Boeing [BA] on Wednesday named Howard McKenzie, the top engineer in the company’s Commercial Airplanes segment, its new chief engineer, succeeding Greg Hyslop who is retiring in June after a 41-year career with aerospace and defense giant.
McKenzie, a 35-year veteran of Boeing, is also a member of the company’s executive council and reports to Dave Calhoun, Boeing’s president and CEO. His appointment is effective immediately.
As the enterprise chief engineer, McKenzie oversees Boeing’s technology vision and related strategy and investment, and the company’s engineering team.
Before becoming the chief engineer at Commercial Airplanes, McKenzie led engineering that the Global Services segment. He has also served as vice president of Boeing Test & Evaluation, which tests, evaluates and certifies new products.
David Loffing, chief program engineer of Boeing’s new 777X commercial plane, is the new chief engineer of Commercial Airplanes.
“Howard and David are brilliant engineering minds who bring strong technical expertise and deep program experience to their new roles,” Calhoun said in a statement. “They will join together with Chief Technology Officer Todd Citron and Chief Aerospace Safety Officer Michael Delaney to lead our function into the future and help us tackle the engineering challenges of today and tomorrow.”
Hyslop became chief engineer in 2019 and realigned the company’s engineers under one organization. He is now chief engineer emeritus, reporting to Calhoun, and will support the leadership transition until he retires.
“As we reshaped our company, Greg played an instrumental role in strengthening our engineering organization, positioning our engineers to innovate a future that is more digital, autonomous and sustainable, and always with a focus on safety, quality and integrity,” Calhoun said.