As a combat engineer he was a natural leader, and he is survived by his wife and two daughters.

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His death hits Makani hard because its founder is irreplaceable: a Stanford-trained engineer who pushed the edge of design, an able leader who snared funding from Google and the ARPA-E, and a handsome windsurfing champion who knew the power of the wind firsthand.

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It's rare to find a dictatorial leader like Thomas Watson Sr. of IBM who could engineer the appointment of his son as chief executive, as he did in 1956 even though the Watson family at the time owned only a small percentage of IBM's stock.

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The agent of change emerging from that shakeup is an improbably young aerospace engineer named Dennis A. Muilenburg, who may be the most dynamic leader the defense sector has produced in this generation.

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An enthusiastic team player and a charismatic leader, Mr Mulally was also regarded by his colleagues as an engineers' engineer, since he based his decisions on hard data rather than vague hunches.

ECONOMIST: Face value