Boeing names new CEO, set to take over on August 8, 2024
Boeing today named a new CEO, Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, who among the candidates being considered appears to be the only one who did not have a long career at Boeing.
Ortberg emerged as a leading candidate only recently. Others who were reportedly considered for the job included Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive and now CEO of its most important supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, and another longtime Boeing executive, Stephanie Pope, who recently took over the commercial airplanes division.
Ortberg led Rockwell Collins from 2013 to 2018, when it merged with United Technologies and wound up as part of RTX, the company formerly known as Raytheon. He retired from RTX in 2021.
He will take charge of the company as of August 8, 2024.
It remains to be seen if Ortberg can fix things. As the article notes, since 2019 Boeing has lost more than $25 billion, and has been saddled with numerous quality control failures in almost all its technical divisions, from building airplanes to providing maintenance to building space capsules. The failures in its airplane divisions resulted in several crashes that killed 346 people, and caused it to accept a deal with the Justice Department that included a fine of $243.6 million to avoid a criminal trial. That deal however has not yet been accepted by the judge in the case.
Ortberg will have to demonstrate somehow that the culture at Boeing itself has changed. The first thing he could do to indicate he is serious about doing so would be to shut down entirely Boeing’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy. Getting rid of that poisonous race-based anti-quality program would go a long way in convincing others that Ortberg means business, and wants to put talent, skills, experience first in everything Boeing does, something previous CEOs have clearly not done.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
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Boeing today named a new CEO, Robert “Kelly” Ortberg, who among the candidates being considered appears to be the only one who did not have a long career at Boeing.
Ortberg emerged as a leading candidate only recently. Others who were reportedly considered for the job included Patrick Shanahan, a former Boeing executive and now CEO of its most important supplier, Spirit AeroSystems, and another longtime Boeing executive, Stephanie Pope, who recently took over the commercial airplanes division.
Ortberg led Rockwell Collins from 2013 to 2018, when it merged with United Technologies and wound up as part of RTX, the company formerly known as Raytheon. He retired from RTX in 2021.
He will take charge of the company as of August 8, 2024.
It remains to be seen if Ortberg can fix things. As the article notes, since 2019 Boeing has lost more than $25 billion, and has been saddled with numerous quality control failures in almost all its technical divisions, from building airplanes to providing maintenance to building space capsules. The failures in its airplane divisions resulted in several crashes that killed 346 people, and caused it to accept a deal with the Justice Department that included a fine of $243.6 million to avoid a criminal trial. That deal however has not yet been accepted by the judge in the case.
Ortberg will have to demonstrate somehow that the culture at Boeing itself has changed. The first thing he could do to indicate he is serious about doing so would be to shut down entirely Boeing’s Diversity, Equity, and Inclusion (DEI) bureaucracy. Getting rid of that poisonous race-based anti-quality program would go a long way in convincing others that Ortberg means business, and wants to put talent, skills, experience first in everything Boeing does, something previous CEOs have clearly not done.
The support of my readers through the years has given me the freedom and ability to analyze objectively the ongoing renaissance in space, as well as the cultural changes -- for good or ill -- that are happening across America. Four years ago, just before the 2020 election I wrote that Joe Biden's mental health was suspect. Only in the past two weeks has the mainstream media decided to recognize that basic fact.
Fourteen years ago I wrote that SLS and Orion were a bad ideas, a waste of money, would be years behind schedule, and better replaced by commercial private enterprise. Even today NASA and Congress refuses to recognize this reality.
In 2020 when the world panicked over COVID I wrote that the panic was unnecessary, that the virus was apparently simply a variation of the flu, that masks were not simply pointless but if worn incorrectly were a health threat, that the lockdowns were a disaster and did nothing to stop the spread of COVID. Only in the past year have some of our so-called experts in the health field have begun to recognize these facts.
Your help allows me to do this kind of intelligent analysis. I take no advertising or sponsors, so my reporting isn't influenced by donations by established space or drug companies. Instead, I rely entirely on donations and subscriptions from my readers, which gives me the freedom to write what I think, unencumbered by outside influences.
Please consider supporting my work here at Behind the Black.
You can support me either by giving a one-time contribution or a regular subscription. There are five ways of doing so:
1. Zelle: This is the only internet method that charges no fees. All you have to do is use the Zelle link at your internet bank and give my name and email address (zimmerman at nasw dot org). What you donate is what I get.
2. Patreon: Go to my website there and pick one of five monthly subscription amounts, or by making a one-time donation.
3. A Paypal Donation:
5. Donate by check, payable to Robert Zimmerman and mailed to
Behind The Black
c/o Robert Zimmerman
P.O.Box 1262
Cortaro, AZ 85652
You can also support me by buying one of my books, as noted in the boxes interspersed throughout the webpage or shown in the menu above. And if you buy the books through the ebookit links, I get a larger cut and I get it sooner.
An engineering degree. That’s good. Some things I found out about Ortberg in a quick search:
• 64 years old
• Ortberg holds a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Iowa.
• brings over 35 years of aerospace leadership to this position.
• He began his career in 1983 as an engineer at Texas Instruments,
• joined Rockwell Collins in 1987 as a program manager and held increasingly important leadership positions at the company prior to becoming its president and CEO in 2013.
• After five years leading Rockwell Collins, he steered the company’s integration with United Technologies and RTX until his retirement from RTX in 2021.
• He has held a number of important leadership posts in industry, including serving on the Board of Directors of RTX.
• Additionally, he serves on the Board of Directors of Aptiv PLC, a global technology company and an industry leader in vehicle systems architecture.
