This episode of the WPAOG podcast features an interview with David F. Melcher, a businessman and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General. He spent 32 years serving in the military and is recognized as a prominent figure in the aerospace and defense community.
This episode of the WPAOG podcast features an interview with David F. Melcher, a businessman and retired U.S. Army Lieutenant General. He spent 32 years serving in the military and is recognized as a prominent figure in the aerospace and defense community, as the former President and CEO of Exelis from 2011–2015 and of Aerospace Industries Association from 2015–2017.
During his 32 years of service, David commanded at the Battalion, Brigade, and Army Corps of Engineers Division level. He has been awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal, and had prominent staff assignments that included a White House Fellowship with the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan and as the Army’s Military Deputy for Budget, and Army Deputy Chief of Staff for Programs. For 12 years of his military career, David was assigned to the Pentagon.
In this episode, David talks about how he had no doubt that West Point was where he could gain the best leadership skills. He discusses working in the White House and then transitioning into business after serving so many years in the army. David also explains what he feels are the keys to success in life, and the importance of continuing to be an active member of the West Point community.
-----------
“For younger officers who are leaving the military or non-commissioned officers, understand that you have significant leadership skills that are needed in industry. The things that you learned, leading a small or large organization, the organizational skills, those are very, very important, as are the ability to speak and write clearly and articulate what it is that you want - The ability to set goals, to be a problem solver, those are all things that people who have served in the military know how to do. So, never sell yourself short on what you know as you make a transition into an industry context.” - David Melcher
-----------
(01:24) The Class of 1976
(02:54) West Point Experience
(09:24) Army Experience
(11:54) Mentors in the Military
(14:54) Working in the White House
(18:24) Corp of Army Engineers
(19:59) Retirement from Service
(20:54) Transition to Civilian Career
(30:24) Finding Success in Aerospace and Defense
(33:24) Serving as a Board Member and Director
(35:24) Routines and Keys for Success
(38:54) West Point and Military Service Across Family Generations
(41:09) Giving Back
-----------
West Point Association of Graduates
Narrator: Hello and welcome to the WPAOG Podcast. This episode features an interview with David F. Melcher, a businessman and retired US Army Lieutenant General. He spent 32 years serving in the military and is recognized as a prominent figure in the aerospace and defense community as the former President and CEO of Exelis and of Aerospace Industries Association.
During his 32 years of service, David commanded at the Battalion, Brigade, and Army Corps of Engineers Division level and has been awarded the Army Distinguished Service Medal. He also had prominent staff assignments that included a White House Fellowship with the Office of Management and Budget under President Ronald Reagan, and as the Army's military deputy for Budget, and Army Deputy Chief of Staff for programs.
In this episode, David talks about how he had no doubt that West Point was where he could gain the best leadership skills. He discusses working in the White House and then transitioning into business after serving so many years in the Army. David also explains what he feels are the keys to success in life and the importance of continuing to be an active member of the West Point community.
Now, please enjoy this interview between David F. Melcher, and your host, Lance Dietz.
[00:01:24] Lance Dietz: I'm Lance Dietz, class of 2008 and today we're joined by Lieutenant General Retired, David Melcher, class of 76. Sir, it's great to have you on the podcast. How are you?
[00:01:34] David Melcher: Lance, I'm doing great and I appreciate the opportunity to chat with you today.
[00:01:39] Lance Dietz: Likewise. Thanks for making time. Before we get started, just one thing as we were doing research is class of 76. An incredible class of military leaders that came out of that class. I think there's like 30 or 33 general officers, guys like Reno, Stan McChrystal, et cetera. Just incredible. I'm curious if you could imagine that when you were thinking about going to West Point, being a part of a class like that.
[00:02:06] David Melcher: Well, when you're attending West Point, your vision only goes so far.
We knew we had a great class. It was a very cohesive class with wonderful classmates who all went out in the army. I think most of us thought we'd be lucky if we got to be a lieutenant colonel Battalion commander. Uh, in the 20 years that we might spend in the Army, uh, very few of us imagined that we would end up having, I think 31 was the total of general officers including three four stars.
Two you mentioned in Dave Rodriguez. So it, it's a wonderful class. It has some maintained that spirit of 76, which was our motto for these 45 years. And we just had a reunion last fall, which was a tremendous chance to get together with each.
[00:02:45] Lance Dietz: Well, excited to come back to that, but just to get started, our first segment is where we focus on your military career and your decision to attend West Point.
So would love to hear from the beginning, kind of you and your decision to [00:03:00] go to the United States Military Academy.
[00:03:02] David Melcher: I was born and raised near Allentown, Pennsylvania and spent my formative years there. I had a, a mother who was a part-time worker at an insurance agency. My dad was a high school teacher of history and social studies.
And I was a pretty normal kid, I would suspect in most respects. By the time I got to high school, I had delivered papers, I had worked washing dishes, I had done all the things that you might do in summer as a kid. Uh, but when it came to West Point, the real influence there was mostly my dad. He was a World War II veteran, uh, was a combat medic in the third infantry division in World War ii.
