Phil Condit, chairman and chief executive
officer of The Boeing Company , today announced that
Thomas R. Pickering, U.S. Under Secretary of State for Political Affairs, will
join the company as senior vice president, International Relations, signaling
a significant milestone in the company’s strategic global efforts.
Pickering’s appointment will take place in January following his retirement
from the U.S. government and approval by the Boeing Board of Directors.

In this newly created position, Ambassador Pickering, who will be based in
Washington, D.C., will oversee Boeing’s increased dealings internationally,
and will focus on strengthening the Company’s relationships around the world,
including those with foreign governments.
He will report to the Office of the
Chairman and will serve on the Executive Council, the company’s senior
leadership team.

“In recent years, Boeing has acknowledged the importance of its global
activities,” said Condit.
“We have become concerned about how to best
organize the company to work in the increasingly global business environment
of the 21st century.

“With his extraordinary knowledge and experience in global matters, Tom
will now lead our strategic efforts to take this global focus to a new and
increasingly important level,” Condit said.
“We will look to him to forge
critical new partnerships and relationships around the world and to build on
our already established global presence.”

Condit said that in the past year Boeing’s global presence has grown
through the opening or expansion of offices in Brussels, Tokyo, Beijing, Hong
Kong, London, Paris, Moscow and in Africa.
The company also has increased its
presence in Australia, where it employs nearly 3,000 people.
Condit also
cited the company’s recent acquisition of Jeppesen Sanderson, which employs
1,400 people in Germany, Australia, China, the United Kingdom, as well as in
the U.S.

“We are pleased that someone with Tom’s remarkable credentials and proven
global track record will help lay the foundation for future success in our
international efforts,” Condit added.

Since May 1997, Pickering has served as U.S. Under Secretary of State for
Political Affairs.
Prior to that, he served briefly as the president of the
Eurasia Foundation, a Washington-based organization that makes small grants
and loans in the states of the former Soviet Union.

Pickering holds the personal rank of Career Ambassador, the highest in the
U.S. Foreign Service.
In a diplomatic career spanning five decades, he has
served as U.S. ambassador to the Russian Federation, India, Israel,
El Salvador, Nigeria, and the Hashemite Kingdom of Jordan.
Pickering also
served on assignments in Zanzibar and Dar es Salaam, Tanzania.
From 1989 to
1993, he served as Ambassador and Permanent Representative to the
United Nations in New York.

Pickering was born on Nov. 5, 1931 in Orange, N.J.
He received a
bachelor’s degree, cum laude, with high honors in history, from Bowdoin
College in Brunswick, Maine.
In 1954, he received a master’s degree from the
Fletcher School of Law and Diplomacy at Tufts University.
He was awarded a
Fulbright Scholarship to the University of Melbourne in Australia, and
received a second master’s degree in 1956.
In 1984, he received an honorary
doctorate-in-laws degree from Bowdoin College, and has received similar honors
from 10 other universities.

In 1983 and in 1986, Pickering won the Distinguished Presidential Award
and, in 1996, the Department’s Distinguished Service Award.
He is a member of
the International Institute of Strategic Studies and the Council on Foreign
Relations.
He speaks French, Spanish, Swahili, Arabic and Hebrew.

With headquarters in Seattle, The Boeing Company is the largest aerospace
company in the world and the United States’ leading exporter.
It is the
world’s largest manufacturer of commercial jetliners and military aircraft,
and the largest NASA contractor.
The company’s capabilities in aerospace also
include rotorcraft, electronic and defense systems, missiles, rocket engines,
launch vehicles and advanced information and communication systems.
The
company has an extensive global reach with customers in 145 countries and
manufacturing operations throughout the United States, Canada and Australia.