REDSTONE ARSENAL, Ala. (June 29, 2029) – In times of organizational change, leadership must strike the delicate balance of guiding the mission while supporting the people who make that mission possible.
For the U.S. Army Combat Capabilities Development Command Aviation & Missile Center, that is David Zecher.
Zecher has been named the Center’s new deputy director, supporting Director Dr. James Kirsch while also stepping into the director role for the newly established Strategic Technology and Integration Directorate. With Kirsch dual-hatted as the Portfolio Acquisition Executive’s Fires Systems Center director and the Center currently evolving to support the PAEs, Zecher will assist with Center-focused activities.
“The director role is ‘up and out’ and the deputy role is ‘down and in’ focused on the operations inside of the Center,” Zecher said. “My role is to work with Chief of Staff Steve Fisher to make sure that we are taking care of proper running for internal undertakings – the deputy role being more strategic in nature and chief of staff being more tactical.”
Zecher’s Madison County roots run deep. After graduating from the original Grissom High School, the self-described "local kid" earned a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Alabama in Huntsville – a path inspired by his engineer father and math teacher mother – followed by a Master of Science in Management from the Florida Institute of Technology. He and his wife, Karen, are the parents of three adult children: one in the workforce, one serving in the Army and a third studying engineering in college.
Early in his own engineering career, Zecher said that his dad gave him a piece of advice.
“He said, ‘don’t become a supervisor; stay technical,’” Zecher shared with a laugh.
But Zecher also felt called to mentorship – inspired by his mom, who had trained as a counselor. It is that perfect blend of his parents, he said, that has shaped his leadership style and served him well as he rose up the ranks over the years at the Center. It doesn’t hurt that he is also an accomplished baker in his spare time. Zecher firmly believes that "food tends to make people happy and happy people are a lot more fun to work with" and often uses his famous banana bread to build camaraderie.
“I have always characterized my leadership style as a servant leader. My goal has been to enable those directly supporting the mission by aligning direction or setting priority and then providing resources and removing roadblocks, so they can execute,” Zecher said.
Acknowledging that structural reorganizations are difficult and can distract from the mission, Zecher said Center leadership is not taking the organizational changes lightly.
“With the realignment to the PAE structure and the work being done through business process reengineering and digital transformation, we have an opportunity to minimize the administrative burden to focus on the technical work at hand. We all want to do less administrative tasks and feel like work products are moving forward.”
Drawing on experience – and more than one reorganization – he counsels team members to remember the work they perform is the legacy of the Center in development and integration of technologies that support the Army’s missile and aviation portfolios.
“Focus on what you can control, which typically are the immediate tasks you are doing for the Army and other Department of War organizations. Stay connected to your teammates who also may be worried about the next changes coming; they may need your support, too.”
***
About DEVCOM AvMC: DEVCOM AvMC is the nexus of Army aviation and missile modernization, where the operational requirements of Transformation and Training Command (T2COM) are fused with the acquisition strategies of the Portfolio Acquisition Executives (PAE). As the Army’s primary source of deep technical expertise, the Center provides the innovative science and responsive life-cycle engineering that allows the PAEs to execute programs at speed, delivering the asymmetric capabilities required to ensure our Soldiers dominate on the battlefield.
Social Sharing