Textron's Board of Directors provides strategic and management oversight as well as global business perspective, while upholding rigorous governance principles on behalf of the company's shareholders.
Scott C. Donnelly is chairman, president and chief executive officer of Textron Inc. Donnelly joined Textron in July 2008 as executive vice president and chief operating officer and was promoted to president and chief operating officer in January 2009. He became CEO in December 2009 and was elected chairman of the board effective September 1, 2010.
Donnelly was previously president and CEO for General Electric (GE) Aviation, the world's leading producer of large and small jet engines for commercial and military aircraft and a major provider of flight management, actuation and power management systems. Prior to that, he served as senior vice president and director of GE Global Research, the world's largest and most diversified industrial research organization.
Donnelly joined GE in 1989 as manager of Electronics Design Engineering for GE's Ocean Systems Division in Syracuse, NY. He went on to serve in a variety of leadership roles for the company, including engineering management positions with then-GE division of Martin Marietta in both Australia and the United States. In 1995, he moved to GE's Industrial Control Systems business, where he held various management positions. Donnelly was named a vice president of GE in 1997, responsible for Global Technology Operations at GE Healthcare.
Donnelly received a B.S. degree in electrical and computer engineering from the University of Colorado at Boulder. He is on the Board of Directors for Medtronic plc and the National Air and Space Museum and the Board of Trustees for Bryant University.
Mr. Ambrose, 63, is the retired Executive Vice President – Space of Lockheed Martin Corporation, a global security and aerospace company, where he led Lockheed Martin’s $12 billion Space business which employs approximately 20,000 people and provides advanced technology systems for national security, civil and commercial customers. Prior to his most recent role, which he assumed in 2013, he served as President, Lockheed Martin Information Systems & Global Solutions-National from 2011-2012 and as Vice President & General Manager, Lockheed Martin Surveillance & Navigation Systems line of business within Space from 2006 through 2010. He joined Lockheed in 2000 as Vice President & General Manager, Lockheed Martin Ground Systems and served as President, Lockheed Martin Maritime Systems & Sensors Tactical Systems from 2004-2006. Prior to Lockheed, Ambrose was President & General Manager, Space Systems, Hughes Information Systems (which merged with Raytheon C3I Systems in 1997) from 1995-2000.
Ms. Bader, 70, was President and Chief Executive Officer of NatureWorks LLC, which makes proprietary plastic resins and was formerly known as Cargill Dow LLC, until her retirement in January 2006. Formerly, she was a Business President of a $4.2 billion plastics portfolio at the Dow Chemical Company, a diversified chemical company. She joined Dow in 1973 and held various management positions in Dow’s global and North American operations, before becoming Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Cargill Dow LLC, at the time an equal joint venture between Dow and Cargill Incorporated, in February 2004. She assumed the position of President and Chief Executive Officer of NatureWorks in February 2005 following Cargill’s acquisition of Dow’s interest in Cargill Dow. She also served for seven years on President Bush’s Homeland Security Advisory Council.
Mr. Clark, 68, is the retired Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of Cardinal Health, Inc., a leading provider of services supporting the health care industry. He joined Cardinal Health in April 2006 as President and Chief Executive Officer, became Chairman in November 2007 and retired in September 2009. Prior to joining Cardinal Health he was Vice Chairman of the Board, P&G Family Health, and a director of The Procter and Gamble Company, which markets consumer products in over 140 countries, from 2002–2006. He joined Procter and Gamble in 1974 and served in various key executive positions before becoming Vice Chairman of the Board in 2002, and held that position until leaving the company in April 2006. Mr. Clark became a director of General Mills, Inc. in 2009 and a director of Anthem, Inc. in 2014. He served as a director of Avnet, Inc. from 2012 through 2019.
Mr. Conway, 73, is a retired General in the United States Marine Corps who served as the 34th Commandant of the Marine Corps from 2006 through his retirement in 2010 and concurrently as a member of the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Prior to being named Commandant, Mr. Conway served as Director of Operations (J-3) on the Joint Chiefs of Staff. Among his previous postings were Commanding General of I Marine Expeditionary Force from 2002 through 2004 (which involved two combat tours in Iraq), Commanding General of the 1st Marine Division, and President of the Marine Corps University. Mr. Conway has been a director of Vislink Technologies, Inc. (formerly, xG Technology, Inc.) since 2015.
Mr. Heath, 72, is the retired Executive Vice President—Aeronautics of Lockheed Martin Corporation, a global security and aerospace company. He joined Lockheed in 1975 and became Executive Vice President & Chief Operating Officer, Aeronautics in 1999 until his appointment in 2002 as Executive Vice President & General Manager, F-22 Raptor Program. In 2005, he became Executive Vice President— Aeronautics, a role he held until his retirement in 2012. During his tenure, Mr. Heath led the revitalization of the C-130 program, international expansion of the F-16 program, and the development and delivery of the F-22 and F-35 fighter aircraft. Mr. Heath served on the Board of Directors of Hawker Beechcraft from 2013-2014, prior to Textron’s acquisition of the Beechcraft business.
