Dave Calhoun and Gautam Adani are not publicly documented as business partners, relatives or members of the same company. The meaningful connection between them is indirect and runs through aviation: Boeing worked with Indian maintenance company Air Works while Calhoun was Boeing’s chief executive, and Adani Defence later moved to acquire Air Works.
The timing matters. Adani first announced an Air Works acquisition in 2022, during Calhoun’s tenure at Boeing, but that transaction did not close. A new deal was agreed after Calhoun had left the Boeing CEO role, with Adani Defence ultimately taking control of Air Works in 2025 and increasing its holding to 99.98% in 2026.
That makes the Dave Calhoun and Gautam Adani connection a story about overlapping corporate interests rather than a documented personal or direct commercial partnership.
The connection runs through Boeing and Air Works
The clearest link begins with Boeing’s relationship with Air Works, an Indian maintenance, repair and overhaul business.
Boeing and Air Works announced a strategic collaboration in February 2021 to support defence aircraft in India. By May 2022, Boeing said three Indian Navy P-8I maritime patrol aircraft were undergoing heavy maintenance at Air Works’ facility in Hosur. Boeing described this work as part of its effort to expand maintenance capabilities within India through its Boeing India Repair Development and Sustainment initiative. The company’s May 2022 Air Works announcement provides the clearest primary record of that relationship.
At the time, David L. Calhoun was Boeing’s president and CEO, a position he had held since January 2020.
Gautam Adani entered the picture through Adani Defence & Aerospace. In October 2022, Adani Enterprises announced an agreement for its defence subsidiary to acquire Air Works. Significantly, Adani’s own announcement referred to the ongoing Boeing-Air Works work on the three P-8I aircraft.
That overlap is real. But it does not establish a personal Calhoun-Adani deal, nor does it show that Calhoun personally negotiated with Adani.
The first Adani-Air Works deal did not close
The 2022 announcement is sometimes treated as if Adani immediately became the owner of Air Works. That is not what happened.
By June 2023, CRISIL Ratings said the transaction’s long-stop date had expired and, based on information it had received, there were no ongoing discussions to extend it. The CRISIL Air Works rating update therefore provides an important correction to the simplified claim that Adani “bought Air Works in 2022”.
The Economic Times reported at the time that complications involving the liquidation of Air Works shareholder Punj Lloyd had contributed to delays. That explanation was reported rather than established in the transaction documents themselves, so the safest conclusion is narrower: the 2022 deal was announced but did not complete.
This distinction is important because Calhoun was still running Boeing during the 2022 attempt. Adani’s eventual controlling ownership came later.
Adani took control after Calhoun left Boeing
Boeing announced in July 2024 that Kelly Ortberg would succeed Calhoun as president and CEO from 8 August 2024. The same Boeing transition announcement said Calhoun would remain as an adviser to the board through March 2025.
Several months after Calhoun left the chief executive role, Adani Defence returned to the Air Works transaction. In December 2024, Adani Enterprises announced a new share-purchase agreement covering 85.8% of Air Works. Air Works separately confirmed the binding agreement and said completion remained subject to conditions and approvals.
On 1 July 2025, Adani Enterprises disclosed that its defence subsidiary had completed the acquisition of an 85.1% stake, making Air Works a step-down subsidiary of Adani Enterprises.
The ownership later increased again. On 11 March 2026, Adani Enterprises said Adani Defence had acquired a further 14.2% effective shareholding, raising its disclosed stake from 85.76% to 99.98%. The company’s March 2026 Air Works filing is the most recent ownership record in the verified chronology.
The sequence is therefore straightforward: Boeing’s Air Works relationship was already operating under Calhoun; Adani tried to acquire Air Works in 2022; that attempt expired; a new transaction was signed after Calhoun had left Boeing; and Adani later took near-total ownership.
Who is Dave Calhoun?
David L. Calhoun is an American corporate executive whose career was built largely inside major industrial and information businesses rather than through founding his own company.
He spent 26 years at General Electric, where his responsibilities eventually included senior leadership positions in businesses such as GE Transportation and GE Aircraft Engines. That aviation experience preceded his later involvement with Boeing.
After GE, Calhoun became chief executive of Nielsen and later joined Blackstone. He had already spent more than a decade on Boeing’s board before being chosen to lead the company.
He joined Boeing’s board in 2009 and briefly served as chairman from October to December 2019. In January 2020, he became president and CEO, taking over during a difficult period for the aircraft manufacturer. His term lasted until August 2024.
Calhoun studied accounting at Virginia Tech. In a 2018 Virginia Tech profile, he said graduating from the university had been central to “developing the confidence to succeed”. The same profile described his later support for Virginia Tech’s Honors College, including a $20 million commitment intended to support scholarships and interdisciplinary education.
