A REMIT THAT RUNS FROM CYBERSECURITY TO AI

AAR CORP. has announced that Sanjay Sood has joined as Senior Vice President and Chief Digital and Technology Officer, effective immediately. He will oversee the company’s technology organisation, covering enterprise systems, infrastructure, cybersecurity, data and analytics, and efforts to further apply artificial intelligence and other technologies across operations. He reports directly to John M. Holmes, Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer.

Sood joins from CDW, a multi-brand provider of information technology solutions, where he served as Senior Vice President and Chief Technology Officer and led the modernisation of the company’s platforms, data architecture and AI initiatives, as well as managing the technical integration of multiple acquisitions. He previously held senior technology and product leadership positions at HERE Technologies, where he was responsible for global engineering organisations and emerging product development, and earlier roles at YP, formerly AT&T Interactive, AllVoices and BuzzLabs. He holds a doctorate in computer science and a bachelor’s degree in computer science and communication studies from Northwestern University.

THE ACQUISITION INTEGRATION LINE IS THE RELEVANT ONE

Of everything in that background, the detail most directly applicable to AAR is the one that sounds least glamorous: managing the technical integration of multiple acquisitions. AAR has been an active acquirer. It completed the Aircraft Reconfig Technologies acquisition during its most recent financial year, bringing FAA Organization Designation Authorization capability into its Engineering Services division, and continues to integrate the HAECO Americas business. Each acquisition arrives with its own systems, data structures and processes, and the value of a deal is frequently realised or lost in whether those are successfully merged into the parent.

Holmes described Sood as bringing a combination of large-scale information technology leadership, infrastructure modernisation and AI implementation experience, and said his leadership would be critical as the company continues executing its long-term strategy and strengthening the systems and data management that help the business operate effectively.

FOLLOWING AIRVOYANT

The appointment follows the launch of Airvoyant, AAR’s AI-powered aviation procurement platform connecting buyers directly to suppliers, which the company announced alongside record fiscal year 2026 results in July. That launch put a software product into a business historically defined by parts and repair, and the arrival of a chief digital and technology officer with a doctorate in computer science and a record in AI implementation suggests the company intends to build on it rather than treat it as a one-off.

Sood’s own framing points the same way. He said he looked forward to helping connect information across the organisation, building on the strong foundation already in place and reinforcing the operational discipline that has long defined AAR, adding that advancing the company’s vast data resources is key to driving further value and efficiency for customers.

The word to note there is connect. A parts and repair business operating in more than 20 countries across three segments generates enormous quantities of data about what fails, how often, at which operators and under what conditions. That data has commercial value only if it can be brought together, which in most established companies is a systems problem rather than an analytical one. AAR describes itself as a parts, repair and software platform, and the ordering of those three words has shifted over the past year.