CEO OF THE WEEK: Jun 20, 2003 George David United Technologies, CEO and Chairman
George David runs a company so diversified it makes products as small as air conditioners along with products as complex as the military's Blackhawk helicopters. With 155,000 employees worldwide, United Technologies has held its course and managed an impressive 28 billion dollars in revenue. Since David took over in 1994, the operating profit margin has jumped from 4 percent to 14 percent.
George David: Bio and career highlights Age: 61
Education: He received his B.A. from Harvard and M.B.A. from the Darden Graduate School of Business Administration.
Resume: In 1986, Fortune magazine pegged 43-year-old George David, then an executive VP of United Technologies' Otis Elevator division, as a rising star. He was elected United Technologies' President in 1992 and became CEO in 1994.
Corporate Culture Board of Directors: Excluding David and CFO Stephen Page, all board members are independent. Says David: "Back in the 1990s we adopted our statement of principles of corporate governance -- we provided for all of the tests that are talked about today in the newspapers."
Charity: The United Technologies Employee Scholar program prepays all tuition bills for college and advanced degrees. Employee scholars are granted 3 hours a week of paid time off for studying and the company even provides a graduation gift of $10,000 worth of United Technologies stock. There have been 11,000 graduates of the employee scholar program during the past 7 years.
On shareholder value
UTX shares are up more than 60 percent during the past five years. "We typically raise the dividend about 10 percent every five quarters, and we have done that now for a dozen years," says David.
What I am most proud of
Says David: "We have millions and millions of flight hours with the Blackhawk family of helicopters and no accident due to material failure design or manufacturing defect. And that is the way it has to be -- it has to be a standard of zero defects."