And like Tom Broco called them that greatest generation, didn't talk much about their wartime service. And what prompted that discussion, ultimately when I was a, a young teenager, uh, was I happened to find a box in a drawer and in there was a metal set and, uh, it was a silver star and the citation that went along with it, uh, talked about my dad, this mild [00:04:00] mannered high school teacher.
Pulling people out of withering machine gunfire and rendering first aid to two soldiers in World War ii. I never imagined that my father could do something like that. But when he talked ultimately about his army experiences, it made me feel like there was something really special about the army, about the leaders that he served with.
Uh, he got to meet a Murphy, the most decorated soldier in World War ii, who was a member of that division. And it made me think that an army career might not be a bad thing to do. And I was a pretty good student and I was a pretty good athlete. I pole halted, I played football and you know, I wasn't worried about the physical challenge, but it was the leadership that I think I hungered for.
And those conversations led me to want to go to the one place where I thought leadership was the sort of the top thing that West Point really did with, with Cade. And prior
[00:04:56] Lance Dietz: to that, were you familiar with the academies and were you looking at other [00:05:00] schools as well that you thought would be a good experience?
[00:05:02] David Melcher: I really had not thought that much about academies until we had some of those conversations. I did have a football coach. I was a walk on football player my senior year. I'd actually been in the band , the marching band for the previous three years, and I decided I wanted to go try out for football and made the team and start it as a.
He said, Have you ever thought about a service academy? And when I talked more about that with my parents, West Point really came into view as the one place that I was most interested in going. I had applied to Penn State and some of the other places that you do when you're from Pennsylvania, but West Point was the one, and when that offer of admission came through, there was, there was no doubt that's where I was going to go.
[00:05:44] Lance Dietz: That's really interesting. Sports has been a, a common theme among some other. Grads of course, and how that's been an impact on their time at West Point time in the military, and then time in civilian service. Moving on. What, what sort of cadet were you [00:06:00] walking? Any hours, good grades? Like what's, what's the
[00:06:03] David Melcher: story?
You know, I don't recall walking any hours, but I would. Say that that's probably more a good fortune than it was Iron Cloud discipline. But I, I was a pretty good cadet. I, I did participate in course squad sports. I was a pole vaulter on the track team for indoor and outdoor track, uh, for two years. At the end of that, I actually decided I wanted to play intermurals with my company mates, played football, ball squash and other sports that we do as intermurals.
I was a pretty good student. I liked the coursework. I actually loved the course. Li like the math, science and engineering curriculum that West Point of course is famous for. Um, and did pretty well in that. And so by the end of four years, I had studied to be a civil engineer. That was where I focused most of the electives that I could take.
And I finished, I think 13th in the class. And I was number one in physical education over four. At West Point, because I actually enjoyed that too. I, I apologize in advance, but I actually [00:07:00] liked the indoor obstacle course,
[00:07:01] Lance Dietz: the I O C T. Wow. That's amazing. So 13 academically, first in physical. How about military score or rank?
I, I
[00:07:11] David Melcher: think I did fine on that account. I was a cadet company commander in my senior year and with all the cadets we had, we had been together for four years, uh, as a class in 1970. So I really enjoyed the opportunity to be a company commander and to work with and serve with my other classmates who were just great, great people.
And we still stay in touch today.
[00:07:35] Lance Dietz: Were there any particular classes that you can recall now being super impactful on you?
[00:07:40] David Melcher: Yeah, I, I really did like the engineering curriculum. I just thought that the challenge of solving problems in that domain, uh, was, was really, uh, something that I valued. But I also liked the, the, you know, the social studies in and social sciences part of the academy as well.
I had one instructor, Colonel Jack Jacobs, [00:08:00] then a major who was a Medal of Honor recipient, uh, from Vietnam. Who taught me a course in the social sciences department. In fact, he taught my daughter Catherine, who was an oh grad along with you, Lance, uh, when, uh, she attended West Point. He was a big influence, I think, on me, on understanding some of his experiences and what they meant and, you know, what you could contribute in the Army.
So much so that when a chair that he had was expiring several years later, I volunteered to try and fund it for three. So that cadets could continue to be exposed to this Great American. He, among many other, uh, instructors were great influences, I think for all of us as cadets. I
[00:08:40] Lance Dietz: remember hearing him speak one time and he was very humble about his experiences in the military, about receiving the middle of honor, and in some ways was kind of, if I recall correctly, like didn't love the idea, just given what he had to go through for that.
Like kind of, he almost wished. You don't have those types of [00:09:00] stories and you don't have to get the Medal of Honor because typically in that case, like something has gone wrong. Unfortunately.
[00:09:07] David Melcher: Yep. I think that's what made him great. He was a, he was a humble man. He understood, uh, the nature of warfare and how cruel it can be.
