Former Executive Vice President, Boeing
36th Black Engineer of the Year, Ted Colbert Welcome Meeting
The BEYA STEM Selection Committee has announced that Theodore Colbert III, president and CEO of Boeing Global Services, ...
About Theodore Colbert
Theodore "Ted" Colbert served as Executive Vice President of The Boeing Company and President and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security. In December 2023, he told CNBC that Boeing was "in progress" toward launching astronauts on the Starliner spacecraft, targeting a first crewed flight in the "March, April time frame." He also discussed the company's approach to fixed-price defense contracts, stating that future bids would be "based in the realities of our experiences" and "a set of disciplines that sets us and our customer up for success." Colbert has addressed quality and safety issues at Boeing, stating the company implemented a new Safety Management System that "connects the entire company" and is "a reflection of what our customers use to manage safety." Colbert has spoken publicly about diversity and inclusion initiatives at Boeing. He stated that the company invested "at minimum 25 million dollars in nonprofit organizations that advance equity by 2023," including a commitment with the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. He described creating a racial equity task force with representation from employee resource groups to help move the company's equity plan forward. Colbert also discussed his personal background, noting that he is a graduate of Morehouse College and serves on the board of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund. In 2022, he was named Black Engineer of the Year.
Transcript (26 segments)
T
Tyrone Taborn0:27
At some point when Quan thinks we have a critical mass, we're going to try to do a group picture. But we are recording this for historical reasons. So let me start and say a couple of quick things. We're making history today on several levels. One, we're making history because this is the first functional metaverse platform in existence in the United States. I can't speak for the world, but I can speak about the United States of America. We have created a platform that I've heard back from many leaders, and in fact, even Lenny Smoot, who has 102 inventions as the lead engineer for Disney and won Most Promising Engineer at the very first Black Engineering Award, he did a seminar for the kids last week. So we've been able to do that. We're meeting on the platform. The second thing is this is the first time we've ever asked all of the living BEYA winners, Scientists of the Year, and Lifetime Achievement awardees to come. We plan to make this an ongoing opportunity for us to keep the fellowship throughout the year to stay connected. So there will be many more opportunities now that we have STEM City. From those two aspects, we really are making history. I want to thank a lot of the BEYA folks who are on the line now who've helped build and gotten us this far with STEM City: Victor, Lydia, General Wilson, Dr. DeLoach. Please go to the buildings like the Dr. DeLoach Center and all of these other places and play around with STEM City. There's just a lot going on right now, even though we're still under testing. The final thing that I want to say to you is that we talk about this trusted community. BEYA will follow Women of Color this year, I mean next year, by being a 365-day platform. Women of Color is over, but the conference site is still up. So what did we do throughout the year? Those of you who worked so hard on STEM City, you knew we had to build software, deal with servers to get to a 365. That experience allowed us to bring that technology and that knowledge to Women of Color. So Women of Color became the first conference ever to be 365 days a year. That means all of that work people did stays. BEYA will be the same thing. Not only does that mean that the information from the conference is archived, but the conference platform is a living platform. So activities will happen throughout the year. We will keep adding more and more. All right, Rod Atkins just said his flight's delayed and that's why he's not on the call. He just texted me. So all of those items have really taken place. Now the final thing I want to say to you before we turn this over to Dr. DeLoach is about—you've heard a lot about metaverses and particularly with Facebook. Keep in mind we are the first to actually have a functional metaverse set up. But even more importantly, we kicked off a virtual reality on the Engage platform at Women of Color. We actually have that created. We will be building the Black Engineer of the Year museum all in virtual reality that will be attached to STEM City and the Black Engineer platform. That means the kids can put on those headsets and walk around and touch. You can currently do that now. I know Ted's getting excited because we can do that with a lot of your planes, Ted. And I thought I saw Walt Braithwaite join us. So any of you who want to get involved in this virtual reality side, we are at the forefront, cutting edge, doing it. We encourage you to do that. So with that said, I'd like to introduce my partner in crime, the one who got us all here, who you know, when other people thought we were crazy, he was the one who said, 'Ty, let's go ahead and let's make this happen.' Now we're moving into 36 years, tens of thousands of people who've been connected with us. So I'd like to ask Dr. DeLoach, and then after Dr. DeLoach, we'll do a roll call if Gerald's on the line, and then we go to you, Ted. Dr. DeLoach.
