Neville and aerial perspective are skirting the issue of the rise of so called "professional" management. This is the theory that if you have scientific training in the management arts, via an MBA or similar, you can manage any organization without coal face experience.
I can tell you this is BS from personal experience as an MBA and as a CEO. As a manager, you have no hope of understanding the finer points of the business if you don't speak the language.
Examples; humble stuff like working for three months resolving part interchangeability issues learning how to read a Boeing IPC teaches you a lot. Working as a baggage handler. Intricate financial, maintenance reliability and other stuff.
To put it another way, what hope has Carmody got if he doesn't know what an MEL or AOG means? He is automatically at a disadvantage if his subordinates "get technical" and I can assure you they will deliberately do that to demonstrate their superiority. Thus Carmody ends up as another "empty suit" with no contribution to make - a leader in name only.
You don't have to have detailed technical knowledge, but you must know how to speak the language.
What CASA needs, but won't get, is an aviation professional with serious public service experience of a non military kind.