He was wounded and that activity, and I just think he gave us a very balanced view of what it means to be a leader. And the responsibilities did you bear as a leader when you're in the
[00:09:28] Lance Dietz: Army? I'd love to take that into kind of your career in the military, graduating West Point branching engineer, and then serving for 32 years rising to Lieutenant General.
What prompted you to branch engineer and did you for one second think that you would have a 30 year plus career in the military? As the
[00:09:45] David Melcher: coursework at West Point evolved? I just discovered that I really had a love of engineering and particularly civil engineer. And so core of engineers seem like a natural, um, You know, thing to do upon graduation, and I was fortunate enough to be [00:10:00] assigned to an engineer of battalion and had all those junior officer experiences that you might have when you get out into the army.
This one happened to be a core engineer battalion at Ford Ord, California. But the chance to get out there and lead soldiers and learn from the non-commission officers that we had, many of them of whom were Vietnam veterans at the time. Right. This was 1977, so there was still a lot of Vietnam veterans in the army.
Uh, it was just an invaluable experience and I think sort of launched me on a track that ultimately ended up being 32 or two years, but I didn't always expect to stay in the Army. In fact, I was prepared to leave after four and a half years. I had been a company commander, which was a wonderful opportunity.
I'd done that early. I didn't know what the next step was. I had applied to Harvard Business School and was accepted. And fortunately for me, I was able to be picked up by the Department of Social Sciences, uh, with a follow on to teach at West Point, which was the best thing that could have possibly happened.[00:11:00]
I thought about leaving, but staying was actually what I wanted to do. And sometimes life's like that and you gotta think through the opportunities and, and see what is the right thing for you and your family. I was married, young, young, married, couple at the time, and it really was a wonderful thing to be able to go back and teach at West.
As for the rest of it, I always felt like the Army was a place where there were more things that you wanted to do than you had time. Uh, so as a junior officer, as a instructor at West Point, as a field grade officer back in, uh, unit, and ultimately as a general officer, there were so many wonderful ways in which you could work and contribute to the Army.
Um, it was almost hard sometimes in choosing the path that you would take along those.
[00:11:47] Lance Dietz: There's lots to dive in here, but before we get to your time after, after teaching at West Point, really curious, like kind of as you were navigating those first few years in the military at one point deciding to get out or stay in, [00:12:00] were there any particular mentors in the military that really had an impact on you early on in your career as a military
[00:12:07] David Melcher: officer?
Absolutely. You know, there were several non-commission officer. Who you looked at and you said, you know, here is somebody who's made a career out of the army. They're professionals. They help us officers to be better. That was an influence. One of my early battalion commanders, uh, fell named Claire Gill, who's West Point Class 65, uh, came into our battalion and it was almost like night and day.
You know, his leadership style was so outstanding that all of us responded to it, and the battalion continued to get better. Under his leadership. Then later I had opportunity to work for, for people like Gordon Sullivan in his staff group. This was a leader who understood the impact of history and his role in trying to take the Army to a different place than it had been.
Ben Griffin, who was a fellow that I worked for as the Army's director program and analysis as [00:13:00] general officer. And I had worked indirectly for him when he was a colonel, Worldly 10 Colonel. Um, just a wonderful individual, great leader, humble person. Who you looked at and you said, This is somebody who accomplishes a lot, uh, without being overly directive and by leading by example.
Those are the kind of folks that I think helped influence me along the way. And then there were many in business, uh, that had that same impact later.
[00:13:27] Lance Dietz: And then going back to West Point to teach. How was that experience like? I've got, I've got a handful of classmates that have done that, have really enjoyed it.
How was that for you? I love
[00:13:36] David Melcher: teaching. Uh, you know, being with Cadets was fun and having been recent enough, a graduate to remember what it was like being a cadet, uh, and being taught by instructors who at one point might inspect your belt buckles, um, I decided I was gonna be the kind of instructor that that really tried.
Bring the cadets along, relate to them and you know, give them whatever wisdom I could from my experiences [00:14:00] and help them develop as officers. So I thought it was a great, great three years. I had the chance to develop a new course called Engineering Economics, which was a interdisciplinary course between the social sciences department and some of the engineering departments.
And, you know, was given free reign to do that by the leadership of the social department. I also had the chance to work in, uh, an office called Office of Economic and Manpower. Led by an officer named Tom Fagan and that office reported directly, uh, to the Vice chief of Staff of the Army, who was Max Thurman at the time.
And we had a lot of great problems to work on, including the Fort Drum decision. Should you stand us up as an Army post and. How would you build it and what would you do? And the economic analysis behind it. So it was a great blend of camaraderie with fellow instructors who were fantastic with a leadership team that really helped bring us along as instructors and working with cadets in a way that made you feel really good about what was gonna be [00:15:00] going out in the Army in the classes, maybe 3, 4, 5, and.
