III
COLBERT
Theodore

• 1. Career

Theodore Colbert III is a businessman, engineer, and the current Chief Executive Officer for Boeing Defense, Space & Security, a subdivision at The Boeing Company. He has served in the position since March 2022. Previously, he served as the CEO of Boeing Global Services, and prior to that, he served as the Chief Information Officer at The Boeing Company.

He is a member of the National Aeronautics and Space Administration’s Users’ Advisory Group and won the Black Engineer of the Year Award in 2022 at the 36th Annual BEYA STEM Conference.

Career

After graduation, Colbert worked at the Ford Motor Company, where he joined the fast-track Ford College Graduate Program in the Information Technology department. After working 11 years at Ford, he began working for Citigroup, serving as the senior vice president of Enterprise Architecture.

In 2009, he joined Boeing and would later lead the Information Technology Infrastructure organization. While working in the I.T. department, he developed network, computing, server, storage, collaboration, and infrastructure solutions for Boeing. He also spent time managing Boeing computer application systems that supported internal systems, Boeing Finance, Human Resources, and Corporate and Commercial Capital Business divisions.

Afterwards, he became the chief information officer of Boeing’s Information Technology & Data Analytics division. During his time as CIO, Colbert launched the Analytic Lab for Aerospace Data at Carnegie Mellon University.

In 2019, Colbert was named president and chief executive officer of Boeing Global Services. In that position, he managed Boeing’s international commercial aerospace development, delivery, and distribution operations.

In March 2022, Boeing announced that Colbert would take over the role of president and chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space and Security from Leanne Caret, who retired after working at Boeing for 28 years.

Colbert stated that his top priorities with Boeing are driving stability and predictability and that the successful advancement of these goals will require a well-trained workforce and resolutions to supply chain issues. Under his leadership, Boeing Defense hired 10,000 employees in 2022 and aims to hire another 15,000 people in 2023. Colbert also led Boeing Defense to collaborate with the US Air Force on the escape system for the T-7.