Ms. James, 62, is the retired 23rd Secretary of the United States Air Force, a position she held from December 2013 to January 2017. Prior to her role as Secretary of the Air Force, Ms. James held various executive positions during a 12-year tenure at Science Applications International Corporation (SAIC), a provider of services and solutions in the areas of defense, health, energy, infrastructure, intelligence, surveillance, reconnaissance and cybersecurity to agencies of the U.S. Department of Defense (DoD), the intelligence community, the U.S. Department of Homeland Security, foreign governments and other customers, most recently serving as Sector President, Technical and Engineering of the Government Solutions Group. Earlier in her career, Ms. James served as Professional Staff Member for the House Armed Services Committee and as the DoD Assistant Secretary of Defense for Reserve Affairs. Ms. James joined the board of directors of Unisys Corporation in August 2017.
Mr. Kennedy, 67, is the retired Executive Chairman of the Board of Directors of Raytheon Technologies, an aerospace and defense company that provides advanced systems and services for commercial, military and government customers globally. Prior to his role as Executive Chairman, Kennedy had been the Chairman and Chief Executive Officer of the Raytheon Company, a technology and innovation leader specializing in defense, civil government and cybersecurity solutions, from 2014-2020. In April 2020, the Raytheon Company merged with United Technologies Corporation, creating Raytheon Technologies. He previously held the position of Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer of Raytheon Company from 2013-2014. Since joining Raytheon in 1983, Kennedy held various leadership roles at the company, including senior executive management positions within Raytheon’s Unmanned and Reconnaissance Systems, Space and Airborne Systems, and Integrated Defense Systems business units. Prior to joining Raytheon, Kennedy was a captain in the U.S. Air Force.
Mr. Nowell, 66, is the retired Senior Vice President and Treasurer of PepsiCo, Inc., a worldwide food and beverage company, where he managed a global staff with responsibility for the company’s worldwide Treasury function. He joined PepsiCo in 1999 as Senior Vice President and Corporate Controller, and from 2000-2001 served as the Executive Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Pepsi Bottling Group, Inc. before being named Senior Vice President and Treasurer of PepsiCo in 2001, a role he held until his retirement in 2009. Prior to PepsiCo, Mr. Nowell served as Senior Vice President, Strategy and Business Development at RJR Nabisco from 1998 to 1999 and from 1991 to 1998, he held various senior financial roles at the Pillsbury division of Diageo plc, including Chief Financial Officer of its Pillsbury North America, Pillsbury Foodservice and Häagen-Dazs businesses. Earlier in his career, he held finance roles at Pizza Hut, which at the time was a division of PepsiCo, and Owens Corning. Mr. Nowell served as a director of American Electric Power Company from 2004 to 2020. He has served as a director of Bank of America Corporation since 2013 and Ecolab Inc. since 2018.
Mr. Ziemer, 71, was the President and Chief Executive Officer and a director of Harley-Davidson, Inc. until his retirement in April 2009. Harley-Davidson, Inc. is the parent company for the group of companies doing business as Harley-Davidson Motor Company which design, manufacture and sell motorcycles and related parts and accessories, and Harley-Davidson Financial Services, which provides related financing and insurance. Mr. Ziemer had been a director of Harley-Davidson, Inc. since December 2004 and was named President and Chief Executive Officer in April 2005. He previously served as Vice President and Chief Financial Officer of Harley-Davidson from December 1990 to April 2005 and President of the Harley-Davidson Foundation, Inc. from 1993 to 2006. Mr. Ziemer served as a director of Thor Industries, Inc. from 2010 through September 2022.
Ms. Zuber, 62, is the Vice President for Research and the E.A. Griswold Professor of Geophysics at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology where she has been a member of the faculty in the Department of Earth, Atmospheric and Planetary Sciences since 1995. In her role as Vice President for Research, to which she was appointed in 2013, she has overall responsibility for research administration and policy at MIT, overseeing MIT Lincoln Laboratory and more than a dozen interdisciplinary research laboratories and centers, and plays a central role in research relationships with the federal government. Since 1990, she has held leadership roles associated with scientific experiments or instrumentation on ten NASA missions. In 2013, President Obama appointed Ms. Zuber to the National Science Board, and, in 2018 she was reappointed by President Trump. She served as Board Chair from 2016-2018. In December 2017, Ms. Zuber became a director of Bank of America Corporation. In 2021 President Biden appointed Ms. Zuber to co-chair the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology. In January 2021, Ms. Zuber was nominated by President-elect Biden to serve as co-chair of the President’s Council of Advisors on Science and Technology.