And then your
[00:15:04] Lance Dietz: time after teaching at West Point, we can't name all this and we can't go, I guess, position by position. But some things that really stood out to me, and I'd love to hear kind of what some of your most exciting and favorite experiences were at that time, but you were a White House fellow under Reagan, and then as the GA eight, you also spent some time in terms of working with the Army on using private sector solutions.
From what I have gathered in the research, To address certain Army problems. So those are two I'd love to hear a bit more about, but also curious like any other experiences that were really, really amazing for you. Well, no,
[00:15:39] David Melcher: thanks Lance. You know, the White House Fellowship is, is, is a great opportunity. In fact, many Army and other service officers have applied for it and been in fellowships over the years.
Uh, in fact, Colin Powell was, was somebody that we all looked up to cuz he was one of the first White House fellows. I had the chance there to work in the office of Management and budget. [00:16:00] And started off as a special assistant to the director and midway through the year, his chief of staff, if you will, executive assistant left, and I got a chance to become his chief of staff.
And this was a wonderful man named Jim Miller, who was a cabinet secretary, and he allowed me to see everything that happened in the Office of Management budget and all the interactions with the Department of Defense. And the Congress and so forth. Well, later on, when I was an Army G eight and when I was a military deputy for budget, the fact that I had learned all those things as a junior officer and understood some of the inner relationships between the executive branch and Department of Defense, the Congress and the military, really, uh, was very, very helpful.
So that was a, it was really a life changing experience to have that fellowship. And it sort of launched me, I think, on a different trajectory than I might have had otherwise. Later as, uh, the Army G eight, we really tried to look at at ways that the Army could be more effective and efficient [00:17:00] with the resources that it had.
I mean, mind you, these were years when the Army's budget was increasing tremendously because of the wartime requirements. I think when I, I went in as the Army's program analysis director, the Army budget was about 78 billion a year in 2000 and. By 2008, it was 248 billion because of the wartime needs in Iraq and Afghanistan.
And a lot of people worked very hard to make that happen. But we all knew that those budgets were going to come back down. And so what we did to change ourselves institutionally and become more efficient, adopt the right business practices that were adaptable to the army and the way we ran our, our depots perhaps, and the way we ran our install.
That was something worthy of effort and a lot of folks worked on that beyond myself to try and look at ways that we could be more efficient and effective when the Army's budget continued to decline after those wartime activities receded. So, uh, you know, I guess [00:18:00] the message there is the things you learn early on in life and toolkit you put together.
Of all the things you've learned from leaders, you admired, experiences you've had all build upon each other to try and prepare you for the responsibilities that might come later in
[00:18:15] Lance Dietz: life. Being the commanding general of the core of engineers, the southwestern division in Dallas, super incredible responsibility there.
Working cross team, cross functional, Curious what that experience was like and then kind of what led to you retiring from the
[00:18:30] David Melcher: military. You know, it was an opportunity to go be. The core of engineer construction side of the equation, because I had always been in, in combat engineer units. I, I commanded a battalion in Alaska in the sixth id, I commanded an engineer brigade in the first cavalry division as a colonel.
But here was an opportunity as a a Brier general. To go back and command a division of the core of engineers, which [00:19:00] encompassed about five to seven states depending on whether it was military, construction or civil works. We built lots and dams. We did the navigation on the Intercoastal waterways. We did environmental remediation.
We did construction on Air Force and Army basis. It essentially was about a billion and a half dollar a year construction company. With a thin veneer of military leadership at the top, and then the rest of the core of engineers, the civilian side were professionals, tens of thousands strong, uh, that were actually executing all those programs and making those things happen.
It was one of the best two years of engineering that I could have possibly had in my life. It was one of the reasons I wanted to study to be a civil engineer when I was a cadet, and it sort of fulfilled all those opportunities in a two year. I was very proud to be with the core of engineers and to be able to do that.
[00:19:54] Lance Dietz: Sir, before we get into your civilian career, Mike, could you talk to us about the decision [00:20:00] to retire from the military?
[00:20:03] David Melcher: I had had, uh, two opportunities at three Star jobs in the Pentagon. I had worked with absolutely wonderful people. I was 54 years of age, uh, and I knew that if I was going to make a transition from the.
With any chance of potentially having an opportunity in business that it probably was the right time to do that. And so I let the Army know and the chief know that I was going to retire in 2008 and ended up going to, uh, ITT Corporation. Which was a contractor in the airspace and defense space, but they also had other industrial products and water development, uh, sides of the business.
But the decision was to go to it T Corporation, where I was supposed to be. The senior Vice President of Strategy and Business Development, and I started that role shortly after I retired in the summer of 2008.
[00:20:58] Lance Dietz: That's a great transition to [00:21:00] this next segment where we talk about your civilian career, what that's been like, what you're doing now, and how you're transforming industry.
And a great start is itt, so taking a spinoff of it, T excels to IPO and then it being acquired by Harris. Probably an incredible experience. Of business strategy in that, but curious to hear more about that experience at it t and Excels.
