Bob Johnson doesn’t just enjoy the game of golf, he’s a golf fanatic who has played in pro-am tournaments alongside the likes of Tiger Woods and other top players. So when he retired from his job as president and CEO of Honeywell Aerospace a little over a year ago, friends and former colleagues figured they knew where they could find him if they ever needed to–on the links of Phoenix’s toughest courses, sharpening his game.
But Sheikh Ahmed bin Saeed Al-Maktoum, the chairman of Dubai Aerospace Enterprise (DAE) and head of the UAE’s civil aviation department, had other ideas for the longtime Honeywell and GE executive. Luring Johnson out of retirement to run DAE as its first CEO, the company offered him the chance to share time spent under the Phoenix sun with time in Dubai’s desert oasis–as well as on trips around the world assembling the pieces for a $15 billion global aerospace empire.
