Boeing, one of the largest U.S. defense contractors, stands to broaden its influence in Washington by tapping Nikki Haley, the former U.N. ambassador and South Carolina governor, for its board.
The 47-year-old is among the few high-level Trump administration appointees to leave on her own volition, receiving a rare congratulatory send-off from the Oval Office. Her relationship with the company dates to her tenure as governor of the Palmetto State, where Boeing took advantage of right-to-work laws to open an airliner assembly plant in 2011 after years of contentious dealings with unions in its Seattle-area manufacturing base.
If her Tuesday nomination is confirmed by Boeing shareholders at the Chicago-based company’s April 29 annual meeting, Haley would join a board that currently includes former White House chief of staff Kenneth Duberstein, former Joint Chiefs of Staff Chairman Adm. Edmund Giambastiani and Caroline Kennedy, former President Barack Obama’s ambassador to Japan and the daughter of former President John F. Kennedy.
Boeing directors earned a minimum annual compensation of $315,000 as of 2017, the most recent figures available in a regulatory filing. A 30-year veteran of the company, Pat Shanahan, was named acting defense secretary in January following the departure of Jim Mattis.
“Ambassador Haley brings to Boeing an outstanding record of achievement in government, industry partnership, and successfully driving economic prosperity for communities in America and around the world,” Boeing Chairman CEO Dennis Muilenburg said in a statement. “Boeing will benefit greatly from her broad perspectives and combined diplomatic, government and business experience.”
Boeing has predicted that sales of as much as $27.5 billion this year in its defense unit, the company’s second-largest business, will help drive overall revenue of $111 billion, a gain of 10 percent. Executives also expect broad support from the Pentagon and Congress as the planemaker develops an unmanned Navy refueling drone and ramps up deliveries of its F/A-18 fighter and KC-46 tanker.
In addition to those projects, Boeing won a $43 million Navy contract this month to develop four extra-large unmanned undersea vehicles that can conduct surveillance and hunt enemy ships. Known as Orcas, they’re basically drone submarines and will include developments from the Echo Voyager, a commercial prototype built by Boeing for longer endurance and higher payload capacity.
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