Kelly Ortberg

Kelly Ortberg
Born	Robert Kelly Ortberg April 1960
Birthplace	Dubuque, Iowa, U.S.
Occupation	Business executive
Title	President and CEO, Boeing
Known for	CEO of Boeing, former CEO of Rockwell Collins
Education	University of Iowa (BS)
Children	2

Robert Kelly Ortberg (born April 1960) is an American business executive serving as the president and chief executive officer of Boeing, the aerospace and defense multinational corporation. Appointed to the role in August 2024, Ortberg succeeded Dave Calhoun at a time when Boeing faced compounding crises involving manufacturing quality, regulatory scrutiny, and financial losses. A career aerospace engineer and executive, Ortberg spent more than three decades at Rockwell Collins — the Cedar Rapids, Iowa–based avionics and electronics firm — rising through its engineering and management ranks to become its president and CEO in 2013. His selection to lead Boeing was seen as the choice of an insider to the aerospace industry — someone with deep technical expertise and operational experience — rather than a finance-oriented executive. In his first year on the job, Ortberg navigated a major machinist strike, worked to stabilize Boeing 737 MAX production rates, and oversaw an improvement in Boeing's stock price and Wall Street outlook.

Early Life

Robert Kelly Ortberg was born in April 1960 and raised in the Dubuque, Iowa area. He grew up in the state of Iowa, a region closely associated with the American aerospace and defense industry through the presence of companies such as Rockwell Collins in Cedar Rapids. His mother, Carol M. Ortberg, was a resident of the Cedar Rapids area.

Ortberg's upbringing in Iowa's corridor of aerospace manufacturing shaped his career trajectory. The Cedar Rapids area was home to Collins Radio Company and its successor organizations, which became one of the largest employers in the region and a center for avionics development. Ortberg would go on to spend virtually his entire pre-Boeing career within this ecosystem, joining Rockwell Collins shortly after completing his education.

A 1983 announcement in The Gazette, the Cedar Rapids newspaper, recorded the Heitman–Ortberg wedding, placing Ortberg in the Cedar Rapids community during his early twenties.

Education

Ortberg attended the University of Iowa in Iowa City, where he earned a Bachelor of Science degree. His engineering education provided the technical foundation for a career in the aerospace electronics sector. The University of Iowa's engineering program supplied talent to the aerospace firms clustered in Iowa's "Technology Corridor," and Ortberg followed this well-established pipeline into the avionics industry upon graduation.

Career

Rockwell Collins

Ortberg began his career at Rockwell Collins, the avionics and information technology company headquartered in Cedar Rapids, Iowa. Over a span of more than thirty years, he advanced through a series of engineering and management positions within the firm. Rockwell Collins, which traced its lineage to Arthur A. Collins's Collins Radio Company founded in the 1930s, was a major supplier of communications and avionics equipment to both commercial and military customers.

Ortberg rose through the company's technical and operational ranks, gaining experience across its government systems and commercial aviation divisions. His career trajectory reflected a pattern of progressively larger leadership responsibilities, beginning in engineering roles and expanding into general management of business units.

In 2013, Ortberg was named president and chief executive officer of Rockwell Collins, succeeding Clay Jones in the top position. The company's board selected Ortberg from within the organization's own ranks, reflecting confidence in his operational knowledge and industry relationships. His appointment came at a time when the avionics industry was experiencing significant shifts, including growing demand for connected aircraft systems and next-generation cockpit technologies.

During his tenure as CEO, Ortberg oversaw several strategic moves. Notably, in 2013, Rockwell Collins completed the acquisition of ARINC, a flight systems and information management company, for approximately $1.39 billion. The deal expanded Rockwell Collins's footprint in airport operations and airline information services.

In 2018, United Technologies Corporation (UTC) acquired Rockwell Collins for approximately $30 billion, creating one of the world's largest aerospace suppliers. The combined entity was later folded into Collins Aerospace, a division of what became RTX Corporation (formerly Raytheon Technologies). Ortberg led Rockwell Collins through the completion of this acquisition process before retiring from the company.

Following his departure from Rockwell Collins, Ortberg retired to West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had purchased a home in 2018. He remained in retirement until Boeing approached him to lead the company in 2024.

Appointment as Boeing CEO

On July 31, 2024, Boeing's board of directors announced the appointment of Ortberg as the company's next president and chief executive officer, effective August 8, 2024. He succeeded Dave Calhoun, who had announced his planned departure earlier in the year amid a series of crises at the company.

Boeing's selection of Ortberg came after one of the most turbulent periods in the company's modern history. The firm had endured the grounding of the Boeing 737 MAX following two fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019, disruptions from the COVID-19 pandemic, ongoing quality control problems in its commercial aircraft production, and a January 2024 incident in which a door plug blew out of a 737 MAX 9 aircraft during an Alaska Airlines flight. The company had reported billions of dollars in losses, and its reputation with airlines, regulators, and the flying public had sustained significant damage.

Boeing's board chose Ortberg in part because of his engineering background and decades of operational experience within the aerospace supply chain — a contrast to some of Boeing's previous leaders who had come from finance or other non-engineering backgrounds. Analysts and industry observers noted that Ortberg's deep familiarity with aviation manufacturing and avionics systems positioned him as a pragmatic, operationally focused choice for a company in need of cultural and quality reforms.

Ortberg announced that he would be based at Boeing's facilities in the Seattle area, where the company's commercial airplane division is centered. This represented a symbolic and practical shift, as Boeing's corporate headquarters had been moved to Chicago in 2001 and then to Arlington, Virginia in 2022 under previous leadership — moves that critics had said distanced top management from the company's manufacturing operations.

