Boeing Names Armstrong to Lead New Enterprise Environmental Organization

Boeing has named Mary Armstrong as vice president of Environment, Health and Safety, a new organization designed to integrate and expand the focus of the separate environmental groups and initiatives that currently exist within the company. Armstrong had previously been president of Boeing’s Shared Services Group (SSG).

Armstrong will report to John Tracy, senior vice president of Engineering, Operation & Technology. The new organization’s activities will be guided by a new Environment, Health and Safety Strategy/Policy Council that includes Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney.

“We have a long history of continuously improving the environmental performance of our products and services, and we have worked hard to ensure compliance with the environmental rules and regulations that affect our operations,” McNerney said. “With this new organization, we are sharpening our focus on important environmental issues that bear on our business by identifying and integrating them into a strategic plan that will be managed centrally and include work we do with our suppliers and customers.”

The new Environment, Health and Safety organization will combine the existing Safety, Health and Environmental Affairs (SHEA) functions of SSG with new functions focused on:

Establishing enterprise strategies and objectives to address current and potential future environmental issues associated with Boeing products, services, facilities and technologies, and those of its business partners.
Defining and implementing enterprise environmental management systems and tools for integrating environmental risk management into the company’s core operating processes, such as design and manufacturing.
Establishing standards, processes and guidelines for routinely tracking Boeing’s and its business partners’ performance to these environmental plans and objectives.
“Given Mary’s background in chemical process engineering and R&D, her extensive leadership experience on programs, and her focus on environmental compliance as leader of SSG, she is the ideal choice to lead this new organization in establishing an integrated environmental strategy for Boeing,” Tracy said.

SHEA groups in the Boeing Commercial Airplanes and Integrated Defense Systems business units also will be strategically aligned with the new Environment, Health and Safety organization.

The EO&T organization that Tracy leads is responsible for achieving excellence in the enterprise technology groups and the Engineering, Manufacturing, Program Management, Supplier Management and Quality Assurance functions of Boeing.

“The strong interconnections these groups and functions have to each other, to our products and services, and to our technology investments, will allow Boeing to better integrate and leverage its environmental initiatives across the enterprise,” Tracy said.

Armstrong, who was named president of SSG in 2004, has 23 years’ experience at Boeing. Among the positions she has held during that time are vice president/general manager of Commercial Airplanes Fabrication, vice president/general manager of Boeing Aircraft Systems & Interiors, vice president of Boeing Facilities Services, and process engineer for Manufacturing R&D. She has bachelor’s and master’s degrees in chemical engineering from the University of Washington and University of Rochester, respectively.

Armstrong will be succeeded as president of SSG by Tim Copes, formerly vice president of Technical Services for Commercial Aviation Services. Copes, who joined Boeing in 1992, has held numerous leadership positions in the Manufacturing, Quality, and Engineering functions, including vice president of Quality and Mission Assurance for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, director of Manufacturing for the Sonic Cruiser program for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and both director of Manufacturing and director of Quality for the 777 family of products. He also has a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from the University of Wisconsin and master’s degrees in mechanical engineering and management from the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.