Leanne Caret is president and chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space and Security (BDS), a $26 billion unit that works with customers in the U.S. and around the world.
But before earning the position that requires her to travel as far as India and Saudi Arabia, she spent her formative years in the small city of Derby.
“I meet people [from] all around the world who have the most incredible backgrounds, and I would not change how I grew up for any of theirs,” Caret said. Caret was born Leanne Guyette in Cocoa Beach, Florida near the Kennedy Space Center, where her parents Ray and Deneen worked for Boeing on the Saturn 5 Apollo Program. They eventually moved to Seattle before settling in Derby, where her parents worked at the nearby Boeing headquarters in Wichita.
“I’m second-generation Boeing. My whole life is Boeing; that defines who I am,” she said.
(Read more: Derby News | derbyinformer.com)