• He is the former Chair of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) Board of Governors.
https://investors.boeing.com/investors/news/press-release-details/2024/Boeing-Board-Names-Kelly-Ortberg-President-and-CEO/default.aspx
At a party last weekend I was talking to a guy who is high up at Boeing and asked him if he thought Boeing could turn things around. He was optimistic.
”An engineering degree. That’s good.”
Why? Engineering and leadership are very different skills.
Personally, I was hoping for Shanahan, but in hindsight it might be better to keep him in place at Spirit. Many of Boeing’s current problems originated there before he took over.
Just being a Kelly doesn’t make him a Johnson
You can replace a bad driver, but if that bad driver already ruined the car it won’t solve anything. In that case you salvage any usable parts and put them in cars he never touched. Just be sure those parts aren’t also ruined.
mkent wrote: “Engineering and leadership are very different skills.”
Most engineers end up in leadership roles. Engineers become project managers. They lead teams of technicians. They become managers of departments, divisions, and companies. An engineer at the helm of Boeing, an engineering company, is very good.
You would think so–but didn’t Welch or Stonecipher have some engineering background?
If so-you’d think they’d know better.
Ideology beats Vantablack in terms of blinders
”Most engineers end up in leadership roles.”
Many, but not most. There are quite a few engineers who are very good at crunching numbers but not good at all leading people. That’s why most large engineering organizations have a dual-track career path for engineers. Some divert to management about halfway up the career ladder. Others climb up the engineering track. Still others stay mid-grade where they perform perfectly adequate engineering work but never lead a team.
”…Boeing, an engineering company…”
Boeing is mostly a manufacturing company, not an engineering company. While a few government contracts have the engineering as the primary product delivered to the customer, most of Boeing’s delivered products are manufactured goods. Engineering is there to support manufacturing.
”An engineer at the helm of Boeing…is very good.”
The man generally considered to be the best CEO in Boeing’s history is William Allen, a lawyer. Dennis Muilenburg, an engineer, is the CEO that put Boeing into its current nosedive (then Dave Calhoun hit the afterburners).
This parallels NASA. The lawyer James Webb is generally considered to be the best NASA Administrator in its history. The engineer Mike Griffin is the one who gave us Ares I, Ares V (which morphed into SLS), Orion, and Constellation.
Engineers tend to do well managing projects, particularly product development projects. Though there are exceptions, they generally don’t do well managing organizations, particularly large organizations of non-technical people.
The Boeing corporate CEO position is primarily a finance position. It oversees neither manufacturing nor product development. Engineers tend not to do well in such positions, as the experience with Muilenburg shows.
Hopefully he understands the MOST IMPORTANT role of an AIR PLANE MANUFACTURING COMPANY! One thing I’d do is make sure to PERSONALLY, along with the Plant Managers, Union Reps, HR Group, FINAL INSPECTORS, and a few Assembly EE’s board each completed plane for it’s “shakedown” flight! If that doesn’t put an EXTRA INCENTIVE to make sure everyone does their JOB correctly then at least it would provide opportunities for OTHERS later!
As far as the LEFTIST ideologies – they should be gone on Aug. 8th by the end of the day. Give all ee’s involved a severance package, some Kamala signs, and an escort off the premises!
I like the Roman bridge idea! If nothing else, it would make great PR that they really believe they have the problems under control.
Send them all up in Starliner! As many trips as it takes (it’s rather small, iirc) to cycle them all through.
mkent,
You replied: “That’s why most large engineering organizations have a dual-track career path for engineers.”
Two tracks does not mean that the first track does not entail leadership responsibilities. The engineer just out of college may be doing some of the real work, but with each promotion comes more paperwork. Engineers tend to be paper pushers, no matter which track they take. With all that paper comes the responsibility over the people who are doing the work that generates that paper. They lead technicians, draftsmen, maybe even machinists. The paperwork is important, because it is a deliverable just as the device is. The customer wants and deserves the assembly and test records. Major differences between the two tracks are the amount of people under him and the politics performed.
Think of engineers as the equivalent of a doctor. Doctors supervise nurses and do a lot of paperwork. Doctors and engineers know how things work and why they work, but the nurses and technicians know how to work things.
“The engineer Mike Griffin is the one who gave us Ares I, Ares V (which morphed into SLS), Orion, and Constellation.”
Reread your history. Congress gave us all of those. NASA is a political organization, and Congress insisted that NASA use the existing Shuttle contractors’ hardware. At one time we believed NASA was a science and technology organization; we had expected those functions to continue from the NACA heritage. Some science and tech remained for a while, but politics has made NASA fairly light in the study of aeronautics, and America’s aircraft manufacturing have suffered ever since.
“Though there are exceptions, they generally don’t do well managing organizations, particularly large organizations of non-technical people.”
Except that Boeing is a technical company. America’s aviation industry was largely founded by engineers starting their own companies to create the next better airplane. Even Boeing’s namesake founder studied engineering in college.
“The Boeing corporate CEO position is primarily a finance position. It oversees neither manufacturing nor product development. Engineers tend not to do well in such positions, as the experience with Muilenburg shows.”
Engineers are responsible for the product to be economical and affordable. They must remain within budget, otherwise they won’t be in a leadership position for long. Engineers may not know the Generally Accepted Accounting Principles, but they learn finances on the job. The CEO position in any company overseas everything, including manufacturing and product development. Just because CEOs sign off on the finances, ever since Enron, does not make the CEO a finance position. You may be confusing CEO with CFO.
I remain hopeful that Boeing will turn around, especially if Ortberg convinces the Board that headquarters needs to be where the workers are, not where the politicians are. Boeing’s problems are not financial or legal problems, they are workmanship and quality problems. Their problems are related to the ability to quickly develop their products, before the products become obsolete. That is what happened to the 757.