Summit Notebook

Boeing Defense President Muilenburg on mixing business with cycling

Boeing Defense, Space and Security President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg speaks eloquently about defense cycles, but did you know that he is something of a cyclist who typically rides about 100 miles a week?

The give away was the glowing tan he was sporting when speaking at the Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit.

“I’m an avid bicyclist so I catch some sun while I’m out bicycling,” he said.

Muilenburg doesn’t bike to work but he goes for a spin on the weekend and has a few bicycles parked in his garage. His favorite is a Trek 5900, which other cycling aficianados say is lightweight and speedy.

“That’s my composite frame bike that I use for a lot of my long-distance rides,” Muilenburg says with a smile.

And there is a way to mix business with pleasure, as he explains how he’s incorporated his love for cycling with a Boeing fitness program.

“One of the things we’re doing right now is investing in our people, what we call a people first, people fit program,” Muilenburg says. “Part of that is investing in employee well-being, so quite frequently I travel to a site and do a 20 or 30-mile ride with the team. And then occasionally I do a long distance ride that’s in the 100 to 200 mile range.”

Would you send a postcard of Boeing’s new Dreamliner?

For some fans, Boeing’s first test flight of its new 787 Dreamliner this week was apparently a virtual postcard.

The aerospace company says people sent about 25,000 postcards electronically of the lightweight commercial plane made primarily from carbon-based plastics and titanium.

About 1 million people logged in to watch the take-off and landing, observing the long-delayed first flight from about 13,000 cities and about 200 countries, the company says.

Dennis Muilenburg, chief executive officer of Boeing Defense Systems, watched from St. Louis — about 2,000 road miles from Seattle where the flight happened — in a Webcast meeting with about 100 employees who had a live feed from the event.

“I can tell you we all took great pride in seeing that first airplane get into the air. And I’ve been working in this business for 20-some years and one of the best things about this business is being able to witness a first flight. There’s nothing else like it,” Muilenburg said in a telephone interview at a Reuters Aerospace and Defense Summit.

“And yesterday’s event just reinforced one of the great aspects of our business, and that’s being able to see a first flight. I saw it virtually yesterday, but I can tell you we all paused to enjoy the moment,” he said.