NEW YORK, Jan. 2 /PRNewswire/ -- Ford Motor Company president and CEO Alan R. Mulally has been named Person of the Year in a cover story released January 1 in Aviation Week & Space Technology. Prior to joining Ford in September 2006, Mulally served as executive vice president of The Boeing Company, and president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes. In that role, he was responsible for all of the company's commercial airplane programs and related services, which in 2005 generated record orders for new business and sales of more than $22.6 billion.
The Person of the Year award, the second in AVIATION WEEK's 90-year history, recognizes the impact individuals have on the broader aviation, aerospace and defense community. Mulally was chosen from a field of candidates from around the world by AVIATION WEEK staff editors. The other finalists for the award were Brazil's Mauricio Botelho, chairman, president and CEO of Embraer, and Steven Udvar-Hazy, chairman and CEO of International Lease Finance Corporation.
Mulally began his career at The Boeing Company in 1969, and is widely credited with revitalizing the company's commercial airplane division. Ford Motor Company executive chairman Bill Ford noted in announcing his hire that Mulally "has a record of success in customer satisfaction, manufacturing, product development, labor relations and supplier management." Ford also praised Mulally as "an outstanding leader and a man of great character."
"It would be difficult to overstate the influence that Alan Mulally had on the commercial aerospace market," said Aviation Week & Space Technology Editor-in-Chief Anthony L. Velocci, Jr. "His innovative approach to product development, global manufacturing, and industrial relations -- in close partnership with a very dedicated team of Boeing colleagues behind him, of course -- was validated in 2006 by the surge in sales for commercial aircraft at Boeing, in general, and the highly successful launch of the new 787, in particular. I suspect those same talents will be put to very good use in his leadership role at Ford, another American industrial icon."
"We are pleased to honor Alan Mulally as AVIATION WEEK's Person of the Year, not just for his leadership during 2006, but also for the many contributions he made during his 37-year aerospace career," said Tom Henricks, President, AVIATION WEEK. "His is an outstanding legacy of our industry."
Complete coverage of the Person of the Year is available at http://www.aviationweek.com/
About AVIATION WEEK
AVIATION WEEK, a division of The McGraw-Hill Companies, is the largest multimedia information and services provider to the global aviation, aerospace and defense industries, and includes the publications Aviation Week & Space Technology, Defense Technology International, Business & Commercial Aviation, Overhaul & Maintenance, ShowNews, Aviation Daily, The Weekly of Business Aviation, Aerospace Daily & Defense Report and the World Aerospace Database. The group's web portal, http://www.aviationweek.com/, offers the industry's most reliable news, information, intelligence and features, and its Aviation Week Intelligence Network (AWIN) at http://www.aviationweek.com/awin is the industry's most integrated business tool for managers, business developers, buyers and technical professionals across the entire aviation and aerospace field. The group also produces 12 major conferences and exhibitions in the MRO, defense and programs sectors. Information is available at http://www.aviationweek.com/conferences.
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