Boeing Appoints Don Ruhmann as New Chief Aerospace Safety Officer
ARLINGTON, Va. On March 14, Boeing announced Don Ruhmann as the company’s new Chief Aerospace Safety Officer, effective immediately.
In this role, Ruhmann will be responsible for strengthening Boeing’s safety culture and safety practices, furthering efforts to accelerate and mature the Safety Management System (SMS) across the company and continuing work with the industry to bolster the aviation safety ecosystem.
Boeing created the Chief Aerospace Safety Officer role in 2021 to lead development of the company’s integrated enterprise Global Aerospace Safety program, which encompasses Product & Services Safety, Aerospace Safety Analytics and Global Aviation Safety System. Aligning these safety-focused teams under a single leader promotes safety in every aspect of Boeing operations and drives end-to-end accountability throughout the internal and external safety ecosystem.
Ruhmann succeeds Mike Delaney, who announced his retirement after a nearly four-decade career with Boeing. Delaney will serve in an advisory role to assist the transition over the next several months. Ruhmann will report to Boeing President and CEO Kelly Ortberg and join the company’s Executive Council.
“Over the past several years, we’ve made important strides to strengthen our safety practices, safety culture and actions to implement SMS at Boeing,” said Ortberg. “Don’s experience with airplane design, certification and strong relationships with global regulators makes him perfectly suited to lead and build on those efforts at Boeing and across the industry.”
Ruhmann was most recently vice president of Airplane Development at Boeing Commercial Airplanes where he led design and certification work for the newest members of the 737 MAX family and the new 777-9. He joined Boeing in 1989, and has held a number of senior leadership positions, including Engineering roles on the 777 and 787 programs and in Commercial Aviation Services, which is now part of Boeing Global Services.