[00:21:25] David Melcher: I started off working in strategy and business development, which is not atypical for folks retiring out of the military cuz you know a lot of the programs and, and you understand what some of the government needs are.
What I didn't know, uh, is that four months after I joined the company, I would be made the president of, uh, ITT Defense and Information Solutions, which was a five plus billion dollar revenue company. How that came about, uh, is actually sort of an interesting story. There was an acting president that was in ITT Defense when [00:22:00] I arrived.
Um, I met him for the first time and that was interesting. He said, Well, we've had a lot of general officers come work for the company before. It hasn't always worked out so well. And I said, Well, my new goal is to convince you otherwise. And, you know, so I dug in as the strategy and business development, but he was, he was only a temporary acting president and my name got thrown in the hat.
And the ceo, wonderful man named Steve Lo. Who was the chairman and CEO of the company said, Why don't you come on up here and let's talk about the future of this business and what you, what you think. And they had been doing an external search and there were seven presidents within ITT defense already that were business leaders that reported to the past president.
Uh, so I was a, I was very wary of, of, uh, stepping on too many toes, uh, to go up and, and have that conversation with him. But I prepared myself for the conversation. and the, the biggest conversation piece was, well, we know that you can lead, [00:23:00] we know, you know the Pentagon, uh, but we're not sure that you can run this business, uh, because you don't have any experience running a business.
That's where I talked about having been with the US Army Corps of Engineers in Dallas, Texas, and I said, Look, for all intents and purposes, what we did for the government and for the taxpayers was to be a construction company. And finish these projects on time and under budget. And if we did that, we brought the taxpayer benefit.
If I can do that as a business leader, I'm gonna be bringing a benefit to our shareholders. And so I, I believe I know how to run a business cuz that's what this was. And Steve Warrener actually took a risk and gave me the opportunity to run ITT Defense, I think much against the conventional wisdom. And so four months into it, I was now the president of a.
It worked because I was blessed to have a great, great team around me, a terrific cfo, a great C H R O, a wonderful operations person, [00:24:00] great communications person, great strategy people. So, you know, it worked out. And, uh, we did that for three years until ITT spun us off. The decision was made by the board that the company was gonna split into three parts and our aerospace and defense part, the 5 billion plus revenue company.
Became ITT Excels and eventually Excels sync on its own on the New York Stock Exchange is a public company. It's so
[00:24:27] Lance Dietz: fascinating, I think drawing the parallels between the military experience and business. I think some, some people see it as very different, but to your point, a lot of the things that are critical in the military team, building culture, setting priorities, managing and leading like.
Are incredibly important also in the business world. And I love how you alluded to building a great team, cuz a few others on the podcast have, have mentioned that as well. Like as, as the leader, as the ceo, you really can't do everything. It's a matter of, [00:25:00] of building and empowering your team to accomplish kind of the, the mission or the vision that's been set out.
So that's really great to hear. Were there any. Significant challenges or things that you wrestled with that you felt maybe not as prepared for as you would've liked to have been? Well, you know, in, in
[00:25:18] David Melcher: fact, when our company was spun off because of the conditions in the marketplace. And what was happening at the time with interest rates in, in 2011 where interest rates were, were coming down rapidly.
One thing that we all had to deal with was we, we had the pension, we carried the ITT pension, uh, for, you know, we're talking almost a hundred year company and all the pensioners that were a part of that. And, uh, you know, that pension had grown in size from $1 billion liability to a $2 billion li. Uh, which was, uh, slightly less than our market capitalization when we came into the market.
So we had a lot of work to do, uh, to work with the federal government to try and get policies that [00:26:00] would allow us to put more money into investing into the company instead of putting money just simply against the pension. And there were laws actually passed that we were a part of helping to create that allowed us to do that, and that was a big challenge for our business.
However, at the same time, Those were years in which defense budgets were, were pretty good. Uh, and as a company we were lucky enough to win some important contracts for the things that we, we did, which were night vision, tactical radios. We built space payloads for imagery, weather, and gps. You just think about all the uses of GPS around the world these days.
You know, ITT and Excel has built those kind of payloads, uh, you know, with the partners that we. And we also ran the faas GPS based network, which was a huge contract that the company got. And lastly, we're doing operational support for units in Iraq, Afghanistan, Europe, and on Air Force and Army installations throughout the United States.
So [00:27:00] it was a, it was a, a wonderful business with a lot of adversity, but our challenge was, The basic challenge of the financial management of that huge pension liability.
[00:27:09] Lance Dietz: I can imagine. And then fast forward a couple years running that business, eventually acquired by Harris Corp. What was that experience like going through the
[00:27:20] David Melcher: acquisition?
Well, we had actually taken an action on our own to spin off a piece of our business into a company called Vectors, which was the, the part that was doing all the operations and maintenance work. And when we did that, we became a company that was smaller, more focused with a higher margin and better growth prospects that attracted the attention of others in the defense marketplace.