That connection to education offers a useful glimpse of how Calhoun has described his own development. His public career, however, is defined primarily by long periods inside large corporations: GE, Nielsen, Blackstone and Boeing.
Calhoun’s connection with India
India became increasingly important to Boeing during Calhoun’s tenure.
In June 2023, during Indian Prime Minister Narendra Modi’s state visit to the United States, Calhoun met Modi and publicly backed the Make in India initiative. He also spoke about Boeing’s role in India’s expanding commercial aviation market and defence modernisation.
That episode is relevant because it places the Boeing-Air Works collaboration within a broader India strategy. It does not, however, create a direct Gautam Adani connection. No verified public account from that meeting links Adani to Calhoun.
As of September 2026, Calhoun is most safely described as the former president and CEO of Boeing. Boeing’s 2024 succession announcement said his advisory period would run through March 2025. A separate historical Boeing document later used “present” wording for that advisory role, creating enough uncertainty that an ongoing formal position should not be assumed.
Who is Gautam Adani?
Gautam Adani is the founder and chairman of Adani Group, the Indian conglomerate whose businesses span infrastructure sectors including ports, energy, airports and defence and aerospace activities.
Adani Group’s own corporate history says he began working as a diamond sorter in 1978 before establishing Adani Exports in Ahmedabad in 1988. That trading business developed into the wider group that now carries his name.
For this particular story, Adani’s aviation interests matter more than the full range of the group’s operations.
Adani Group has expanded into airports, defence manufacturing, aerospace services and maintenance. Air Works now sits within that broader aviation and maintenance strategy. Adani Enterprises’ current defence and aerospace reporting also places aircraft maintenance and related aviation services alongside the group’s other aerospace businesses.
The acquisition of Air Works therefore fits an established sector strategy. It gives Adani Defence a major maintenance platform rather than creating a special relationship with Boeing’s former chief executive.
What Air Works adds to Adani’s aviation business
Maintenance, repair and overhaul, usually shortened to MRO, is a major part of the aviation industry. Airlines and military operators depend on MRO organisations to inspect, repair and maintain aircraft and components so that they remain serviceable and meet regulatory requirements.
Air Works has operated in that field for decades and has serviced both civilian and military aircraft. Its work with Boeing’s P-8I programme demonstrates why the company was strategically relevant to an aerospace and defence group looking to expand its aviation capabilities.
For Adani Defence, acquiring Air Works therefore added an operating business with established maintenance relationships and technical infrastructure.
It also explains why Boeing appears in the Dave Calhoun and Gautam Adani story. Boeing was already a customer and collaborator of Air Works before Adani gained control of the company.
Were Dave Calhoun and Gautam Adani business partners?
There is no public confirmation of a direct business partnership between the two men.
Calhoun did not hold a documented role at Adani Group, and Adani did not hold a documented executive role at Boeing. No verified joint venture, jointly owned company or jointly announced transaction involving Calhoun and Adani personally has been established.
The relationship is better understood at company level. Boeing worked with Air Works during Calhoun’s tenure. Adani Defence sought to buy Air Works during that same period, but the first transaction expired. The acquisition that ultimately gave Adani control was agreed after Calhoun had stepped down as Boeing CEO.
There is likewise no authoritative public record establishing that Calhoun and Adani personally negotiated the Air Works transaction or that they met in connection with it.
Their careers followed very different models
The two men reached prominence through markedly different professional structures.
Calhoun spent most of his working life as a professional executive inside large established corporations. His career moved through GE, Nielsen, Blackstone and Boeing, with board appointments and senior management roles forming the central thread.
Adani built his public identity as an entrepreneur and founder. Beginning with a trading company, he developed a group with businesses across infrastructure-heavy sectors and remained its chairman as it expanded into aviation, airports and aerospace.
Those different career paths explain why treating the pair as direct equivalents can be misleading. Their relevance to one another comes from the intersection of corporate activity, not from following the same business model or working side by side.
Where the connection stands now
As of 26 September 2026, Gautam Adani remains identified by Adani Group as its founder and chairman, while David L. Calhoun is securely described as Boeing’s former president and CEO.
Air Works is now effectively controlled by Adani Defence, with the latest disclosed holding at 99.98%. Boeing’s documented collaboration with Air Works predates that ownership and reaches back to 2021.
That chronology is the key to understanding Dave Calhoun and Gautam Adani. Their names can be connected through Boeing, Air Works and the growth of India’s aviation and aerospace sector, but the public record does not establish a direct partnership between the two men themselves.
