Boeing Names Kelly Ortberg As Next CEO and President

Boeing has named Kelly Ortberg to be its new CEO and President from Aug. 8, taking on the massive challenge of reviving the aerospace giant.

Ortberg, a respected former Rockwell Collins leader who was a key force behind the melt-up and formation of industry giant RTX, replaces Dave Calhoun, who had previously announced his plans to leave the company by year-end.

"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,” Boeing Chairman Steven Mollenkopf said July 31 as he announced the change. 

Ortberg, 64, also will join the Boeing board.

Mollenkopf thanked Calhoun, who will remain a special adviser to the board until March 2025, according to a Boeing statement.

"I'm extremely honored and humbled to join this iconic company," Ortberg said in the statement. "Boeing has a tremendous and rich history as a leader and pioneer in our industry, and I'm committed to working together with the more than 170,000 dedicated employees of the company to continue that tradition, with safety and quality at the forefront. There is much work to be done, and I'm looking forward to getting started."

Ortberg holds a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Iowa. His career started in 1983 as an engineer at Texas Instruments. He then joined Rockwell Collins in 1987 as a program manager and was promoted several times prior to becoming its president and CEO in 2013.

After taking the corner office at what was a key avionics supplier, Ortberg began a long march of massive mergers and acquisitions that both redrew the industrial landscape in aerospace, and helped propel Rockwell from a niche supplier to a key Tier 1. Ortberg drove Rockwell’s acquisition of flight-services provider Arinc for $1.4 billion and cabin interiors provider B/E Aerospace for $8.3 billion, until unveiling Rockwell’s own 2018 merger with United Technologies for $30 billion. Rockwell was combined with then-UTC Aerospace Systems to form the Collins Aerospace division. In April 2020, parent United Technologies merged with large defense prime Raytheon to form Raytheon Technologies, later renamed RTX.

Under Ortberg's tenure, Rockwell expanded at a 14% compound annual growth rate, from $4 billion in 2013 revs to $9 billion when it was sold to United Technologies, according to Jefferies analysts.

Ortberg quietly served then-RTX Chairman and CEO Greg Hayes until Ortberg retired from executives in March 2021. His absence was noted by several observers in the industry who wondered how the aerospace industry could let someone as respected and proven slip away. His name would periodically surface when CEO searches were known to be occurring at various companies, and indeed, his name was floated as a potential Boeing CEO before Calhoun was appointed in January 2020.

Analysts see the logic in Ortberg’s appointment now.

“We believe during his leadership at Collins he was well liked by employees and direct reports and very personable,” said the Jefferies team, led by Sheila Kahyaoglu. “This was while being a tough negotiator dealing with a diverse set of customers and suppliers and managing the complexity of its diverse customer base, which included negotiating through Boeing’s Partnering for Success.” Ortberg also clearly has experience with major acquisitions and corporate restructuring.

“There is some credence to bringing in an outsider who has a strong working knowledge of Boeing, but no direct current tie,” the analysts continued. “This fresh start includes ensuring a healthy supply chain, while ensuring a content employee base and navigating the current union negotiation.”

Ortberg has bested a short list of other candidates who were widely talked about as contenders for the top Boeing job, including current COO Stephanie Pope, current Spirit CEO Pat Shanahan, and others. Pope was believed to be Calhoun’s personal choice as she was appointed companywide COO at the start of this year, and in the spring took over Boeing Commercial Airplanes from Stan Deal. No immediate word was provided about the executive structure moving forward.

In a teleconference with analysts, Calhoun volunteered that he did not expect Ortberg to make major personnel changes—at least not initially—and that his successor would work alongside Pope. “I don't think he's coming in with a notion to want to change a lot of folks and my guess is he's going to put his arms around Stephanie and the rest of the team in a big way and just try to support their work,” Calhoun said.

“Kelly was quite informed about everything going on at Boeing,” Calhoun asserted. “He knows full well we’re in a recovery mode.”