And we didn't intend originally to do the spinoff with the intent of selling the company. We intended to continue to grow, but when somebody comes along with an offer, you have to take it seriously. It's the board's [00:28:00] responsibility to make sure that the shareholders are getting the best deal possible.
And at the end of the day, when we did sell that company, after three and a half years as a public company, we had returned 170% return to the shareholders. Over a three and a half year period of time, which was a wonderful return for them. So everybody felt good about what had happened, and we knew that the company would be in good hands with Harris Corporation and the leadership there.
[00:28:27] Lance Dietz: So, interesting. Before we move on from Excels, you've mentioned when, when we've chatted in the past, kind of the need to quote, Leave your stars at the door. When going into the civilian world and so on. Could you unpack that a little bit for us and explain, Explain what you mean by that.
[00:28:44] David Melcher: The term leave, leave your stars at the door really is an illusion to, as you leave a government context in a military context, and you want to go into industry of, of any sort.
It could be banking or insurance, it could be aerospace [00:29:00] and defense. If you're retiring as a senior officer, a colonel or, or a flag. I think it's important to understand that the context you're leaving is not the same as the context you're joining. And in a business context, I would say there's as much of a sense of teamwork and working together, but there's a little bit less of a sense of hierarchy and right consciousness as there is in the military.
So for me personally, I had concluded that when I left and I joined ITT Corporation, I was gonna be a member of that team. I wasn't gonna be, the general wasn't gonna be the. Who had, who had that cache about them? I just wanted to be a member of the team and I wanted to be the best person I could, you know, So I called all of our presidents up on day one.
I said, I'm here to support you. What can I do? I wanna understand your business. I wanna learn about your company. I'm here to support you as the strategy and business development person. Uh, and that I think, you know, broke down a lot of of barriers by doing it that. As [00:30:00] opposed to coming in and in system that you'd be treated in the same manner as you were when you were in the military.
I just think it's an important mindset for people to have as they leave and join a different context
[00:30:11] Lance Dietz: in since Excels you've. Spent a lot of your time in the aerospace and defense industry, serving as president and CEO of Aerospace Industries Association, as well as joining various boards of large companies.
I believe you're on the board of S A A and Becta GM Defense. Could you walk us a little bit through your, I guess, career? After Excels briefly, and maybe we can double click on a few things. Sure. When
[00:30:38] David Melcher: Excels was sold, uh, to Aris Corporation in, uh, 2015, I was approached, um, by Aerospace Industry Association leadership and, and that is essentially the CEOs of all the major aerospace and defense primes, and they were looking for somebody to come into AIA who had been a CEO in the aerospace and defense [00:31:00] industry.
They, they, they like the, the fact that that would be relatable to the issues they have, to the relationships that we had to develop with the Department of Defense in Congress and so forth. And, and, and I felt very strongly about that myself. And so I, I did join aia, in fact, one week after we closed on the, the sale of Excels to Harris Corpor.
And, and I stayed there for almost three years. It was a, a wonderful experience because what you did there was you tried to be the interface between an industry that's working hard, uh, to support war fighters around the world and the Department of Defense that has their own priorities that they want to make sure we understand, and the Congress that provides the resources for all of us to be successful.
So you have to interface, you know, between all those constituencies as well as the media. Uh, you know, to try and make sure that you're bringing together a cogent argument about what this industry does to support the [00:32:00] nation, why it is important, and why it should be supported by, uh, not only the department, but the taxpayers, uh, for the projects and the things that we do.
Uh, and, and so that, I think that was a very worthwhile thing to do. I enjoyed being a part of aia. . Um, and I had already been on some corporate boards, uh, you know, for medical device companies and so forth. Uh, and I continue that board work today because I think it's really important to contribute where you can, um, to try and bring any experience in wisdom that you can to Bear.
USA is a great company, um, banking and insurance, right, which is very different than aerospace and defense. Um, but its mission is one of supporting service men and women around the world, and that's why I like being a part of. And as for the other one, and Beta was a spinoff from Becton Dickinson Corporation, and I was on that board.
I volunteered to go to Iveta because I knew about spinoffs. I knew the challenges that that CEO would have entering the [00:33:00] marketplace, and I wanted to be a part of helping to stand that up and helping them to be successful. It's a diabetes care business, uh, which is a disease affecting tens of millions of people around the world.
I mean, this company has 30 million customers. In terms
[00:33:15] Lance Dietz: of being a board member or director, how did you learn that role, I guess, and kind of what, What are the ways in which you approach being a director nowadays? Well,
[00:33:27] David Melcher: I learned, well, the role of boards at it t I interacted with the ITT board, which was a great collection of individuals.
I saw how they provided oversight of the company's strategy, talent, acquisition, risk taking. Financial performance. And I also saw what a diverse sport that was. And I think really diversity of experience. Um, you know, and certainly, you know, age, gender, ethnicity, life experiences is very important on a board because you can [00:34:00] get better distillation of thoughts when you have more people who have a different background to render them.
