How would you fare being in charge of the safety of over 300 million people? David Calhoun, CEO of Boeing, wakes to this challenge every day. There is much to unpack about a man responsible for 150,000 employees, and over 300 million people who travel by plane. From his upbringing to his rise to the top, see behind this important person's veil and uncover what makes Calhoun such an impactful figure.

Calhoun was born in Philadelphia, Pennsylvania, a far cry from the heights his career and Boeings planes would take him. However, he spent most of his childhood in Allentown, Pennsylvania, home to a life-sized replica of the famed Liberty Bell and the America on Wheels Museum. Who could have guessed that Calhoun would end up being most identifiable with traveling by wings? While growing up, Calhoun attended Parkland High School where he played basketball at the varsity level. Calhoun embraced his role as a member of a team, attending every practice, game, and team activity. He prioritized his relationships with his teammates as the most important thing, that and free throws. Beyond these important if general qualities, basketball taught him many important life lessons and changed people’s views on life and the work that they do in it. Failure is a necessity for success. When Calhoun took over the reins as the CEO of Boeing the company was not in a good place. In 2019 Boeing’s novel 737 Max jets had been grounded for ten months. For almost a year, the company had not had much airtime, as with his high school basketball team facing a string of losses. Learning how to lose as a High School basketball player has played to Calhoun’s benefit. Upon taking over the company Calhoun has applied the lessons he learned about loss to create a string of wins for Boeing. Under his leadership, the company's stock has increased drastically and their planes are operating more smoothly than ever.

Being smooth is actually something that Calhoun learned earlier in life as well. Calhoun smoothly transitioned his academic home from Parkland to Virginia Tech. This was due to the love and support he received from his family leading up to and beyond choosing where to spend his four years of college. Calhoun’s great-uncle had attended Virginia Tech and several other family members were organized by Calhoun's mother to convince him to attend the institution. At Virginia Tech, Calhoun blossomed. He became a prominent brother of Delta Kappa Epsilon. He also continued to be an active athlete playing on multiple intramural sports teams. Calhoun was a very busy student, rushing from fraternity events to intramural games, to accounting workshops, but never losing his stride. In this period, he learned to exist independently, away from his family as many college students can relate to. In college, Calhoun was described as being personable and outgoing, the type of person everyone wanted to be around. It’s clear this is a trait that Calhoun has prioritized and further developed throughout his career as he continues to push Boeing’s mission forward.

Straight out of college, an accounting degree in hand, Calhoun began his career at General Electric Company, where he quickly learned that he could not work with people from more diverse backgrounds. For all the new experiences he had learned at Virginia Tech, this was one of the last major missing pieces for Calhoun. Later in his career in fact, Calhoun spent a longer period in Asia, one of the main purposes of this experience was to improve his abilities to understand, develop, and cultivate diversity. This has proven to become one of Calhoun’s driving passions. Since General Electric, Calhoun has expressed that the first thing that he does when forming a team is ensure that the team is very diverse. Calhoun values diversity in discipline, experiences, and backgrounds. All of these things come together to inform a more efficient and more creative team. And creative solutions are exactly what Calhoun has been forced to create in his tenure at Boeing so far. When Calhoun sits there in meetings that impact the fates of millions of riders of Boeing planes, he looks at a team he knows will get to the bottom of every angle. He knows that they will leave no stone unturned, as he has, in dedicating themselves to safety, quality, and creativity.

At General Electric, Calhoun took over the reins of the airline-engine part of the business in the aftermath of the September 11th attacks in 2001. Later in his career while at Neilsen, Calhoun was Chief Executive and is credited with rebuilding the company following a private equity buyout. During his time, Calhoun has navigated his fair share of challenges and is talked about as a force of nature. He comes up with logical solutions that his teams trust. Specifically, he is known for being able to take broad ambitious ideas and translate those into bite-sized strategic steps. While his long-term mindset might not have been forged in his undergraduate program at Virginia Tech, or his MBA program at Northwestern, he surely has picked it up during his 26-year stint at General Electric. Some might say living in the Windy City and enduring harsh Chicago winters brings people to their breaking point and teaches them resilience. During his time there Calhoun rose through the ranks and eventually reached the position of Vice Chairman for the company. In this time Calhoun developed the necessary time management abilities needed to successfully move up the ranks. This is how he’s been able to manage to serve on the board of directors of Catipillar Inc., be a member of Business Roundtable, and serve on Virginia Tech’s Pamplin Advisory Council. All the while he is leading the world’s largest aerospace company and actively changing its fortunes.

Some knew that Calhoun would be successful in his Boeing role, far before the 2020 issues forced his placement. Some insiders have expressed that they pushed for Calhoun to become the CEO towards the end of his time at General Electric. Many analysts have said that he was offered the job but turned it down in favor of taking the helm at Neilsen. This choice by Calhoun is important because it reveals that Calhoun’s focus is not on being in the spotlight or being power-hungry. In turning down the position that he has now Calhoun was acknowledging the fact that it was not yet his time. Either from his assessment that he was not professionally ready to handle the position. Or that the position did not work well with his work-life balance. Either of these options showcases his ability to understand the relationship between himself, the role, and the company as a whole which has contributed to his success thus far.

The kindness and humility exhibited by Calhoun throughout his career has manifested possibly most miraculously in the ways that he has given back as a philanthropist and within the community of his Alma Mater. For Virginia Tech, Calhoun has worked as the c-chair of the university’s past fundraising committee which ended in 2011 with successful results. Additionally, Calhoun has given a $20 million gift to the honors college at Virginia Tech and established the Calhoun Honors Discovery Fellows. This program, which began in 2019, provides 50 first-year students with scholarships as a part of this large gift. Currently, this program is expected to continue to support up to 200 students at a time as they continue through their college journey. This program also includes aspects of experimental learning dedicated to teaching students how to succeed in a modern economy with technology at the forefront. Calhoun’s gift will also establish the Calhoun Center for Higher Education Innovation. Calhoun has expressed his dedication to making college more accessible to students of all backgrounds. Education offers students innumerable advantages in their future careers and Calhoun’s efforts will help ensure that many students will be able to take advantage of the privilege that a college degree awards. One of the key aspects of the curriculum for honors students at Virginia Tech will be to connect key aspects of their majors with high concepts in different disciplines and experiences.

The program Calhoun funds is well aligned with the Calhoun that heads Boeing today. While he has become a very inaccessible person, busy running a company with over 150,000 employees, interdisciplinary is Calhoun. Throughout his life, Calhoun has had an interdisciplinary focus, unwilling to sit back and be one thing to all people. From the basketball star to the frat boy Calhoun has worn many different hats in his time. Currently sitting at the top position he has achieved it can be tempting to sideline Calhoun into one box, however, this would be the wrong approach, as he knows how to throw the ball into the box, and the basket. His refusal to take the position a decade ago surely indicates his potential abrasiveness to this idea. Even now, there is the father Calhoun, the husband, the board of directors, the philanthropist, the author, and the CEO. Boeing may have one man at the head of its company, but Calhoun is far from one man in his dedication.