Michael Thacker

Michael Thacker was named Executive Vice President for Technology and Innovation in February 2017 and is a member of Bell’s Executive Leadership Team. He is responsible for leading Bell’s core engineering team and providing strategic direction for designing, developing and integrating technologies for use in Bell’s current and next generation products. Thacker was previously the senior vice president of Engineering at Textron Aviation, where he was responsible for the engineering efforts of Beechcraft, Cessna and Hawker product lines. This included new aircraft development, certification, compliance, experimental fabrication, technical publications and product safety, as well as engineering product support for all aircraft in production and legacy models. Thacker joined Cessna in 1993 as an engineer in propulsion integration. Since then, he has held various positions of increasing responsibility in engineering and program management. Prior to being promoted to senior vice president in July 2011, Thacker held the position of director of Research and Advanced Technology from 2008. In that role, he managed and directed new product and technology development programs and processes. His responsibilities included product and technology strategy and program initiation and execution. In addition, he led the aerodynamics function for all products and phases of maturity.

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