Last call for Textron CEO Scott Donnelly

opinion

by Alasdair Whyte

October 27, 2025

Scott Donnelly has been through the best of times and the worst of times in his 18 years at Textron. Last week he announced he is stepping down as CEO.

He deserves credit for leading through the tough markets and handing over when the company is much stronger.

Donnelly joined Textron from GE Aircraft Engines in July 2008 as chief operating officer. The business was booming. Cessna, the biggest division, shipped a record 124 aircraft in that quarter. Cessna had a $15.6bn backlog and was aiming to deliver 535 jets in 2008 (it delivered 468 in the end). The share price was $60.

You know what happened next. Lehman Brothers. AIG. Automakers flying to Washington. We do not need to keep going and get more depressed.

By the time Donnelly became CEO in December 2009 (as part of the scheduled succession plan which included him becoming chair in 2010) the company’s stock was trading at $19.

Textron was already going through a major restructuring. It cut 10,400 employees and closed 23 facilities in 2009. Textron Finance was in real trouble. Golf courses were no longer buying E-Z-GO carts. Cessna cut jet production to 289 deliveries in 2009. After many cancellations (and scrapping the Citation Columbus), Cessna’s backlog was $4.8bn at the end of the year. And it continued to fall.

Donnelly did not waste the crisis. Cessna invested heavily in services and in 2013 Textron bought Wichita rival Hawker Beechcraft for $1.4bn. But sales were still hard. In 2016 the aviation backlog was $1bn.

It was only in 2017 (on his 38th quarterly analyst call as CEO) that you felt he was finally confident that the market had turned. There was, of course, another dip during the start of Covid, but this was followed by the post-Lockdown boom.

Textron Aviation, now led by Ron Draper, is in a very different place to 2009. The division’s sales were up 10% in the third quarter to $1.5bn. This gave it a $7.7bn backlog.

Textron has named Lisa Atherton as the new president and CEO. She takes over at the start of January.

“She’s a fabulous leader. She knows the team. She’s surrounded by a great team at the business level across the company,” said Donnelly on the latest Textron analyst call. “We are proud of the fact that we had a great internal promotion and I think she’ll just do a fabulous job leading the company into the future.”

Atherton has been at Textron for 18 years and held senior roles – first at Textron Systems and then Bell – for the past eight.

Donnelly will stay as executive chair, but he is clear that Atherton will be running the company from January. Textron’s shares were trading at almost $80 last Thursday.

He knows that things can change, but Textron Aviation is going through a good period.

“It is actually pretty remarkable despite all the noise – of which there’s plenty for sure – we’re not seeing it impact the market. We haven’t seen any segment or interest that has changed because of what’s going on,” said Donnelly on the call.

“Part of that is the fact that you are out 18 months or two years for delivery, so people are kind of looking beyond what the current noise is in the marketplace. But yes, remarkably, despite all of the noise that’s going around, the demand is stable.”

We cannot wait to see everyone at CJI Miami in next week.