But the role of the board is not to run the company. I learned that in it. T they allowed us as a management team to run the. But the role of the board is to provide that wisdom and advice that's gained over years of experience. Uh, I have that experience now and I'm happy to try and, and get it back in any way that I can, uh, to the boards that I'm on.
Uh, but I'm so appreciative of the board members. I learned so much from the ITT board, which was a collection of wonderful individuals with diverse backgrounds, and I learned even more from my own board at Excel. We had, you know, terrific people on that board, including Steve er, who had been the chairman of it, T Mark Roy, who's the president of GM today.
Ralph H, who had been the CEO of Water Pool. John Hammer, who is a well known expert in defense matters in dc. Herman Bulls, who's [00:35:00] the vice chair of the s a A board. I mean, we had wonderful people who were members of the board that taught me so much about that oversight role and the fact that they weren't there to manage the company, but they were there to make sure that, that we were doing the best things, uh, on behalf of our shareholders.
And those other constituencies care a great deal about what we do as a company.
[00:35:22] Lance Dietz: Sounds like you had incredible people to learn from, which is just awesome. I'd like to tap into our next segment now, which alludes to some of the stuff that you've talked about here. We discuss the personal routines, habits, words to live by.
That have allowed you to be successful. So I guess my first question here is, are there any routines still to this day from West Point or from the military that you adhere to? Well, one
[00:35:46] David Melcher: thing, one thing that West Point teaches you very well is time management. I think I said earlier, there's always more things to do than there is time.
And so I think I'm a, I'm a fairly decent manager of time, but I want to stay [00:36:00] involved with the board work, for example. I think it's important to have an active mind. You can get that by, by working. You can get that by reading. You can get that by constantly trying to improve yourself educationally, and, and that is something that I certainly recommend for anyone is continue to learn throughout your life and you'll continue to expand, you know, the knowledge of things that you're, you're able to relate to.
I think the second thing is staying physically active. I used to be physically active all the time. I don't run as much as I ever, ever did, but I play golf, I walk a lot, I stay involved with some rocket sports. Uh, but most importantly I think I try and keep up a competitive spirit. After all, our motto is Spirit of 76.
So in all things sporting, I always try and be as competitive as I can. I also think it's important to make sure you have balance, uh, between your work life and your family. I always, you know, as an army officer, it's always, it's tough sometimes to be home, uh, to have dinner with [00:37:00] the kids. I tried to do that as much as I possibly could, and even when I was working in the Pentagon and these were during war years, I tried to get out of that place in a reasonable time because I knew the action officers that were working for me would never get out of there unless I got out at some point.
So having that balance is important. I think it's also important to, uh, partner or marry well in life, you know, however you choose to do that. The woman who was my high school sweetheart when we first met at 16 and 15 years of age is now my wife for 46 years. And she has been an absolutely fantastic partner all along the way in making sure that I'm paying attention to the right things and caring about family.
And she was a great mother to our two daughters and the great grandmother now to our four grandkids. So balance is important. And I think also as a part of routine, I know you have an interest. What do we do in terms of giving back to our institutions? I think giving back is [00:38:00] important, and so helping others as best you can, as a mentor, as a friend, and philanthropically, I think is also very, very important.
[00:38:09] Lance Dietz: You hit on a lot of things that I wanted to ask you about the high school sweetheart thing. I, I share that with you. So my wife and I were also high school sweethearts, had a rough patch in college, but got back together afterwards. How is it when you were at West? With you and your wife doing the long distance, A two percenter, it sounds like.
Well, like, like you, I
[00:38:26] David Melcher: would say it was probably on and off a little bit. We kept working on it and ultimately I knew this was the woman that I wanted to be, my wife. And, uh, we got married three weeks after I graduated from West Point. Had a bunch of classmates there. We, we didn't do it in uniform at the time, but they were all wearing mighty fine looking leisure suits.
Uh, , this was, uh, 1970. But, um, you know, you just, it's like anything in life, you keep working at it. Uh, and if you know you got the right true partner, then you stick with it. Yeah, That's great.
[00:38:58] Lance Dietz: And then on the [00:39:00] balance piece, which I think is so important, and I'm sure you had to balance that and manage that as well in the civilian career, being in charge of, of such significant companies, but then, One of your daughters Katie class.
Oh, wait, my classmate ended up going to West Point. How did that come about, like with your kids and, and sharing your experiences, which seems like it was different than with your father, who it didn't really come about until you found the medals, but we'd love to hear a bit more about that. Yeah, no, our,
[00:39:27] David Melcher: our, our kids were typical of many Army families.