First Year at Boeing

Ortberg's first year as Boeing CEO was defined by a series of immediate challenges and early stabilization efforts. Within weeks of taking the job, he faced a major strike by members of the International Association of Machinists and Aerospace Workers (IAM), which halted production of the 737 MAX and other aircraft for approximately seven weeks in the fall of 2024. The strike, which involved roughly 33,000 machinists in the Pacific Northwest, was resolved with a new labor contract.

Beyond the labor disruption, Ortberg focused on improving manufacturing quality and increasing production rates on the 737 MAX, which had been constrained by regulatory limits imposed by the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) following the January 2024 door-plug incident. Under Ortberg's leadership, Boeing worked to meet FAA requirements and gradually increase output.

Ortberg adopted an approach characterized by analysts and media as methodical and operationally focused, eschewing dramatic public pronouncements in favor of steady execution. The Seattle Times described his leadership style as "doing the 'boring thing'" — a reference to his emphasis on fundamentals such as quality systems, supply chain management, and production discipline rather than ambitious strategic pivots.

In May 2025, Ortberg gave his first in-depth interview since becoming CEO to Aviation Week, in which he discussed his priorities for Boeing's recovery and his assessment of the company's manufacturing and supply chain challenges.

On the defense side of Boeing's business, the company continued to grapple with cost overruns on fixed-price military contracts. In early 2025, Boeing announced a $565 million charge on the KC-46 Pegasus tanker program, the first such charge on that program since 2024.

By mid-2025, approximately one year into Ortberg's tenure, Boeing's stock price had risen by roughly one-third from the level at which he took over. Wall Street analysts and airline executives offered positive assessments of the company's trajectory under his leadership, though many noted that significant work remained. Aviation Week described Ortberg as having "solidified his role as Boeing's turnaround-in-chief," noting that he appeared to be addressing the most urgent operational problems while laying groundwork for longer-term recovery.

Compensation

For the period from his August 2024 start date through the end of that year, Ortberg received total compensation of approximately $18 million from Boeing.

Personal Life

Ortberg married in 1983, according to an announcement published in The Gazette of Cedar Rapids. He has two children. After retiring from Rockwell Collins following its acquisition by United Technologies, Ortberg resided in West Palm Beach, Florida, where he had purchased a home in 2018.

Upon accepting the Boeing CEO position, Ortberg relocated to the Seattle, Washington metropolitan area to be near the company's primary commercial aircraft manufacturing facilities. His decision to base himself in Seattle, rather than at Boeing's corporate headquarters in Arlington, Virginia, was interpreted by industry observers as a signal of his intent to remain close to the factory floor and commercial airplane operations.

Ortberg has also held corporate directorship positions in the United Kingdom, as recorded in the UK Companies House registry.

Recognition

Ortberg's first year leading Boeing drew extensive coverage in the aerospace trade press, business media, and national news outlets. His appointment itself was front-page news given the magnitude of Boeing's challenges at the time, with coverage from The New York Times, Financial Times, CNN, Reuters, Forbes, and other major publications.

By mid-2025, coverage of Ortberg's tenure had shifted from the circumstances of his hiring to assessments of his early performance. CNBC reported in July 2025 that "things are getting better at Boeing" under Ortberg, citing improvements in aircraft deliveries and analyst expectations for continued progress. Barron's noted in August 2025 that Ortberg had "revived the stock" during his first year, while acknowledging the extent of challenges still ahead. The Seattle Times credited Ortberg with earning "flying colors" from aerospace analysts and airline customers for his steady, execution-focused approach.

Aviation Week, a leading aerospace industry publication, conducted an in-depth interview with Ortberg in May 2025 — his first extended public discussion of Boeing's strategy since taking the CEO role — and subsequently published an assessment describing him as having consolidated his position as "Boeing's turnaround-in-chief."

In April 2025, Ortberg testified before the United States Senate, addressing lawmakers on Boeing's operations and progress in addressing safety and quality concerns. He was also scheduled to speak at the Morgan Stanley Laguna Conference in September 2025, one of the financial industry's notable aerospace investor events.

Legacy

As of mid-2025, assessments of Ortberg's legacy remain preliminary, given that he has served as Boeing CEO for approximately one year. However, his appointment and early tenure have been situated within broader narratives about Boeing's corporate culture and the consequences of its strategic decisions over the preceding two decades.

Boeing's troubles prior to Ortberg's arrival were frequently attributed by critics and analysts to a corporate culture that had, over time, shifted emphasis from engineering excellence to financial metrics and shareholder returns — a trajectory that some traced to Boeing's 1997 merger with McDonnell Douglas and the subsequent relocation of headquarters away from Seattle. Ortberg's background as an engineer who rose through the ranks of an aerospace manufacturer, combined with his decision to base himself in Seattle near the production lines, was interpreted as an attempt to reverse this cultural drift.

The challenges Ortberg inherited were extensive. Boeing had reported cumulative net losses of billions of dollars in the years preceding his arrival, faced regulatory restrictions on its 737 MAX production rate, was managing cost overruns on multiple defense programs including the KC-46 tanker and the VC-25B (the next-generation Air Force One), and needed to rebuild trust with airline customers, regulators, and employees.

Ortberg's early approach — emphasizing production quality, factory discipline, and measured increases in manufacturing output — drew favorable comparisons from analysts to turnaround leadership in other industrial contexts. Business Insider characterized his first year as successfully digging Boeing "out of a 'very deep hole,'" noting that stabilization of 737 MAX production was a central achievement. Whether Boeing's recovery would extend to sustained profitability, resolution of defense program losses, and development of a next-generation commercial aircraft remained open questions as Ortberg moved into his second year in the role.