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22 Hartford Business Journal • June 3, 2019 • www.HartfordBusiness.com LIFETIME ACHIEVEMENT AWARDS 2019 By Liese Klein Special to the Hartford Business Journal I n an office full of artwork and awards, Neal Keating's most treasured keepsake lies on the top shelf of a closet: a sheaf of yellow- ing papers torn from an easel pad. Keating, president and CEO of Ka- man Corp. in Bloomfield, sketched out plans for a new product on those yellowing papers in an earlier job at Rockwell Automation. "I had an idea … and my boss said we couldn't do it, we didn't have the money to do it. I didn't accept that," Keating said. "We did it." That product — a novel machine- human interface called PanelView — has sold more than 50,000 units and still sells strongly in updated versions decades after its introduction. Keating's ability to innovate, put together winning teams and advocate for what he believes in have helped lift him to the top ranks of the state's C- suite executives. A willingness to talk bluntly about the challenges facing the state's busi- ness community has also helped lift Keating to the top ranks of impactful CEOs in policy discus- sions. "[Keating] is always straight- forward and direct in his assessment of policies that affect the competitive- ness of Connecticut companies," said Joe Brennan, president and CEO of the Connecticut Business & Industry Association. "He's also very passion- ate about his workforce as well as the community. … He takes his role as a good corporate citizen very, very seriously." Engineering success Curiosity helped spark Keating's career, at first as an engineer and then as an executive at a series of aerospace and technology companies. The son of two Irish immigrants, he grew up learning the value of hard work and admir- ing the technical know-how of his father, a maintenance worker at Sears, Roebuck and Company in Illinois. "When the boilers went down at two in the morning, dad would go wake you up and take you in to work," Keating said. Early on, the young Keating developed a fascination with all things mechanical and electrical, an interest that was honed by his ap- preciation of the space program and "The hardest thing is that you really do have to make the commitment to be prepared every day, to get it right every day." Curiosity steered Kaman's Keating from engineer to CEO PHOTO | CONTRIBUTED Neal Keating Chairman, President & CEO, Kaman Corp. Size of organization: 5,400 employees; $1.9 billion in revenue Education : Bachelor's degree in electrical engineering, University of Illinois; MBA, University of Chicago Previous job(s): Chief Operating Officer of Rockwell Collins; Chief Operating Officer of Hughes Supply; CEO of GKN Aerospace, London, England; and the important jobs that helped me get there: paperboy, caddie, busboy and mowing lawns.