Troy Brunk named president of Collins Aerospace

RTX this week named Troy Brunk as president of Collins Aerospace, the largest employer in Cedar Rapids.

Brunk, a 30-year aerospace and defense veteran, succeeds Stephen Timm, who is retiring.

Brunk, previously president of the Collins avionics, interiors and mission systems business units, will report to Christopher Calio, RTX president and CEO.

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“Having led three of the six strategic business units at Collins Aerospace, Troy has a deep understanding of the portfolio and its customers,“ Calio said in a news release. ”Troy's decades of industry experience and leadership make him the right person to lead Collins into its next phase of growth.“

Brunk, who will be based in Cedar Rapids, earned a degree in industrial engineering and a Master of Business Administration degree from the University of Iowa.

Timm will remain with the company through March 2025 as a special advisor, focused on business transformation at Collins Aerospace and continuing to report to Calio.

Timm's career with Collins spans 28 years, serving as business president since 2020. He played a critical role in managing Collins through the global pandemic and commercial aerospace recovery.

“Steve's leadership has been the driving force for the full integration of the Collins business,” Calio said.

As part of the planned leadership transition, Heather Robertson becomes president of Collins' mission systems business unit, which Brunk previously headed. She has been with the company 24 years, working in both its defense and commercial divisions.

History of company

Arthur Collins founded Collins Radio in 1933 in Cedar Rapids.

When the company experienced financial difficulties in 1973, Rockwell International acquired Collins Radio Co., establishing the Rockwell Collins headquarters in Cedar Rapids, where the company developed and produced avionics and information technology for government agencies and aircraft manufacturers.

In 2018, United Technologies Corp. bought Rockwell Collins for $30 billion, combining it with UTC’s Aerospace Systems in Charlotte, N.C., to form Collins Aerospace, based in Cedar Rapids.

In April 2020, United Technologies Corp. and Raytheon Technologies merged in a $135 billion deal, one of the largest deals in aerospace and defense history, and Collins Aerospace became a Raytheon Technologies business unit.

In a corporate realignment in July 2023, Raytheon Technologies rebranded as RTX.

RTX, with more than 185,000 employees worldwide, operates three businesses — Collins Aerospace, Pratt & Whitney, and Raytheon. The company, with 2023 sales of $69 billion, is headquartered in Arlington, Va.

Collins Aerospace has nearly 9,000 employees in Iowa, including 7,000 in Cedar Rapids.