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 Regional Executive Pat Finneran welcomes Stephanie Bass, a junior at Bradley University in Peoria, Ill., to her summer job as a tour guide at the Prologue Room, Boeing’s air and space history exhibit. |
BIG, BIGGER, BIGGEST IN AEROSPACE...
BOEING
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St. Louis is home to the largest
aerospace company in the world, and
it’s the second largest employer in town.
By Linda F. Jarrett
When Patrick J. Finneran Jr. was five years old,
he stood on the deck of the USS Monterey and
watched the Blue Angels perform their intricate maneuvers over his head. From that moment on, he was hooked.
He did not get to the skies until he was a
junior at Notre Dame University, but he is now flying high as Regional Executive for Boeing’s Integrated Defense Systems, a $30.5 billion business headquartered in St. Louis. In that position, Finneran is the face of Boeing in the region, charged with implementing the mission and vision of IDS President and CEO Jim Albaugh. Finneran also serves as the vice president and general manager of Logistics Support Systems, one of seven businesses within IDS.
“My mom was a single mom in the era when it wasn’t popular,” Finneran says. “She struggled to send me to college, so I used to ride the train from Alabama to Chicago, and from there to Notre Dame.
“But we stretched, and I got to fly my junior year.”
As a senior, through the Navy ROTC program, Finneran signed up for a flight indoctrination program. By his own account, his first solo which came on the heels of a snowstorm was less than stellar.
“Everything was visual, there was no navigation system and you did everything by landmarks. Do you know all landmarks change after a snowstorm?” he laughs. “One of the few times I’ve been frightened was getting up there, looking around and saying, ‘I have no clue as to where I am!”
He did figure it out and landed, albeit on a runway slicker than he anticipated.
His first flight whetted his already hungry appetite for aviation, and upon graduation, he took a commission in the U.S. Marine Corps. Finneran soon found himself, like thousands of other military, serving in Vietnam.
“I started off training to become a pilot, but when I failed my eye exam, I became a Naval Flight Officer and was assigned as an A-6 Bombardier Navigator,” Finneran says. “While in Vietnam, I also flew as a co-pilot and observer in UH-1E Huey gunships.”
“I had moments of being scared,” he says. “But you compartmentalize all that away and focus on doing your job. It’s not about being afraid, it’s about managing your fear which is a good lesson that carries over into anything.”
> I.D.S. and Logistics Support <
Boeing Integrated Defense Systems
combines weapons and aircraft capabilities, intelligence and surveillance systems, communications architectures and extensive large-scale integration expertise.
| Boeing’s F-15K Strike Eagle was
selected as the Korean Next Generation Fighter in 2002. The Republic of Korea Air Force is investing $4.2 billion for
40 F-15Ks. Deliveries will begin this
year and end in August 2008. |
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The logistics support division is Boeing’s “after market” business as Finneran calls it. “We provide maintenance repair and overhaul of military aircraft to our customers worldwide.
“If you look at the life cycle of an airplane weapons system, about 10 percent of the airplane’s cost is development, 20 percent is production and the other 70 percent is support. A great deal of value in this business is taking care of our customers’ products after we’ve sold them,” he says. “Service after the sale!”
Finneran is aware that some people still hold fast to the belief that McDonnell Douglas “left” St. Louis. “We’ve heard it since 1996 when the intent to merge with Boeing was announced. The deal was consummated in August of 1997 and that’s been the dialogue ever since.
When we restructured our defense
business and became IDS in 2002, it resurrected this whole debate about ‘Boeing’s
abandoning us!’ Absolutely not,” Finneran emphasizes. “McDonnell Douglas and Boeing became a new company, a much larger, much stronger entity with the ability to balance between the cyclic nature of the commercial aircraft business and the marginal growth opportunities in the defense business.”
Revenues have more than doubled since the 1997 merger between Boeing and McDonnell Douglas. In 1996, McDonnell Douglas total revenue was $13.8 billion. Revenues for IDS, Boeing’s defense business were $30.5 billion in 2004.
