New president, CEO named for Bell Helicopter

Mitch Snyder

Mitch Snyder was named president and CEO of Bell Helicopter today by parent company, succeeding John Garrison, who is joining Terex Corp. as its new president and CEO.

Snyder joined Bell Helicopter in 2004, holding several leadership positions with the company, most recently as executive vice president of military business.

Synder has led a number of the company’s most strategic initiatives, such as overall operation of Bell’s government business and direction of the V-22 Osprey program. Prior to joining Bell Helicopter, he held senior leadership positions with Lockheed Martin in areas of engineering, business and manufacturing.

Commenting on the leadership transition, said, “Mitch steps into the leadership position during one of the most exciting times in Bell’s history,” said Textron Chairman & CEO Scott C. Donnelly. Fort Worth-based Bell Helicopter is a unit of Textron Inc. “He will focus on extending the great success we’ve built for established programs like the V-22 and H-1 military programs, while also growing our strong pipeline of new products such as the 525 Relentless, 505 Jet Ranger X and the V-280 Valor — to name just a few.”

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Bell Helicopter has faced challenges with military cutbacks and has recently make a greater effort to make additional inroads into the civilian market. In August, Bell Helicopter won a major contract modification order from the U.S. Navy for the manufacture of military helicopters for the Marine Corps as well as for the government of Pakistan. The contract is worth $581.1 million. The vertical aircraft manufacturer’s revenues were down 24 percent year over year, in the second quarter. That drop was primarily caused by lower commercial, V-22 and H-1 deliveries, according to Textron.

Garrison’s new company Terex Corp. is a lifting and material handling solutions company based in Westport, Connecticut.