Kelly Ortberg new president and CEO of Boeing
Boeing’s Board of Directors has elected Robert K ‘Kelly’ Ortberg as the company’s new president and CEO, who will succeed Dave Calhoun from 8 August 2024.
“Kelly is an experienced leader who is deeply respected in the aerospace industry, with a well-earned reputation for building strong teams and running complex engineering and manufacturing companies,” said chair of the board Steven Mollenkopf, who added that Ortberg would be leading Boeing through “this consequential period in its long history”.
Ortberg brings over 35 years of aerospace leadership to the position, having started his career in 1983 as an engineer at Texas Instruments. After joining Rockwell Collins as a programme manager, he held “increasingly important” leadership positions prior to becoming the company’s president and CEO in 2013; subsequently steering the company’s integration with United Technologies and RTX.
Alongside experience of serving on RTX’s board of directors, Ortberg also serves on the board of directors of global technology company Aptiv PLC, and is the former chair of the Aerospace Industries Association (AIA) board of governors.
Outgoing CEO announced his intention to step down from the position in March 2024, along with other high-level executives such as Larry Kellner (chair of Boeing’s board of directors) and Stan Deal (head of commercial aircraft). Steve Mollenkopf, Kellner’s replacement, led the search for Calhoun’s replacement.
Although Ortberg has undeniably inherited a complicated situation at Boeing regarding ongoing safety and manufacturing issues the company is working to address, he stated he is “extremely honoured and humbled to join this iconic company;” concluding: “There is much work to be done, and I’m looking forward to getting started”.