“And we now have 80,000 employees,” Finneran says, “This is literally three times the size of McDonnell Douglas, and people tend to forget that.
Finneran loves to talk about Boeing and how much stronger it has become. “It brought the largest aerospace company in the world into St. Louis. We’ve added 1,667 employees over the last two years and we’ve done that because we see St. Louis, not only as our headquarters, but a great place to work.”
Boeing is the largest manufacturer in the state and the second largest employer in
St. Louis, with Barnes Jewish Hospital the first.
“But, let’s talk about people,” Finneran says. About 62 percent have a bachelor’s degree, and of those 26 percent have a master’s degree or better. Our average salary is 77 percent higher than the average regional wage, so these are not only high quality jobs, they’re jobs that bring tax revenue into the city and revenue into all the places where employees spend money such as clothing stores, gas stations and grocery stores. This is a huge economic impact on the region.”
In fact, the household spending of Boeing’s St. Louis area employees at clothing, gas, and grocery stores supports approximately 18,500 other jobs around the region. And that’s in addition to the approximately 8,500 local jobs at firms that do business with Boeing. In dollars, the total annual impact of Boeing IDS’ operations on St. Louis is an estimated $7.1 billion. That’s huge by most any definition.
Finneran praises the St. Louis area as a good business environment, not only because of its “excellent union relationships,” he says, but because of its easy access to colleges and universities in Missouri and Kansas, “and all the Chicago colleges plus Notre Dame, Purdue, and Vanderbilt. These are universities we can draw on in terms of talent for aerospace engineers.”
> Boeing is Bullish on Education <
Developing and supporting excellence in education is part of Boeing’s commitment to the community.
Finneran says, “We believe for the U.S. to stay competitive, we’ve got to have people who have a good math and science foundation.”
To this end, Boeing is involved in numerous programs designed to develop the next generation of skilled aerospace engineers in the community.
> Project Lead The Way. A four-year sequence of high school courses that prepares students to pursue engineering degrees. This program currently has 1600 students enrolled.
> St. Louis School District’s New Leaders Project. “We are convinced that for this region to be strong,” Finneran says, “we have to have a strong metropolitan area and for this to happen, we have to improve the school system.” In 2007, 42 percent of the school principals in the district will be eligible for retirement. Boeing will participate in a leadership-training program for succession candidates to “give them some business acumen along with their academic credentials,” he says.
> Tours of Boeing’s Prologue Room Tours, an air and space exhibit.
> Engineers Week. Boeing engineers take volunteer time to visit schools, bring math and science alive for students, and encourage them to pursue careers in engineering and technology.
> Teachers To Space Camp. Boeing provides scholarships to 10 local public school teachers so they can attend the camp in Huntsville, Ala.
> Computers to Schools. Since 2002, Boeing has donated over 7,000 used computers to area schools allowing them to create computer labs, upgrade classrooms, libraries and administration offices, and network among schools within their district.
> Learning Together Program. Boeing pays 100 percent of the tuition for employees wanting to return to school to enhance their skills and advance their education.
Finneran would like to see area universities hold classes on the Boeing campus. “It’s easy for employees, particularly those with families, to go to class from 4 to 6 p.m. then drive home.”
He adds, “This is a great opportunity. It improves the capability of our company and the region.”
Jim Albaugh (right), president and CEO, Boeing Integrated Defense Systems, and Missouri Lt. Gov. Pete Kinder look over the shoulder of Boeing employee John Keeven
as he instructs Congressman Russ Carnahan (D-MO) on the F/A-18 simulator during the company’s dedication of their newly expanded Virtual Warfare Center. |
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> The Regional Face of Boeing <
With Boeing’s impact on, not only the region, but the world, Jim Albaugh, president and CEO of Integrated Defense Systems, realized the need to have someone executing his strategy for the region including Southern Illinois, and he tapped Finneran for that position.
“He asked me if I would take the lead role as the regional executive,” Finneran says. “It’s important that we communicate to the people who read Commerce that Jim Albaugh, our CEO, owns this strategy and holds me accountable.”
