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Foremost, though, he said he has spent his first five years as CEO focused on cultivating a healthy and engaged workplace for Textron Aviation’s 13,000 employees worldwide, 10,000 in Kansas. Tough economic times starting in 2008 took a toll on the culture that Draper said made him fall in love with Cessna and Wichita early in his career.
His path to CEO
Draper grew up on a farm in Idaho, a third-generation farmer whose ambition to learn and lead took him to the U.S. Military Academy in West Point, New York, where he earned a degree in engineering management.
26 He selected aviation from the U.S. Army officer branch
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options and went on to lead soldiers across the globe as a UH-60 Blackhawk helicopter pilot and company commander.
Following his active service commitment, he entertained offers from John Deere, General Electric and many others before choosing to move to Wichita in 1999 to work at Cessna Aircraft Company. He was thrilled to be working in aviation, though didn’t have immediate aspirations to eventually holding the top position.
“That’s not what I set out to do,” Draper said of becoming CEO. “I did want to be a leader, I did want to have influence, and I did want to be successful. But I wanted to do it in a way that balanced my family and my work. I worked hard and I was fortunate I had the right opportunities. Textron kept developing and investing in me, and I had a supporting family who was game for all this.”
After five years in Wichita, where he earned an MBA from Wichita State University, Draper moved to fellow Textron company Bell Helicopter in North Texas. There he would lead procurement during a critical development phase on the Bell Boeing V-22 Osprey, a tiltrotor military aircraft capable of vertical takeoff and landing.
Next, he accepted a move to Georgia for his first executive role as vice president of Integrated Supply Chain for Textron Specialized Vehicles, the maker of golf cars and other commercial and industrial utility vehicles.
In 2011, the company gave Draper the choice for his next executive role between the two largest of the Textron businesses: Cessna or Bell. “It was Cessna 100%, because I fell in love with the culture here, the people of this company and our products.”
Back in Kansas, he oversaw the manufacturing operations for all Beechcraft and Cessna commercial products as senior vice president of Integrated Supply Chain. Under his leadership, Textron Aviation brought seven different products to market.
“Textron has a number of leadership development classes as you progress through every level, and that’s all
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16 • KING AIR MAGAZINE
NOVEMBER 2023