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Boeing Defense, Space and Security boss Ted Colbert meets with Aviation Week editors in May 2023.
Ted Colbert, the president of Boeing’s Defense, Space and Security arm, is leaving the company, effective immediately.
Kelly Ortberg, Boeing’s new CEO, announced the move in a statement to employees just before the close of business on Sept. 20. In the announcement, Ortberg said the change comes as the company is looking to improve its relationship with the U.S. government.
“At this critical juncture, our priority is to restore the trust of our customers and meet the high standards they expect of us to enable their critical missions around the world,” Ortberg said. “Working together we can and will improve our performance and ensure we deliver on our commitments.”
Steve Parker, chief operating officer for Boeing Defense, Space and Security, will take Colbert’s role until a replacement is named, Ortberg said.
It is the first major leadership change since Ortberg took over as Boeing’s CEO on Aug. 8. While it is expected that a new CEO would establish a new leadership team, Colbert’s departure is abrupt.
Since taking over the role in March 2022, Colbert had sought to stabilize the defense and space arm that had been reeling since taking on large, fixed-price contracts that the company has not been able to deliver on time, resulting in substantial cost overruns. The space side of the company had a public faltering over the past several months as its CST-100 Starliner flight test had to return to Earth without two astronauts on board after NASA decided to leave them on the International Space Station because of issues with the craft’s thruster system.
As of July, Boeing Defense, Space and Security had taken $13.4 billion in actual or potential losses on fixed-price contracts that had been awarded since 2011.
Colbert, speaking ahead of the Farnborough Airshow in July, told Aviation Week that the company needed to take a “reality-based approach” to new work. This, after the company lost two notable U.S. Air Force programs—the first increment of the Collaborative Combat Aircraft program and the Survivable Airborne Operations Center.
The Air Force had publicly criticized the company throughout the year for proposing substantial cost increases on two other key programs, the E-7A Wedgetail and the B-52J upgrade. This prompted service Secretary Frank Kendall to bring in an outside expert, former Pentagon Director of Pricing Shay Assad, to negotiate directly with the company on the programs.
Colbert’s career at Boeing included leadership roles in multiple sectors. Before defense and space, he was the president and chief executive officer of Global Services and had served as chief information officer and senior vice president of Information, Technology and Data Analytics.
“We have some very large proprietary campaign work going on that’s important to us for the future of our business that we’re working on, all of that wrapped around a team that is very mission-focused with the Department of Defense here in the U.S. and our allied customers around the world,” Colbert told Aviation Week in May 2023. “So, first order is predictability and stability, and that’s where we stay.”
Parker has worked in leadership roles across Boeing’s defense programs, including as vice president of bombers and fighters, vice president and general manager of vertical lift and as head of both the T-7A trainer and F-15 programs.
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