Gretchen W. McClain is an American business executive.Forbes
/ref>Bloomberg BusinessWeek
/ref>Xylem Inc. biography
/ref> She currently serves on the board of directors for

Booz Allen Hamilton Booz Allen Hamilton Holding Corporation (informally Booz Allen) is the parent of Booz Allen Hamilton Inc., an American management and information technology consulting firm, headquartered in McLean, Virginia, in Greater Washington, D.C., with 8 ...

and

Ametek AMETEK, Inc. is an American multinational conglomerate and global designer and manufacturer of electronic instruments and electromechanical devices with headquarters in the United States and over 220 sites worldwide. The company was founded in 1 ...

. She served as the president and chief executive officer of

Xylem Inc. Xylem Inc. is a large American water technology provider, in public utility, residential, commercial, agricultural and industrial settings. The company does business in more than 150 countries. Launched in 2011 as the spinoff of the water-relate ...

(), and as the former chief director of the

International Space Station The International Space Station (ISS) is the largest modular space station currently in low Earth orbit. It is a multinational collaborative project involving five participating space agencies: NASA (United States), Roscosmos (Russia), JAXA ( ...

and Deputy Associate Administrator of Human Space Exploration at NASA.

Early life

She was born in US. She graduated from the

University of Utah The University of Utah (U of U, UofU, or simply The U) is a public research university in Salt Lake City, Utah. It is the flagship institution of the Utah System of Higher Education. The university was established in 1850 as the University of ...

Salt Lake City, Utah Salt Lake City (often shortened to Salt Lake and abbreviated as SLC) is the capital and most populous city of Utah, United States. It is the seat of Salt Lake County, the most populous county in Utah. With a population of 200,133 in 2020, the ...

, with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.

Career

Gretchen W. McClain served as the chief executive officer of Xylem Inc. from 2011 to September 9, 2013, and served as its president until September 9, 2013, She started her career as a Senior Leader in guiding space shuttle and space station initiatives for the NASA. She joined

AlliedSignal AlliedSignal was an American aerospace, automotive and engineering company created through the 1985 merger of Allied Corp. and Signal Companies. It subsequently purchased Honeywell for $14.8 billion in 1999, and thereafter adopted the Honeywell n ...

in 1999. After its merger, she served as vice president and general manager at

Honeywell Aerospace Honeywell Aerospace is a manufacturer of aircraft engines and avionics, as well as a producer of auxiliary power units (APUs) and other aviation products. Headquartered in Phoenix, Arizona, it is a division of the Honeywell International conglome ...

, a subsidiary of

Honeywell Honeywell International Inc. is an American publicly traded, multinational conglomerate corporation headquartered in Charlotte, North Carolina. It primarily operates in four areas of business: aerospace, building technologies, performance ma ...

(). She joined the

ITT Corporation ITT Inc., formerly ITT Corporation, is an American worldwide manufacturing company based in Stamford, Connecticut. The company produces specialty components for the aerospace, transportation, energy and industrial markets. ITT's three businesses ...

() in 2005, where she served as president of ITT's Residential & Commercial Water business and later as president of the ITT Fluid and Motion Control business. She served on the board of directors of the Hydraulic Institute. In 2011, she served as president and CEO of Xylem, Inc. She has supported modernising the water infrastructure, including the sewage system, in the United States. In September 2013, in response to a 3.4% decline in stock value, McClain resigned as CEO of Xylem Inc and was temporarily replaced by former chairman Steven Loranger.Hackley, Randall, and Justin Doom. "McClain Steps Down as Xylem Chief After Stock Disappoints.
Bloomberg.com. Bloomberg, 9 Sept. 2013. Web. 15 June 2016.

References

American mechanical engineers American technology chief executives American women chief executives Businesspeople from Utah Living people NASA people University of Utah alumni Year of birth missing (living people) 21st-century American women {{US-CEO-stub