E
Eugene DeLoach5:34
Thank you, Ty, and thank all of you for being here this morning. And congratulations to Ted for this very significant award and the sense that he earned it and makes it look like what we envisioned, I think, from day one, Tyrone, in terms of the talent. I'm not going to hold on long. I wanted very much to be on this. Some of you may know that I've been kind of out of pocket for about three or four months, but thankfully I'm recovering well and looking forward to the future with a lot of smiles and so forth. So all of you, I want to thank you for those of you who had sent me notices of quick recovery. But I want to say to Ted, as I read through all the good things over the last few days, there was one thing that struck me, and it was from his words, that he at one point sat in an audience and looked up on that stage and said, 'My goodness, I don't know what he said, what some others have said, that I'm going to be up there one day.' But whether he said it or not, he's there. And that's the kind of thing that I think, Tyrone, when we look back 36 or so years, that's what we all wanted. So I have nothing more to say. That warmed my heart when I read it. Ted, congratulations.
T
Theodore Colbert7:16
Thank you, sir. Thank you.
T
Tyrone Taborn7:20
Dr. Thomas, why don't we start with you? And again, there's no formal piece here, but let's just go through the team. Everyone hop in whenever you feel there's an opening.
G
Gloria Thomas7:36
Sure. Good morning, everyone. I haven't seen most of you for—it seems like forever since we've all been in the house. But I'm delighted to be here this morning, delighted to see all of my old friends, delighted to be able to congratulate you, Ted. A wonderful honor. It's going to be great fun. And this time we'll all get to watch you up there on that stage. I know what fun it was for me to be Black Engineer of the Year in 2003. I must have been the youngest—I think it was only 12 then, right, guys? They changed age requirements after that, you know. Oh, okay, fine. But you know, it was a tremendous honor. I'll never forget it. And Ted, I'm sure you won't either.
T
Theodore Colbert8:26
Thank you. And I remember yours, Dr. Thomas. I was there.
G
Gloria Thomas8:30
Just Lydia, you know, not like these guys. And I can't fix any bones or anything. But I appreciate it. Thank you, guys.
T
Tyrone Taborn8:37
Gotcha. Roger that. I'll jump in.
W
Walt Braithwaite8:42
Good morning, all. Walt Braithwaite. I didn't get the email. You know, I thought we were going to take a group picture, so I got ready for this. I didn't get the dress code information. That's all right. I haven't worn anything like this in a long time. Congratulations, Ted. Welcome to a fellow Boeing engineer. As the previous speakers have said, this is an exciting event. As Tyrone said, the part of the objective of the organization was to have role models out there, to have examples that people could aspire to. You sat in the audience and you aspired to being on the stage. And so again, I agree with what was said. The program is working. It's working well. The objectives are being met. It was very exciting for me. I had a great time back there in Baltimore when we did it, my year in '95. I hope you will enjoy the event. It's different now. You know, we've come a long way with technology. And the pandemic has caused us to limit some of the things we can do. But it will still be a great event and it will be a great thing to look back on years to come. I just finished my autobiography and I have some of the pictures from that event in the book. So again, congratulations and welcome to the team.
G
General Larry Spencer10:20
First of all, thanks to everyone for the opportunity to be here. And Ted, all I can tell you is the 2020 Black Engineer of the Year—it was, when I look back on 34 years of service to the nation as a soldier, it's right up there at the very top of the experiences. I just had no idea. And I had been with BEYA for 10 years, coming to BEYA and attending events, but I had no idea the long-lasting impact that you have as the Black Engineer of the Year. Last thing I'll tell you, in addition to congratulations to you and your family, is: inspired. You're going to have an opportunity to reach, leveraging the platform that you have, to inspire young people, probably at a time when we never needed it more as a country. And it's young people of color, there's the gender piece, and then you're going to be a little bit more surprised probably in those who are not of color that you're going to get an opportunity to inspire, given their knowledge and understanding based on the work of the folks who are on the screen here, because I don't have anything to do with that, but their understanding now of the power of diversity. And so anything that I can do to share what I experienced, especially in a pandemic—I had no idea in February '20 when I jumped on the stage that you know what we would experience in '20 in terms of the pandemic and the change that we're going to be able to drive leveraging platforms like this. I had no idea of any of that. But if you don't remember anything else that I said, you're going to have an opportunity to inspire young people like no other time in our history, and like we never needed it in our history. And so I just offer that as something for you to chew on as you think about the amazing journey that you're about to embark. So thank you very much for the opportunity to participate and just say a few words. And I'm here for you if you need to reach out. Thanks all for your leadership.
