Executive Mosaic is pleased to present Leanne Caret, president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security (BDS), as an inductee into the 2021 Wash100 Award for driving innovative solutions across the technology and defense landscape, as well as spearheading investments to grow the BDS business unit.
This marks Caret’s fifth consecutive Wash100 Award. She received her 2020 Wash100 Award for her leadership of Boeing’s spacecraft development efforts, defense contract pursuits and aerospace technology investments.
“It’s true that Leanne Caret is responsible for bringing the best equipment and support to the Defense, Space and Security sector at Boeing, but her greatest strength is recognizing tapestry of the personal contributions across the landscape of not only the Boeing unit she runs but the industry as a whole,” said Jim Garrettson, CEO of Executive Mosaic and founder of the Wash100 Award.
Boeing reported more than $34 billion in revenue from its defense and space platforms and services during 2020.
Throughout 2020, the company has continued its efforts for its CST-100 Starliner. Caret recently discussed NASA and Boeing’s CST-100 Starliner commercial crew spacecraft launch of the Orbital Flight Test (OFT) 2 mission, which is scheduled for March 2021 on a United Launch Alliance (ULA) Atlas 5 rocket from Cape Canaveral.
Boeing had completed more than 90 percent of the recommended actions from an independent review earlier this year of the original OFT mission, NASA stated. The CFT mission will fly NASA astronauts Mike Fincke, Nicole Mann and Barry Wilmore to the ISS. NASA and Boeing announced in Oct. 2020 that Wilmore would replace Boeing’s Chris Ferguson.
Wilmore will begin training with his crewmates immediately in preparation for the 2021 flight to the International Space Station (ISS). Boeing will focus on delivering safe, reliable and cost-effective solutions for crew transportation services to and from the ISS.
“My personal thank you to Chris for his leadership; he is putting his family first, which Boeing fully supports,” said Caret. “We are fortunate he will continue to take an active role on the Starliner program and bring his depth and breadth of experience in human spaceflight to the program.”
In addition to the advancements to Boeing’s Starliner program, Caret reported that the company will be able to deliver on defense programs, given its investments in digital engineering and advanced manufacturing processes, she said in Aug. 2020.
“We had already redesigned, reimagined, how are we going to use advanced modeling and simulation and digital twins,” Caret stated. “And so those investments, in terms of how we design and build, I think have paid off not only for those programs you mentioned, but for the F-15EX for the air power teaming system and for everything that follows.”
She noted that Boeing’s move to evolve itself when it comes to how it performs the work was the “true differentiator” that enabled the company to win contracts. The company’s efforts will support its work on the Navy MQ-25 unmanned tanker and the Air Force T-7 trainer.
Boeing received a potential $198 million contract modification from the U.S. Navy to integrate a ground control station in support of the service’s MQ-25 Stingray aerial refueling drone in Dec. 2020. The award modifies a potential $805.3M contract the Navy issued in 2018 for the production of four MQ-25 carrier-based drones.
The MQ-25 is the U.S. Navy’s first operational carrier-based unmanned aircraft and is designed to provide a much-needed refueling capability, Boeing officials say. Navy officials expect to declare MQ-25 initial operational capability by 2024.
Caret has spearheaded modernization efforts across Boeing to continue to be competitive in the defense market. During an Oct. 2020 interview, Caret reported that the company will continue to focus on connectivity and its integration for the U.S. Air Force’s Advanced Battle Management System (ABMS).
She noted that ABMS is about the collection and dissemination of information across multiple spectrums and that she expects Boeing to have more conversations from seabed to space with regard to the effort.
“One of our visions is to not only provide something that is operationally relevant to the warfighter, but making certain that we use that digital engineering thread throughout that entire value system from concept all the way through its life including sustainment,” Caret said.
Executive Mosaic congratulates Boeing and Leanne Caret for her 2021 Wash100 Award selection. Caret’s dedication to innovation and the progression of aerospace technology will be influential to the GovCon sector throughout the new year.
About Wash100
This year represents the eighth annual Wash100 award selection. The Wash100 is the premier group of private and public sector leaders selected by Executive Mosaic’s organizational and editorial leadership as the most influential leaders in the GovCon sector.
These leaders demonstrate skills in leadership, innovation, reliability, achievement, and vision. Visitors to Wash100.com can sign in and vote for the executives they believe will have the greatest impact on government contracting in the coming year.
The media team at Executive Mosaic writes individualized articles for each recipient of the Wash100 award, providing a write up on the executive centered around their career history and highlights.
