Tom Gentile became Chief Executive Officer & President at Hexcel and was appointed to the Board of Directors in May 2024. Before joining Hexcel, Tom was President and Chief Executive Officer at Spirit AeroSystems from 2016 – 2023. He led a team of 20,000+ employees across 12 locations globally. Spirit is the leading Tier 1 global supplier of aerostructures and integrated structural systems for commercial and military aircraft, with major work packages on all Boeing and Airbus programs. Before joining Spirit, Tom held a succession of leadership positions over 19 years at GE. From 2014 – 2016, he was President and Chief Operating Officer at GE Capital, where he oversaw global operations, IT, and capital planning for the global financial services business. Tom served on the GE Corporate Executive Council, and he was elected to the GE Capital Board of Directors. He led operations during a major transformation of GE Capital to a smaller, non-systemically important financial institution focused on GE verticals such as aviation, healthcare and energy. Other roles at GE included:

* President & Chief Executive Officer - GE Healthcare Systems
* President and Chief Executive Officer - GE Aviation Services
* Chief Marketing Officer – GE Money
* President & Chief Executive Officer – GE Money, Australia & New Zealand (ANZ)
* President & CEO, GE Money, Paris
* Senior Vice President – Six Sigma – GE Global Consumer Finance

Before joining GE in December 1997, Tom was Vice President, Strategic Planning at CBS Corporation in New York where he led strategic planning, operations improvement initiatives and the integration of CBS into Westinghouse. He also was an Associate Principal/Senior Engagement Manager at McKinsey & Company where his work focused on automotive OEMs and suppliers as well as a broad range of industrial and technology-oriented businesses in the U.S. and Europe. He started his career as a Trade Analyst at General Motors where he analyzed, negotiated, and implemented commodity trading programs to support the sale of GM products in Africa, Latin America, and Eastern Europe. Beginning in January 2024, Tom became Executive Advisor to the Dean of the Barton School of Business at Wichita State University on a pro-bono basis. He also is the former Chair of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA and serves on the Advisory Board to the Smithsonian National Air and Space Museum. In addition, he is a member of the Board of Governors of the Wings Club Foundation and currently is Vice President/President-Elect. Tom has a degree in economics from Harvard University and an MBA from Harvard Business School. He studied international relations at the London School of Economics and is a Six Sigma Master Black Belt, earning his certification while working at GE.