Boeing has appointed military aircraft division president Mike Sears as chief financial officer to maintain the momentum of the company's financial resurgence.
Sears has been promoted after the surprise departure of Debby Hopkins to become chief executive of IT company Lucent Technologies.
"We looked for a change agent ...and [Sears] fits the bill. He will drive the company forward," says Boeing chairman and chief executive Phil Condit.
"He has run our highest margin business for the past three years-[and] knows how to run healthy businesses," Condit says.
Hopkins built a strong financial team that will allow Sears "to do the job without deep financial knowledge," he says.
Although he jokes about having "zero" formal financial training, Sears was instrumental in implementing the management information system that brought the F/A-18E/F development programme in on budget and on schedule.
"We can improve our performance if we have the data," he says. As chief financial officer, Sears says his focus will be "more complete integration [of Boeing] with the supplier community".
Harry Stonecipher will stay on as president and chief operating office for another year beyond his planned retirement in May next year.
"We need his continued involvement as a change agent and strategist-and [his] unvarnished opinions," says Condit.
Gerry Daniels has succeeded Sears as president of Boeing's St Louis, Missouri-based Military Aircraft and Missile Systems unit. Daniels has been replaced as general manager of US Navy and Marine Corps programmes by Pat Finneran, formerly F/A-18 programme manager.
Source: Flight International