T
Tyrone Taborn12:31
Thank you, sir. Why don't we move to Dr. McCrary.
V
Vic McCrary12:37
Good morning, everybody, and thank you, Dr. Taborn, for this invitation. Ted, hearty congratulations. This is well deserved. And I just want to say that this is a real intersection in terms of the timing that you're getting this award, and I'll tell you why. You know, in 1990, I was the Most Promising Engineer of the Year, and I was just young. I didn't know what BEYA was, what it was going to do. And all of a sudden I got pulled into this thing, and it's just been wonderful. In 2012, I was a Scientist of the Year. But right now, I think your award is one of the most important right now in 2022. And I want to echo General Crawford because right now we're at a Sputnik 2 moment in our nation. Where we're at right now, we're behind a lot of technologies. As the Vice Chair for the National Science Board, I hear folks constantly talk about, 'Well, Vic, we need more talent, we need more talent.' Well, we can put more money, we can put more resources, but we need those young women and those young men who want to go into these things. And one of the things we're seeing right now, where I think you all—you will play a role as one with our nation's HBCUs, because quite frankly, many people from the DARPA director on down have said, 'Hey, look, we've been fishing in the same pools and you know what? We're coming up empty. We're getting the same bass. We're not getting the bluefish and the rockfish that we should for the ideas that we need to go forward.' So that's one I think that you play a role. But the other role is right now is it's 1947 and we're the Brooklyn Dodgers and we're facing the Yankees and they're kicking our rear end, okay? And you're that Jackie Robinson that these young women and young men can look up to, go forward to get into this battle that we need to go forward. So I just want to say, hey, you know what? We're going to win this one. And as you look at all the conflicts through the history of this country, they've always had to pull on people of color to come to the fore to make a difference. And so you're making that difference. You get out there. I'm looking forward—we are looking forward to seeing you. And hearty congratulations to you and your family for being a difference maker.
T
Tyrone Taborn15:03
Thank you, Dr. McCrary. That was great. If we can go to a Lifetime Achievement with General Lester Lyles. And I have to tell you, it was great because the Secretary of the Air Force actually presented General Lyles with his award along, I believe, with the Chief of the Air Force, General Los.
L
Lester Lyles15:24
Thank you, Tyrone. Good morning, everybody. It's great to see everybody on this link and really pleased. As I had an opportunity to see yesterday with Tyrone, this whole STEM City linkage and all the things you can do with it—it is just fantastic. Ted, congratulations to you. Probably like so many others, including those obviously who have a direct connection with Boeing, I know and appreciate all the things that you've done in your career. And I've been a customer, obviously, of all the things that you've been involved in. So a really hearty congratulations to you. Very proud of all the things that you have achieved. I don't want to repeat—I can't repeat all the great things that the previous individuals and the others subsequently either have said or are going to say. I'll just tell you, as Vic said, we really are at a pivotal moment in our country, as demonstrated by a study I'm involved in with another research organization and some technology leaders dealing with STEM. Tyrone was kind enough to testify and brief that group yesterday and showing them STEM City, and they were all blown away. I'm involved in a couple of National Academy studies, one of which I'm a reviewer of that Dr. DeLoach chairs, dealing with HBCUs and the Department of Defense funding, research funding at HBCUs. This is a sort of a pivotal moment that everybody's looking at the things that need to be done to address STEM, but particularly STEM and its application and opportunities for minorities. And having you represent that community, but not alone. Regardless of what our wars were in the past, we're all there with you to help and support you, helping support BEYA, helping support the individuals who benefit from this, and really to help and support our country. So congratulations. I'm very proud to even just be on the link here with you and the distinguished recipients of awards that are here today. And I just can't say enough about Tyrone—we all do that—and Dr. DeLoach as the creators of the things that we're all involved in. I dare say if it weren't for you two, Tyrone and Eugene, we wouldn't be sitting here doing this on a Saturday morning. So thank all of you. God bless you. And Ted, thank you and congratulations to you.
