DON TANNAHILL
DIRECTOR OF HUMAN RESOURCES
TEXTRON AVIATION
Don Tannahill’s continued focus on equality, coupled with his ability to foster safe spaces for employees to engage, interact and share ideas, has revitalized Textron Aviation’s approach to Diversity, Inclusion and Belonging.
Don is committed to ensuring all employees feel welcome and encouraged to be themselves at work, and that is demonstrated in the comprehensive DIB strategy. Don reset the company strategy to encompass the four generations represented in our workforce and uses data that reflects the Wichita community diversity and labor pool to build our future workforce.
Thanks to Don’s leadership and advocacy, our Employee Resource Groups – company-sponsored groups of employees with similar backgrounds or interests – have grown to 10, encompassing more than 1,000 world-wide employees. He also successfully launched a DIB page on the company’s internal social media platform. The group has engaged more than 435 employees across the company and helps provide employees a space to expressing themselves authentically and engage in timely conversations that expose them to different perspectives.
A towering strength of Don’s within the DIB space is his comfortability with ambiguity. He approaches every conversation open-minded, with a true willingness to understand and ultimately appreciate. It’s this level of authenticity and vulnerability that makes others feel comfortable opening up to him.
In addition to his role at Textron Aviation, Don serves on the Textron Corporate DIB committee, where he is seen as a leader in the space. In both roles, Don promotes new, interactive forms of communication among groups. He strives to help other business succeed by sharing best practices, and on the other hand, prevents others from not meeting expectations by sharing lessons learned.
Don is active in the Wichita community. He attends the Wichita Regional Chamber of Commerce city-to-city leadership visits to collaborate with other communities and gain insight to diverse perspectives. Don is an active member of the National Association of Asian American Professionals, an organization that Textron Aviation also sponsors, much due to Don’s advocacy.
In 2019, Textron Aviation committed to support to the Division of Diversity and Community Engagement at Wichita State University. Don, along with other Textron Aviation senior leaders, works closely with Marche Flemming-Randle and her team at WSU to support and champion their diversity programming and our ongoing partnership.
Don is also involved in the local League 42. His passion for baseball combined with his strong belief that all people should have opportunities and pathways to succeed, is what ignited his support of the organization that provides a low-cost baseball league to Wichita children.
Don understands the scope of diversity and how to respectfully navigate challenging topics in the DIB space. His humility and vulnerability make him an excellent leader and advocate for DIB. He has a passion for holding leaders accountable and amplifying employee voices in his continuous desire to develop DIB allies. Through Don’s work, Textron Aviation is fostering a modern culture that achieves value through inclusion, challenging the status quo, promoting new ways of thinking, and advocating for unity.