve as the airline's North American cargo manager.

Five years later, in 1984, Mercury Air Group recruited Czyzyk to develop a cargo division for the company. He started out as general manager and vice president for cargo.

A year later, Czyzyk was promoted to president of Mercury Services, which, at the time, was the umbrella organization for all the company's Los Angeles area businesses, he said.

"At the time, it was the bulk of the labor and capital intensive businesses," Czyzyk said.

And many of the businesses were losing money. So Czyzyk began to streamline the company by selling off or merging businesses.

"It was a very difficult period because when you're reducing a company's size, you have to do it in tandem with reducing costs," including cutting jobs, he said.

By 1994, when Czyzyk was named chief operating officer, the workforce had been cut from 3,000 employees to 1,500.

Czyzyk continued to develop the businesses and his career. In 1999, he was promoted to president and CEO. In 2004, he became chairman and CEO.

Two years later, he privatized the company to avoid complicated and expensive new regulations governing public firms.

Looking back on his life and career, Czyzyk said he was guided by ambition for success, a fascination with airplanes and a desire to improve other people's lives.

"Having the experience of my father having had so many odd jobs I always wanted to be an employer and help people put bread on the table," he said.