T
Theodore Colbert17:53
Thank you, sir. Thank you very much. I just want to say—I just say something to Lester. Well, it's a long ways from the early 1960s at our university. You paid your dues, man. Very good. Good to see you. Thank you.
L
Lester Lyles18:10
Thank you.
T
Tyrone Taborn18:12
You know, I just have to say, Walt Braithwaite, when all of the work he did on that 777—I know I went out of my way to get on that airplane, you know. And I just always think about BEYA in this way. You know, when that PBS series on the making of the 777 was done, and there I didn't see any people of color in that series. And I knew we had already recognized Walt and we knew what he had done, his contribution. You know, it wasn't the only contribution, but it was a major contribution. And Art Carter and others. And I look and I say, history. You know, a movie like Hidden Figures or whatever—we had written about those folks a long time ago. There's no secrets. Our kids have to know. They have to be given the opportunity. And that's why STEM City and BEYA being 24—I mean, being now becoming a 365 platform—our kids are robbed of their future when they don't know their history. That's true. And when they don't see your involvement, Walt, they don't see what you did with Boeing Africa and everything else, our kids, our women believe that they don't belong. They have no place at the table when we set the table. And I guess before we go to General Wilson, I just needed to say that you guys and ladies cannot be lost in history. And I think that God put me here to make sure that we're making sure, and Dr. DeLoach making sure, that your legacies are never going to be lost. Because if they're lost, our kids will continue to be lost.
J
Johnny Wilson20:18
Good morning, all. Johnny Wilson, part of the Black Engineer team. And I probably need to thank Joe Ballard because 30 years ago he said to me, 'Put this on your schedule. I'm going to take you to this event.' So over the 30 years, I think I have only missed one event. And I just want to say or echo what General Crawford and General Lester has already said in terms of the contributions of Dr. Taborn and Dr. DeLoach. And every year it seems like I'll meet a youngster who says, '10 years ago I was sitting all the way in the back of that auditorium and now I have received this award.' So Ty and Ted, congratulations to you. I will tell you that all of the BEYA alumni members are excited about your selection and we all look forward to the speech. And we'll make sure we limit you now—there's so many words, I'm just picking which you have all night. But thank you for being with us and thank all of you online for what you do for our community.
T
Tyrone Taborn21:35
Thank you, sir. And if there's a—were you about to say something? I'm sorry if I cut you off.
W
Walt Braithwaite21:41
No, no, that's quite all right. I was agreeing with you. I remember the discussion we had. You asked me, 'Where were you in that video?' My response was, 'They didn't invite me.' But the basis of the information technology that became, how would you say, the platform for all design of airplanes in the company even until today, is based on an information network that I put together and the selection of CATIA for doing the work. I headed up the organization, but I guess I wasn't good enough to be invited onto the set. But that's all right. I have captured that information in my book and the kids will learn about it because it's available now.
T
Tyrone Taborn22:28
Where can we get the book?
W
Walt Braithwaite22:30
Oh, the book is called My Global Journey. It's on Amazon and it's on Barnes & Noble. Can be ebook, paperback, or hardcover. And it's by me. I wrote the—it's an autobiography. And I wrote it mainly for my granddaughters, my nieces, nephews, because I didn't know what kind of work my grandparents did. I know what my grandmother did because she helped raise me, but I didn't know what my grandfather, her husband, did, or even my father's father. This stuff was not communicated. I knew what the uncles did over time. If I had known what he did, maybe it would have made a difference in my life. But I had some early opportunities and so I thought I would capture that, capture the path that I had to follow to achieve the things that I did. And the last thing I received, even after I stopped working, when I retired from Boeing, the Museum of Flight—I don't know if you know this, Tyrone—but they inducted me as a Pathfinder for engineering in the category of engineering for the aerospace industry for the work that I did there. So eventually, you know, you get recognized for what you do. But Ted, we need to be out front letting the young people know what's possible by setting the examples, encouraging them, and getting involved in the communities as much as we can. I continue to do that through the Boule, at least I'm inactive right now, but it's something that we all have to do. Otherwise, we never get represented. There's the Engineer of the Year, but unless there was the Black Engineer of the Year, we would not have been on the front cover anywhere. So again, I say thanks to Dr. DeLoach and Tyrone for getting this started and supporting it throughout these many years. I—when I was coming down, I brought this with me.
