In his mid-twenties, Jim Taiclet was commanding multimillion-dollar aircraft on classified missions around the world—some of which came with an ominous send-off. “If anything happens, we never heard of you,” the mission briefer would tell him.
Today, the Air Force veteran runs Lockheed Martin, the defense giant ranked No. 61 on the Fortune 500, where roughly one in five of its 120,000 employees has also served.
And he’s not the only Fortune 500 CEO who learned to lead in uniform. This Veterans Day, several leaders have said the lessons they learned in the military—such as attention to detail, a willingness to take responsibility, and the composure to make decisions under pressure—still shape how they lead thousands of employees.
Lockheed Martin CEO says the skills learned as a veteran can be taken ‘forward your whole career’
Jim Taiclet, the CEO of Lockheed Martin, grew up in a military family.
He went on to attend the U.S. Air Force Academy and served as a pilot from 1985 to 1991—logging more than 5,000 flight hours in a Lockheed C-141B Starlifter, including during the Gulf War.
Taiclet’s time in the military taught him what it meant to be trusted with enormous responsibility at a remarkably young age.
“In my mid-twenties, I was commanding multi-million dollar aircraft and experienced air crews on classified missions all over the world,” he said in a 2017 interview (at the time he was CEO of American Tower). “On a few of these, the mission briefer’s parting words were, ‘If anything happens, we never heard of you.’”
The experience also taught him how to lead people with different levels of experience, skills and seniority, while simultaneously performing under pressure when the stakes couldn’t be higher.
After leaving the Air Force, Taiclet entered the private sector as a consultant at McKinsey. He went on to hold leadership positions at Pratt & Whitney and Honeywell before becoming CEO of American Tower, a wireless communications infrastructure company, in 2004. In 2020, he was tapped to lead Lockheed Martin, one of the world’s largest defense contractors.
Today, roughly one in five of Lockheed’s 120,000 employees are veterans. But Taiclet has said he believes the value veterans bring extends beyond their technical expertise or familiarity with the defense industry—it’s also the leadership skills and sense of responsibility they develop through military service.
“If you learn those skills about responsibility, leadership by example when you’re in your 20s and you can actually take those forward your whole career,” he told CNBC in 2023. “The mission dedication that you have whether it’s Lockheed Martin or any other company—[if] you get a veteran on your team, they’re going to be committed.”
Darren Rebelez went from Gulf War infantry officer to KFC manager—and eventually the head of $25 billion Casey’s
Darren Rebelez became CEO of Casey’s General Stores, ranked No. 282 on the Fortune 500, in 2019. But long before he was running one of the country’s largest convenience-store chains, he was learning how to lead soldiers.
Rebelez graduated from the U.S. Military Academy at West Point in 1988 and spent the next three years as an infantry officer, including a deployment to Saudi Arabia during the Gulf War. After leaving the military, he began his civilian career as a restaurant manager at KFC before moving into leadership roles across food and retail sectors, including at ExxonMobil, 7-Eleven and IHOP.
Despite the change in industries, Rebelez has said the leadership lessons he learned at West Point have remained central to his approach to business.
“West Point was where I learned leadership,” he told Chief Executive in 2024. “A lot of people think of it as a liberal arts school or an engineering school, but it’s really a leadership school that teaches you all that other stuff.”
For Rebelez, that foundation starts with building trust among the people you lead, including by listening to employees, treating them with respect, and giving them the resources they need to succeed.
“80 percent of leadership is just showing up,” he said. “If you’re not there, you can’t lead.”
While that philosophy was rooted in his military experience, Rebelez has said the skills developed through service are valuable well beyond the armed forces.
“In the military, you learn resiliency, for sure. That, along with toughness, mission focus, work ethic, teamwork, a can-do attitude, decisiveness,” he added in a 2023 Spencer Stuart report. “Those are all things that I think fit really well in any sort of leadership role.”
Advance Auto Parts CEO Shane O’Kelly learned to lead by example in the U.S. Army
Today, Shane O’Kelly leads the North Carolina-based Advance Auto Parts, No. 461 on the Fortune 500. Like Rebelez, his journey to the C-suite began at West Point. He graduated in 1990 with a degree in mathematical economics and spent the next seven years serving as an Army infantry officer.
After leaving the military, O’Kelly earned an MBA from Harvard and began climbing the corporate ranks, with early stops at McKinsey and The Home Depot.
His approach to leadership reflects lessons he carried with him from the Army: humility, listening, and leading by example.
“You have to be able to follow before you can lead and you have to listen before you can talk,” O’Kelly told Business North Carolina in 2024. “And don’t ask people to do anything you wouldn’t be prepared to do yourself.”
Sempra CEO went from preparing for a Soviet threat to building the next generation of leaders
Jeffrey Martin, CEO of energy infrastructure company Sempra, leads a workforce of roughly 20,000. His approach to leadership, he has said, was shaped by his years in the Army—and centers on developing the people around him.
Martin was motivated to serve after the Iran Hostage Crisis and soon began attending the United States Military Academy at West Point in 1980. Four years later, after obtaining his degree in general engineering degree, he was commissioned. His later unit’s mission was to help defend Western Europe against a potential Soviet threat. Martin left the Army as a captain in December 1989.
The experience left him with a view of leadership that extends beyond giving orders or relying on a title.
“I learned that people often make the mistake of associating leadership with creating followership, and unfortunately that can lead to an over-reliance on one’s title or position in an organization to accomplish things,” he said in a 2022 Sempra Q&A. “Instead, what is far more important is being intentional about creating new leaders at every level of an organization.”
That philosophy, he added, applies just as much in business as it does in the military: “Whether your focus is on winning on the battlefield or in corporate America, leadership is all about raising up those around you and bringing out the best in people, teams and organizations.”
The post Lockheed Martin’s CEO flew 5,000+ hours as an Air Force pilot and Casey’s CEO fought in the Gulf War—now they’re running Fortune 500 companies appeared first on Fortune.
