Hawker Beechcraft Appoints Steve Miller as CEO

Hawker Beechcraft announced today that Robert S. “Steve” Miller has been appointed CEO and that former Hawker Beechcraft CEO Bill Boisture “will remain as chairman of its operating subsidiary, Hawker Beechcraft Corporation.”

Miller is currently chairman of American International Group and a director at Symantec. Miller was instrumental in the turnaround of Chrysler in the early 1970s and many companies since then. He is author of the book The Turnaround Kid: What I Learned Rescuing America’s Most Troubled Companies. Miller, whose previous exposure to general aviation was as vice-chairman of Chrysler when then-subsidiary Gulfstream Aerospace reported to him, told AIN, “Bill has done an awful lot of the heavy lifting of getting the operations reconfigured to deal with today’s very depressed market conditions. Bill is going to stay here and work with me as we approach the challenges in today’s depressed market. I’ll be looking at some of the financial challenges we’ve got in front of us. And Bill will continue to help me by focusing on designing, building and selling great aircraft.”

A Wichita insider told AIN, “People thought Boisture’s job was to get [Hawker Beechcraft] in an attractive position so it can be sold, but this looks like they’re holding on and waiting for it to turn around. Right now is not a good time to sell.” Hawker Beechcraft is owned by Onex Partners and GS Capital Partners.