T
Tyrone Taborn24:44
I love that T-shirt. I still have it. We're updating that. By the way, we've been taking group shots as this has gone on, just so you know. After Ted, we take a final group shot, but we've been capturing it. And I do want to let you know there's several Archons on the line as well, since you dropped that one. Sorry about that. And there's some 2VR cons. Hopefully, we're working real hard on that.
W
Walt Braithwaite25:15
Well, you should know that when Tyrone and I got together, I mean, I had to pull him along because he was in his knickers at that time.
T
Tyrone Taborn25:26
Hey, Dr. DeLoach is giving me protection, let me tell you. He was giving me air cover. I could have never—we could have never pulled this off if we didn't have this kind of—I mean, seriously, it never would have happened. And I will say, Eugene, my wife, who is the most unselfish person in the world, and what you know because you're both Jamaicans, and I mean the pride that you made. I remember when you won, we had the dinner at the ambassador's house, correct? The Jamaican people were so proud of what you did. Colin Powell and others. I mean, you are legends because of what you've been able to do. And this makes a big difference in the development of our young people and our folks. Again, in appreciation of time, we're already almost 15 minutes over and we haven't heard from Ted. Out of respect, I want to ask if there's anyone on the telephone. I don't know if there are or not, but if so, can you speak up now? Okay. With that, Ted, I'm so proud. I've been here every step of the moment. Dr. DeLoach and I, we've looked at every package. I can't think of anyone. I mean, this year, so everyone knows, and I do want you to know, Lydia knew I was crying a lot the last 18 months not knowing where we were going with this. And Lydia kept saying, 'Virtual, virtual.' And I, you know, it was all kinds of stuff. But I will tell you, we've now gone full circle. We're not virtual with digital twins. We created something completely different with these platforms. And I will tell you what I've seen: the numbers have not gone down with the number of nominations. You would think if there were no value, because people are still paying for these individual—like the Rising Stars and Modern-Day Technology Leaders—that's still a cost, not with the BEYA awards, but with the second-tier awards. Those numbers have been skyrocketing. Participation has been skyrocketing for Women of Color and BEYA. There's been more engagement, and the analytics that we get from the platform have shown us there's even more involvement. And people are like, 'I'm always going to stay. We don't want to go back physically.' And I'm saying, 'Well, no, no, no, you're going to go back physically.' But our world is increasing so much that those people are speaking to the digital twin by saying, 'I feel as if I'm there.' So what you see with Women of Color and what you see with BEYA is permanent, which is why we've invested hundreds of thousands of dollars into this platform that no one in the world has—the platform that we've created—which is why all of these other conferences, by the way, disappear because they're renting from other people. They don't own anything. We own what we do. So Ted, you're ushering in this great piece. You are up against an amazing group. You know this is not a default. I know you know this. There was more competition than in the history of BEYA, and you came out on top. I'm so proud of you. And with that, I'm turning it over to you now.
