Kelly Ortberg

President and Chief Executive Officer Boeing

Last Reviewed: October 3, 2026

Executive Summary

Kelly Ortberg has been president and chief executive of Boeing since August 2024, running the maker of commercial jetliners, military aircraft, satellites and space systems and its aerospace services business. He came to Boeing from outside after more than 35 years in aerospace, almost all of them at Rockwell Collins, the avionics and cabin systems supplier, where he started as a program manager and rose to chairman and chief executive. After United Technologies bought Rockwell Collins he ran the merged Collins Aerospace and then advised RTX’s chief executive. An engineer by training, he spent more than three decades at one aerospace company before taking over another.

Career Highlights

• President and Chief Executive Officer of Boeing since 8 August 2024.
• Chairman, President and Chief Executive Officer of Rockwell Collins, 2015 to 2018.
• Chief Executive Officer of Collins Aerospace, 2018 to 2020.
• Director of Aptiv PLC; RTX director from 2019 to 2024.

Professional Journey

Ortberg earned a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering at the University of Iowa and began his career in 1983 as an engineer at Texas Instruments. He then spent more than three decades at Rockwell Collins, starting as a program manager.

At Rockwell Collins he was executive vice president and chief operating officer of Commercial Systems from 2006 to 2010 and of Government Systems from 2010 to 2012, then president from 2012, chief executive from 2013 and chairman, president and chief executive from 2015 to 2018. Boeing’s biography credits him with launching product lines in both its commercial and government businesses.

After United Technologies acquired Rockwell Collins, he became chief executive of the newly created Collins Aerospace in December 2018. He remained until February 2020, then served as special adviser to the office of the chief executive of RTX until March 2021, and sat on RTX’s board from 2019 to 2024.

Boeing named him president and chief executive, and a director, on 8 August 2024. Boeing builds commercial airplanes and defense, space and security systems and provides aerospace services, and employs about 182,000 people, according to the company. Outside Boeing he is a director of Aptiv PLC and serves on the executive committee of the Aerospace Industries Association and the University of Iowa’s Engineering Advisory Board.

His leadership team mixes long-serving Boeing executives, such as Stephanie Pope, who joined in 1994, and Steve Parker, who joined in 1988, with outside hires including chief financial officer Jay Malave from Lockheed Martin and chief information digital officer Dana Deasy, formerly of the Pentagon. Of the executive officers listed in Boeing’s 2025 annual report, he is the only one who also sits on the board.

Education

University of Iowa

Bachelor of Science, Mechanical Engineering