Alan Caslavka

Alan Caslavka has 35 years of experience in the global Aerospace and Defense markets leading businesses within General Electric Aviation and Rockwell Collins Aerospace that served the commercial and defense industry. He has utilized a unique blend of technical skills, global market experience, business development acumen, and product life-cycle knowledge to achieve outstanding results in leading complex product, service, and SaaS organizations. His portfolios have ranged in revenue from $25M to $750M, and include emerging market start-ups to mature multi-national businesses serving the airlines, aircraft manufacturers, defense prime contractors, and Governmental agencies.

As a coach, Alan possesses a diverse set of professional experiences and combines those with a collaborative, probing, and passionate leadership style that makes him a great executive sounding board or business facilitator. Throughout his career, he held positions in supply chain, engineering, sales, and product management before ascending to C-suite roles. This makes him particularly adept at understanding and optimizing internal business operations and creating external market development strategies.

Business Highlights:

• General Electric Aviation – Recruited as President and Corporate Officer to lead their acquired Avionics business. Operation totaled $750M in sales and included an employee base of 3,000 located in multiple U.S., European, South American and Asian locations. Also, under his leadership, built a 350-employee Avionics Center of Excellence in Shanghai, China to develop the COMAC 919 commercial narrow-body aircraft cockpit. During his 10 years in the role, EBITDA increased 300 percent.

• Rockwell Collins Aerospace – Held numerous Director and VP&GM roles, with the largest having annual sales totaling $650M, including 1,400 employees in 10 different domestic and international locations. Also, living in London, led their Avionics sensor and displays product business with 500 employees in the United Kingdom, France, and Germany, which served European and Middle Eastern aircraft manufacturers and Ministries. European business increased by 32 percent in revenue during his tenure.

• Demonstrated double-digit organic sales/profit growth in both the commercial and defense aerospace markets. Strategies employed included discontinuing non-profitable operations, internal process streamlining, supply chain lean implementation, and product line optimization. Also, Alan led or had direct involvement in numerous mergers, acquisitions, and joint ventures ranging from $30M to $1.5B.

• Selected as Rockwell International’s “Engineer of the Year” and led a team that was awarded McDonnell Douglas/Boeing “Spirit of Excellence” and “Model of Excellence” for outstanding contributions as a supplier.

Alan has a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Iowa State University and a Master of Business Administration from Nova Southeastern University. He is still active at Iowa State University, serving in an advisory capacity and as a guest lecturer. Throughout his career, he has been on numerous nonprofit boards and professional organizations linked to aviation and national defense.

He has been married to his wife Cindy for 34 years and is the proud parent of three adult boys. The entire family now resides in Cincinnati, Ohio.

Featured Podcast:

Listen to Alan’s podcast episode, “How to Lead Your Company Through Adversity and Back to BIG“