Howard McKenzie
Vice President and Chief Engineer
Boeing Commercial Airplanes
Howard McKenzie was named vice president and chief engineer for Boeing Commercial Airplanes in August 2021. He is responsible for effectiveness and efficiency of the engineering function across Commercial Airplanes and leads engineering design, safety and customer support activities for all commercial airplane models.
Most recently, McKenzie was vice president and chief engineer for Boeing’s Global Services business unit. While there, he led the alignment of 7,000 engineers into one cohesive engineering function that supports commercial and government customers worldwide. Focusing on safety and first-time quality, his team provided design engineering, aircraft modifications and conversions as well as engineering support and services.
Prior to that assignment, McKenzie was vice president and general manager of Boeing Test & Evaluation, where he led a team of engineers, pilots, mechanics and technicians responsible for the testing, evaluation and certification of Boeing commercial and defense products.
Previously, he served as vice president, chief project engineer for the 777 program where he was responsible for product integrity and safety for the 777 worldwide fleet. He has also served as director of engineering for the 777 program, responsible for the engineering design functional organizations as well as ensuring product compliance to regulatory standards and requirements including product integrity and safety. Also, McKenzie was chief engineer of Airplane Level Integration on the 777 program, chief engineer of Airplane Systems on the 777 program, and chief engineer for BCA Environmental Systems Engineering. McKenzie worked at McDonnell Douglas Corporation prior to his assignments within Boeing.
McKenzie graduated from the University of California at Berkeley with a Bachelor of Science Degree in Mechanical Engineering in 1988. He is also Boeing’s Executive focal for the University of California at Berkeley.