1998: Fate altered Rockwell Collins CEO Clay Jones's career plans

Clay Jones, chairman and chief executive officer of Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids, shared details of his life for this story that was published in The Gazette in December 1998 shortly before he became president of the  avionics company. Rockwell Collins announced this morning that Jones would step down as CEO as of July 31 of this year. He will stay on as non-executive chairman.

Had fate not intervened, Clay Jones would probably be flying a commercial airliner today, rather than preparing to pilot a company that provides avionics, communications and flight entertainment equipment for the same aircraft.

Jones, 49, will become president of Rockwell Collins on Jan. 1, 1999, succeeding Jack Cosgrove who is retiring Dec. 31 after 42 years with Cedar Rapids company. Jones also has been elected a senior vice president of Rockwell International Corp., the corporate parent of Rockwell Collins.

In a recent interview, Jones recalled how he was planning a career  in the U.S. Air Force before political decisions and world economic conditions forced him to alter course.

"While I was a student at the University of Tennessee, I was in Air Force ROTC (Reserve Officer Training Corps)," said Jones, a Nashville native. "After graduating from college in 1971, I went into the Air Force and spent eight years there primarily flying fighters.

"Three of my eight years I was actually stationed overseas and did a lot of international travel. I spent the last three years flying F-15s and that was great, because there were very few F-15s at the time.

"I decided to get out of the Air Force in the late 1970s because that was a period during the Carter years when the military was not in very high esteem. I was primarily going to pursue an airline career, but the timing wasn't right for that either.

"In late 1979, there were several periods of oil shocks and recessionary periods. The airlines quit hiring and there weren't that many jobs to be had in the industry."

Jones heard about an opportunity at Rockwell International in California from a friend in the Air Force.

"I was hired to start working in Rockwell's so-called 'autonetics' division, which dealt with defense electronics," said Jones. "I worked there for a year.

"With my mind toward aviation, rather than straight electronics, I was fortunate to transition over to the aircraft division in El Segundo. I spent two years working in the aircraft division."

Another turning point in Jones's career occurred when Rockwell sponsored him to participate in the White House Commission on Executive Exchange.

"It was a program where government lent people to industry and industry lent people to the government, and you spent a year learning how the other side works," said Jones. "With the big defense and government contracts that Rockwell had at the time, the company felt that it would be advantageous.

"I spent a year in Washington doing a very exciting tour of the Environmental Protection Agency. They wouldn't let you do anything that might involve a conflict of interest, like work at the Defense Department.

"I got to see to very interesting things in the early part of the Reagan administration, including James Watt and Anne Gorsuch, who I worked with and who later got into big trouble. After that year, I was to stay in Washington and apply what I had learned."

Fate again intervened when Rockwell won the B-1 bomber contract, a significant piece of business (one-third of Rockwell's sales and profits at one point in time). Jones worked on the B-1 project from about 1983 to 1988, shepherding it through Congress and the Defense Department.

"At that point, Rockwell decided to merge its aircraft and space operation into an aerospace operation and I was fortunate to be selected as vice president for government affairs and marketing," he said. "I did that job until 1995 when Jim McDivitt retired as senior vice president of the Washington operations and I was selected to take his place."

Nine months later, Jones was sent to Cedar Rapids as general manager of the air transport division of Rockwell's Collins business.

"It was a big transition point in my career to go from a marketing position to a general management position," said

Jones. "I think they felt that some of my previous experience would be useful here.

"The air transport or commercial part of our company had gone through a lull. When we had some significant contracts at Boeing, most notably to Honeywell on the Boeing 777 and the Boeing 737 common display system.

"There was a sense that, although we were still doing good work, we might not have been as close to the customer as we needed to be. The strength that I brought in was a lot of working with customers and getting close to them.

"My lone charter was to come in and help Collins be more market-focused and customer-driven. We both learned together during that first year in air transport."

When Jones talks about the future of Rockwell Collins, he is a passionate about the company's opportunities in the avionics, communications and flight entertainment equipment business.

"I'm proud of the team that helped me pull together and significantly restore our confidence in Boeing and our other

airline customers," said Jones. "When I came into the business, we were doing about $350 million in annual revenue. This year, we will do well over $600 million in revenue, so we've really positioned that business to take advantage of a market upturn that we've seen since I arrived.

"I've spent the last two years working with Jack (Cosgrove) to basically architect what we have today. We have a much more efficient operation, with the organizational changes that we've put in place creating centers of excellence and shared services that serve all our businesses."

Jones, in his leadership position at Rockwell Collins, is expected to continue his strong support for education in the community. He credits his educational experiences for preparing him for the position he will assume next month.

"I grew up in Nashville and at the time I graduated from high school, it was a big decision as to whether you went to

college," he said. "Half of my graduating class didn't go on to college.

"Attending the University of Tennessee was the most formative time of my life. I saw what was out in the world through my university education.

"When I went on to graduate school and got my MBA while working at Rockwell, it helped supplement my ability to be a

business leader in the future. Without that experience, I don't think I would be nearly as effective today."

In his personal life, Jones and his wife, Debbie, are the proud parents of daughters Lindsey and Melissa.

"I'm extraordinarily passionate about my family," he said. "They're the bellwether to keep me on the straight and narrow. More importantly, they keep me humble as I do all these  things that I think are important, but I realize are not as

important as my family."

Jones is an avid golfer and also enjoys snow skiing. "I attack both of them with the same fervor that I do my professional life," he said.

"Being from Nashville, there's something in my gene pool that says I must learn how to play the guitar. I enjoy music and I try to hack at the guitar every once in a while."

The former fighter pilot also retains his interest in flying, although he has not kept his pilot's license current.

"I don't have the time to go out and do it safely," Jones said. "I'm smart enough to know there's an awful lot of amateur pilots who think they know more than they do. That's the best way I know to tie the world's record for flying low - usually into the side of a mountain."