120 years ago on September 25, 1903, Olive Beech was born Olive Ann Mellor in Waverly, KS. At 22, she got her first job in aviation as a secretary at Travel Air Manufacturing Company in Wichita, KS. She worked her way up to office manager and then to personal secretary to one of the company’s founders, Walter Beech, who she married in 1930.
In 1932, the couple founded Beech Aircraft Company. When Walter became ill in 1940, Olive took control of the company. During World War II, Beechcraft grew from 300 to 14,000 employees. More than 90% of US navigators and bombardiers in WWII trained in the company’s aircraft. After Walter’s death in 1950, Olive took on the role of CEO and became the first woman to lead a Fortune 500 company.
On her watch, Beechcraft grew its line of high-performance planes for private consumers, made military aircraft and drones, did contract work for NASA, and was hugely successful. If you invested in Beechcraft when Olive Beech first became CEO in 1950 and cashed out when she sold the company in 1980, your average annual return would be 18%.
When a Fortune magazine reporter asked her what in her early life prepared her to be a CEO, she said, "My father told me to sit up straight at the table."
She also said:
• “I made [husband Walter Beech] pay me a salary or I wouldn’t work…I wasn’t willing to give my life’s blood and not have it properly evaluated.”
• “Though the décor of our individual offices may vary, the daily problems on our desks are no different. The kind of woman who can function in an executive job is one who can handle that job, and it’s just about that simple.”
• “Talent is where you find it, it is no respecter of men or women, young or old.”
• “And therein lies the secret. As long as there exists a shortage of thinkers, as long as there remains a demand for do-ers, women executives will be at work helping build a better nation in a better world.”
In 1943, the New York Times named her one of 12 most distinguished women in America. In 1970, Fortune magazine called her one of the 10 highest-ranking women executives in major American corporations.
Olive Beech died in Wichita, KS on July 6, 1993. She was 89 years old.
Talent Acquisition Lead - Integrated Mission Systems at L3Harris Technologies (Maritime)
2moWow that went by SUPER fast! Congratulations! 🎉