We moved 18 times in 32 years. Our oldest daughter, Meredith, went to three high schools in four years, and Katie went to. Katie was actually born at West Point in 1986 when we were finishing up the teaching assignment and when I was a regimental tactical officer. Years later, she ran through the practice reception day as one of the new cadets, uh, so that the team could practice and make sure that we had everything right and both daughters [00:40:00] ended up going into the army, Meredith through William and Mary Rot.
Deployed to Iraq War in 2003 as a Medical Service Corps officer, and did the march to Baghdad with all the other units that were involved there. Katie, uh, decided she wanted to go to West Point as well and went as an oh eight graduate and then served in the Army in Germany and Kuwait and Fort Si in the engineer and our jewelry units as an AG officer.
But I think the, the conclusion that my wife and I drew was. Our 32 years in the Army were enough of a positive experience that both of our daughters and their husbands by the way, uh, felt that a military experience was an important thing to do. And I don't think any of those four would look back and say We didn't have terrific opportunities for responsibility in our early age to help shape.
As adults as we we went on. That's
[00:40:53] Lance Dietz: fascinating to hear, just kind of how, how your family now has been immersed and stayed immersed in, [00:41:00] in the army, in the military, uh, in some form or fashion. And leads me to the last section that we call giving back here, and you've already alluded a bit to this, but you do a lot.
Now in ways of giving back advice, working with AOG, for example, but curious, what are some of the things that you're spending most of your time on now as it relates to giving back
[00:41:21] David Melcher: philosophically? I, I just think that it's important to look for ways to give to organizations that are doing wonderful work and West Point in the Academy and Association of Graduates is certainly one of those, you know, as, as cadets, we were the beneficiaries of the gifts of previous.
Generations and classes, you know, that had stepped forward to try and make our experience a better one and, and help us to be the best officers we could be. I think it's important for us to provide that kind of, uh, it used to be called Margin of Excellence funding, uh, that allows West Point to be a tremendous learning experience for the [00:42:00] cadets.
And when I was working in the Pentagon, I learned that isn't just the federal appropriations that allow the Academy to be success. It's what graduates alumni do to try and contribute. And so as a result, I volunteered to lead our classes 50th reunion gift campaign, which is going to help resource the cyber and engineering academic center, which is a new building gonna be completed in 2025.
And the Modern Warfare Institute, which is a new curriculum emphasizing the importance of understanding warfare and all that goes into it, which is under the commandants auspices. Uh, so those are the things that we're contributing to, but there are so many other great causes out there. Things like the Wounded Warrior Project, Homes for our troop.
The Army Museum, many of these things headed up by West Point graduates and other army officers who have decided that this is what they're gonna try and do to help give back. And, and the best I can, I, [00:43:00] I try and support, uh, organizations like those because they're doing wonderful work for servicemen and women who have sacrificed so much.
So I believe in giving back, uh, you know, we have a wonderful gift committee, uh, and the class has really rallied around those causes to try. You know, make a, a good contribution to West Point, uh, on behalf of our 50th reunion celebration, which will come up in 2026. But, um, you know, it's, it, it's a part as you get older of realizing that that's an important part of your life too.
So
[00:43:32] Lance Dietz: last, last question I have for you. Like I said, you've already kind of given us some examples of this, but for someone who is, you know, considering leaving the military or staying in or transitioning in their civilian career to another job, any particular words of wisdom advice that you would leave them with?
[00:43:50] David Melcher: Well, you know, for younger officers who are leaving the military or non-commission officers, understand that you have significant leadership [00:44:00] skills. That are needed in industry, the things that you learned leading a, a small or large organization, the organizational skills, um, you know, those are very, very important as are the ability to speak.
Right clearly and articulate what it is that you want. The ability to set goals, right to be a problem solver, those are all things that people who have served in the military know how to do. So never sell yourself short on what you know, uh, as you make a transition into an industry context. That said, I'm also a big advocate of continuing to improve yourself, uh, with education, whether it's correspondence courses, uh, or working on a degree at.
Um, you know, or just doing research on a company that you want to be a part of. Learning about the finances, right? If you're gonna join a for profit endeavor or even not for profit, you have to understand the financial aspects of those kind of [00:45:00] organizations and what drives. Their success in the eyes of the shareholders.
So I think we don't naturally have that kind of a background in education when we're leaving the military, but you can get it and they're through transition courses, through education. There are a lot of ways to prepare yourself, but, but the real message is you have the skills to succeed and so many people who leave the military are successful in business context.
Because they immediately become a valuable member of the team.
[00:45:27] Lance Dietz: That's a great way to finish it. Sir. Thanks so much for the time. Just an incredible career in the military, outside the military. Spirit of 76. Really enjoyed chatting with you about this and, and I'm super excited for our listeners to hear it as well. So thanks again for the time and insights here.
[00:45:45] David Melcher: Thanks Lance. I really appreciate the time being with you today. Spirit of 76 and beat.
Narrator: This has been a production of the WPAOG Broadcast Network. Please take a moment to rate and review the show and join us each week for a new episode. Thank you for listening.