Ryan Donnell

Ryan Donnell began his career with the International Union of Elevator Constructors Local 21 in 1998 as a repair apprentice for Otis Elevator in Fort Worth Texas.  Before the IUEC, at the age of 19, Ryan started a metal fabrication business. Working alongside his employees manufacturing and installing residential ornamental iron and “anything else to pay the bills”. He enrolled in the NEIEP apprenticeship program in 1999, completing the Mechanics Exam in 2003. He continued working for Otis as a repair and service Mechanic covering Fort Worth and West Texas. After ten years, he left Otis and went to work for Thyssen Krupp Fort Worth as a repair and service Mechanic for the next nine years.

In 2011 Ryan was asked by Local 21 Business Manager Don Mitchell to head up the upcoming welding certification classes NEIEP was rolling out. Ryan attended the Train the Trainer class in Albany, New York. This was the beginning of many years of instructing both the welding program as well as the NEIEP RC300 class, as well as serving on the Local 21 Joint Apprenticeship Committee. Ryan was instrumental in working with NEIEP and Local 21 building an in-house welding lab capable of training local members in 3G/4G certifications.

Ryan was elected to the Local 21 Executive Board where he served the local for five years. As an Executive Board Member and as Business manager, he attended two National Conventions as an elected delegate serving on the appeals committee in Chicago and the Constitution & Bylaws committee in Las Vegas.

The members of Local 21 elected him Business Manager/Financial Secretary in 2018; a position he held for five years.

Ryan was appointed as an International Vice President by General President Christensen in 2021 and served for a year and a half. He stepped down as Local 21’s Business Manager and as an International Vice President in January of 2023 for the opportunity to work for the Elevator Industry Work Preservation Fund.

In his spare time Ryan serves as President of the Parker County Sportsman’s Club and currently holds the position of Vice President for the Dallas Building & Construction Trades Council as well as the Fort Worth Building & Construction Trades Council.

When asked about his experience in the IUEC Ryan says, “The IUEC has provided me a life that I only dreamed of when I first started out in the workforce.”