“We want a focused strategy for St. Louis that encompasses economic development, education and culture and our relationships with local, state and national government,” Finneran says. “My job, as regional executive, is to implement the strategy. We have a goal of being the premier corporate citizen, not out of arrogance, but out of expectation. We believe that’s what’s expected of us.”
A large part of this strategy is commitment to the community. In 2004, Boeing generated nearly $851 million in business to 1,257 Missouri suppliers and vendors. It also invested more than $200 million at the St. Louis site in recent years for the new flight test facility and ramp, the Virtual Warfare Center, the addition to the C-17 manufacturing facility, and improvements to the Joint Directive Attack Munition facility in St. Charles.
Philanthropic commitment is another area Finneran stresses. Last year Boeing and its employees made $7.16 million in charitable contributions to nonprofits and educational institutions in the region, including Washington University, Saint Louis University, St. Louis Science Center, Saint Louis Zoo, the Arts and Education Council, and many others.
“In addition,” Finneran says, “We have been able to document 8,000 hours volunteered to 90 different community programs every year. We have 36 executives who sit on 65 civic municipal university or philanthropic boards.”
Finneran himself serves on the boards of Civic Progress, Greater St. Louis Inc. of the RCGA, the Private Sector Infrastructure Council and two advisory boards at his university, Notre Dame. He is also committed to improving air service at Lambert Field. “A consistent Boeing position is that, “With as much international travel as we do, we’ve got to get better airline service and that includes international service.”
> The Private Finneran <
Does Finneran have a life away from Boeing? Although it may not seem so, he does manage to parcel some time for pursuits other than airplanes and their accoutrements.
Married 12 years, Finneran and his wife, Joyce, “a St. Louis girl,” have a “yours, mine and ours” blended family with six children. His pride in his children is evident when he talks about them. “Katherine will be a junior at the University of Chicago and Laura will be a junior at Villa Duschene. Our son Matthew is 11. John is a federal agent with the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco and Firearms. He and his wife, Gena, have one daughter. Kelly lives in Nashville and is married to a wonderful man who is an aspiring country-western singer. And he’s really good! They have three wonderful children. Bob is in the Marines and will be promoted to Major by the time this article is out.”
Golf is Finneran’s hobby of choice and most Sunday afternoons will find him on the Whitmore Country Club course with son Matthew. “He’s a good golfer,” Finneran says, “and spending time with him and my other children brings me enormous pleasure.”
Former Boeing executive Tom Gunn, now president of the Gunn Group, a consulting firm, hired Finneran at Boeing 18 years ago, and says Finneran’s military training gave him leadership skills that were “well-honed and far beyond what an ordinary business manager has when he comes into an organization.”
“Pat has a lot of courage,” Gunn says. “He’s willing to take a reasonable risk in business and he knows the importance of having a business plan to follow. Having him as a regional representative for Boeing, I think expresses the commitment of the company to the community. But, more important, to put a person of Pat’s caliber in that job shows that they want to do it right, because Pat gets it.
“He’s a gift to the region because he works very hard,” Gunn says. “He knows that good hospitals, good education, good small businesses and a healthy economy in the region are very important because that’s how we are going to attract good workers.”
| Advanced networking capabilities enhance the effectiveness of the world’s premier strike fighters—the F-15E Strike Eagle (top) and the F/A-18F Super Hornet (center). Boeing also develops complementary systems, like the X-45C (bottom), the first autonomous aircraft designed from the beginning to conduct strike and surveillance missions. |
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Another Finneran fan, Walter Metcalf, partner and former chairman of Bryan Cave LLP, served with him on Civic Progress and the RCGA board. “What I’ve always enjoyed about him, with his successful military career, his very correct bearing and now, spending the rest of his life building military aircraft, is that he has a very clear sense of system and organization to identify and eliminate any points of failure in any situation be it an airplane, a military undertaking, or a business. At the same time, Metcalf says, “He is very much of a people person.”
From a small boy standing on the deck
of an aircraft carrier to a consummate businessman and leader at a multi-billion dollar corporation, Pat Finneran likes the view.
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