T
Theodore Colbert29:17
Thank you, Tyrone. And I can only imagine how much competition there was, because you know we are in a moment where companies, organizations, our government is taking more time to recognize people of color who are achieving in our fields. That said, it is just a moment and there is a lot of work to do for sure. First, thank you, Tyrone. Your leadership in the space and energy and persistence and love for the people around you is infectious. And in Boeing, we all know who you are and we know that what you do makes a difference to our company. It makes a difference with our people, the pipeline, our leaders. When we bring leaders from the Pacific Northwest to the East Coast to come to this conference and walk into a room with thousands of black people focused on engineering, it actually changes them. And it makes such a difference in the culture of the company. So thank you and appreciate you for all the work you've done with Women of Color, BEYA, and all the other events. They are very, very powerful. I wish I could actually encapsulate that and explain to you how important it is and how much of a part of the way we run the company and develop talent it is. It's ingrained in what we do and operationalized and will never go anywhere if I have anything to do with it. I don't know if you remember Beau Leslie. When Beau Leslie retired, he pulled me on the side and grabbed my arm at one of the events and said, 'Look, I'm going,' and he's like, 'You're the youngest one here who's a leader and you got to make sure this stuff never ever dies.' And I said, 'Beau, you're talking to the right person. You don't have to worry about that. I got you covered.' And so I will connect that with my second shout-out, Dr. DeLoach. It is just such an honor to be in your presence. I'm not sure if you remember me ever explaining this to you. My family roots go back to Morgan State University. Both of my parents went to school there. They met there. My first childhood home was across the street from Morgan State on Lockwood Road, right behind the shopping center. So I could hear the band playing and went to many football games as a child. And my godmother served on the board, Shirley Marcus. So watching all that you've done with the engineering department at Morgan State over the years has also been massively inspiring to me. And I have friends who went through engineering at Morgan who are doing well today. And what you've done in Baltimore and what you've done for the engineering community for us is unbelievable. You talk about people that need to be celebrated in this country, in this world. The number of engineers you put through the program in a city, my home city, Baltimore—that is just unbelievable. That's unicorn activity. So thank you for all that you've done. And so I appreciate you so much. And to the rest of you all, I know some of you more than others. I've spent some time with you. General Wilson, it's always good to see you and talk to you. Spending time with you is inspiring to me. You're just such a great person in so many ways. And Walt, with our Boeing heritage, one thing—talk more about that. Look, we still have a long way to go at Boeing, a long way to go. I will tell you that when they published the award on our Boeing News Network inside the company, the reality of where we are as a country and the fact that Boeing is just a microcosm of the country showed up within seconds. You know, there were lots of encouraging words, but then the 'Where's the White Engineer of the Year award?' started to kick in, right? So we are just a microcosm of the country, and that is just the way—that's what we deal with today. And that does not discourage me, and I know it doesn't discourage any of you. It just inspires us more to do what we do. General Crawford, you will understand this. In my last job as CIO for six years, my goal was to change the face of information technology at Boeing so that it can never be changed back again. And so we changed the face of the leadership team, did a bunch of work to recruit diverse talent, and it's actually working. Even through the MAX crisis and the pandemic, we are replacing minority leaders with minority leaders and women leaders with women leaders in the mix. And so it can be done. You just have to be intentional about it and be relentless about the intent. Our students obviously meet us, and I will be partnered up with all of you. Some of the work that you all mentioned before, I'm really interested in. I also serve as now the Vice Chair of the Board of the Thurgood Marshall College Fund and spent a lot of time with TMCF. One of the things I did with Boeing is struck a six-million-dollar multi-year deal to improve our relationship with them. I'm in the process of the second round of that, which will be more than six million dollars, and we'll recruit even more great engineering students, like students from Morgan State. Morgan State was part of that program. So we have a lot in common. You all, I'm looking forward to getting to know you all even more, spending more time together, putting our energies toward this mission. I'm going to drag along the technology leaders in this country. I'm going to drag along the aerospace leaders in this country. And I'm going to also do whatever I can to advocate with my customers. You all talked about General Daley. He is one of my customers today. Whatever I need to do to help him and others, I will further the mission here. So it's just an exciting time. Sitting in that audience many, many years ago, I didn't actually know what the path would be to get on the stage. It just seemed unattainable. It was almost like watching Michael Jackson—like, I'll never be a singer, but maybe I can try to sing in the shower every once in a while, right? And so I've reached out to the two women engineers, two female engineers at Ford Motor Company that took me to BEYA, and thanked them. I found them actually. I knew I was in touch with one of them, had to find the other one, and thanked them for taking me to this event that I knew nothing about many, many years ago when I was at Ford. And they were both very, very pleased. So we have plenty of stories to tell, and I will tell them very generously. And there's a lot of stories in between that first day and where we are today. And I will not belabor this morning because it is your Saturday morning and I know you all have things to do. And I'm really appreciative that you were generous with your time this morning to get together and spend just a little bit of time sharing and being. I'm very thankful for that. So with all kinds of gratitude and being on this call with you all and the others that couldn't be here, just the thought of them is pleasing me. And my family's excited as well, and we look forward to hopefully seeing you all. Tyrone, I could just go on because it's a great group of folks, so I'm just going to stop. It's just been a—it is a very exciting moment. I get so excited about energizing our next generation of talent. There's so much opportunity, just so much. You know, there really is. Thank you so much.