Leanne Caret, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security spoke in July at a ceremony marking the 100th Anniversary of the Boeing Co.

Leanne Caret, president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security spoke in July at a ceremony marking the 100th Anniversary of the Boeing Co. AP/Ted S. Warren

Boeing Defense CEO Weighs Spending More Time in DC

The shift would follow a raft of larger organizational and personnel changes at the aerospace giant.

Leanne Caret, the president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, is thinking about spending more time in Washington, D.C., to increase her face time with federal decision makers.

Company leaders are now weighing whether Caret should keep regular office hours in D.C. or just visit more often for meetings with Pentagon officials, lawmakers, and their staffs, those familiar with the discussions say. This would cut down on the back-and-forth between Washington, where she has an office inside the company’s new Crystal City complex near the Pentagon, and her full-time office at the company’s defense headquarters in St. Louis. It also fits more with Caret’s face-to-face management style.

More D.C. time might allow Caret and her deputies to get to know some of the more than 200 new appointees who will set up shop at the Pentagon after president-elect Donald Trump takes office in January. But the Boeing sources said the options have been under discussion for several months — since before the presidential election — and no decision has been made.

The discussions follow several other recent leadership and organizational changes to Boeing’s defense and commercial airplanes businesses. The company’s year started with a shake-up in the defense ranks not long after the company lost an $80 billion contract to Northrop Grumman to build stealth bombers for the U.S. Air Force. In February, Caret replaced Chris Chadwick as the head of Boeing defense.

This week, another major shift. The firm said Ray Conner, the head of its commercial airplanes business would be replaced by General Electric executive Kevin McAllister. It’s the first time Boeing has tapped someone from outside of its ranks to lead its jetliner manufacturing business, according to the Seattle Times.

Boeing also said it would stand up a “Global Services” division, to support its defense and commercial products. Separate support divisions currently exist within the defense and commercial businesses. The new unit — which will be headquartered in Dallas — is supposed to be stood up by the third quarter of 2017.

Dennis Muilenburg, Boeing’s chairman, president and CEO, hopes the new division will boost the company’s services revenue from $15 billion now to $50 billion over the next decade, The Seattle Times reports.

“Since there is no way of knowing whether the recent softening in commercial-transport orders will be brief or prolonged, it makes sense to generate as much value as possible from the planes that Boeing already has delivered or soon will,” defense consultant Loren Thompson of the Lexington Institute writes in Forbes.

Before being named the head of Boeing’s defense business, Caret led the company’s defense services business, which she touted during a broad-ranging interview at July’s Farnborough Air Show in England.

“One of the things you’ll always see me talk about is it’s more than just the instant acquisition of the aircraft,” Caret said. “When you look at total life cycle cost, 30 percent is spent upfront on acquiring the asset. Seventy percent of the customers’ money will be spent over their lifecycle.”

X
This website uses cookies to enhance user experience and to analyze performance and traffic on our website. We also share information about your use of our site with our social media, advertising and analytics partners. Learn More / Do Not Sell My Personal Information
Accept Cookies
X
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Do Not Sell My Personal Information

When you visit our website, we store cookies on your browser to collect information. The information collected might relate to you, your preferences or your device, and is mostly used to make the site work as you expect it to and to provide a more personalized web experience. However, you can choose not to allow certain types of cookies, which may impact your experience of the site and the services we are able to offer. Click on the different category headings to find out more and change our default settings according to your preference. You cannot opt-out of our First Party Strictly Necessary Cookies as they are deployed in order to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting the cookie banner and remembering your settings, to log into your account, to redirect you when you log out, etc.). For more information about the First and Third Party Cookies used please follow this link.

Allow All Cookies

Manage Consent Preferences

Strictly Necessary Cookies - Always Active

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data, Targeting & Social Media Cookies

Under the California Consumer Privacy Act, you have the right to opt-out of the sale of your personal information to third parties. These cookies collect information for analytics and to personalize your experience with targeted ads. You may exercise your right to opt out of the sale of personal information by using this toggle switch. If you opt out we will not be able to offer you personalised ads and will not hand over your personal information to any third parties. Additionally, you may contact our legal department for further clarification about your rights as a California consumer by using this Exercise My Rights link

If you have enabled privacy controls on your browser (such as a plugin), we have to take that as a valid request to opt-out. Therefore we would not be able to track your activity through the web. This may affect our ability to personalize ads according to your preferences.

Targeting cookies may be set through our site by our advertising partners. They may be used by those companies to build a profile of your interests and show you relevant adverts on other sites. They do not store directly personal information, but are based on uniquely identifying your browser and internet device. If you do not allow these cookies, you will experience less targeted advertising.

Social media cookies are set by a range of social media services that we have added to the site to enable you to share our content with your friends and networks. They are capable of tracking your browser across other sites and building up a profile of your interests. This may impact the content and messages you see on other websites you visit. If you do not allow these cookies you may not be able to use or see these sharing tools.

If you want to opt out of all of our lead reports and lists, please submit a privacy request at our Do Not Sell page.

Save Settings
Cookie Preferences Cookie List

Cookie List

A cookie is a small piece of data (text file) that a website – when visited by a user – asks your browser to store on your device in order to remember information about you, such as your language preference or login information. Those cookies are set by us and called first-party cookies. We also use third-party cookies – which are cookies from a domain different than the domain of the website you are visiting – for our advertising and marketing efforts. More specifically, we use cookies and other tracking technologies for the following purposes:

Strictly Necessary Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Functional Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Performance Cookies

We do not allow you to opt-out of our certain cookies, as they are necessary to ensure the proper functioning of our website (such as prompting our cookie banner and remembering your privacy choices) and/or to monitor site performance. These cookies are not used in a way that constitutes a “sale” of your data under the CCPA. You can set your browser to block or alert you about these cookies, but some parts of the site will not work as intended if you do so. You can usually find these settings in the Options or Preferences menu of your browser. Visit www.allaboutcookies.org to learn more.

Sale of Personal Data

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Social Media Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.

Targeting Cookies

We also use cookies to personalize your experience on our websites, including by determining the most relevant content and advertisements to show you, and to monitor site traffic and performance, so that we may improve our websites and your experience. You may opt out of our use of such cookies (and the associated “sale” of your Personal Information) by using this toggle switch. You will still see some advertising, regardless of your selection. Because we do not track you across different devices, browsers and GEMG properties, your selection will take effect only on this browser, this device and this website.