Kelly Ortberg, the former CEO of Rockwell Collins, will replace Dave Calhoun as the Chief Executive Officer of Boeing from the 8th of August.

Last January’s door plug blowout on an Alaska Airlines 737 MAX-9 had far-reaching implications for Boeing. In March, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun announced that he would step down by the end of the year.

At the same time the company announced more changes, including its board chairman and the CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. And quickly thereafter, the aviation industry started buzzing with discussions on who the next Boeing CEO would be.

Would Boeing bring an outsider, perhaps with an engineering background, or would it continue with someone else from its own board? Lists of names soon emerged with both options, plus Pat Shanahan (Spirit AeroSystems CEO), who ticks both boxes.

Kelly Ortberg, The Next Boeing CEO

However, Kelly Ortberg didn’t appear on any list as a possible Boeing CEO until very recently. It was The Air Current that first broke the news that Ortberg was a contender for the Boeing position, only just last weekend.

Kelly Ortberg is from Dubuque, Iowa, and has a mechanical engineering degree from the University of Iowa. He started his career at Texas Instruments in 1983, before moving to Rockwell Collins in 1987.

Rockwell Collins supplied avionics and other systems to many aircraft manufacturers, including Boeing and Airbus. Ortberg became the company’s CEO in 2013, at a time when the company was developing systems for both Boeing and Airbus airliners.

Under Ortberg, Rockwell Collins merged with United Technologies and later Raytheon (now RTX). He retired from RTX in 2021, remaining on its board. He has also been involved in running other businesses in the aviation and automotive industries.

A number of industry stakeholders and Boeing investors wanted someone with an engineering background as CEO, a box that Ortberg ticks successfully. Early reactions from the industry has so far been positive.

He Will Be Based In Seattle!

Ortberg is 64 years old and Boeing nominally wants its CEOs to be no older than 65. However, Boeing’s board has previously waived this age limit for Calhoun, and has already done the same for Ortberg.

The timing of the CEO change is interesting. Ortberg will take over Boeing on August 8th, a couple of days after the scheduled NTSB hearings on the MAX-9 blowout are due to start. It is also about a month before Boeing is due to sign a key new contract with its machinists’ union in Washington State.

In addition to worker unions, Ortberg will have to impress the airline and lessor customers of Boeing, along with aviation regulators around the world. According to Reuters, Ortberg plans to base himself in Seattle, an exciting prospect for many who would like to see Boeing’s HQ move back there.

The next few days and weeks will tell us a lot about what we can expect from Boeing under Ortberg. The new CEO will have little time to acclimatize himself, as Boeing has to address many challenges. 737 production remains very low, much lower than the FAA’s 38-per-month production limit. Several military and space programs also need urgent attention, and Boeing can’t keep postponing plans for its next airliner indefinitely.

Sources: Reuters, The Air Current, Leeham News