Jim McNerney

Few leaders have the same breadth and depth of executive experience as Jim McNerney. He has presided over some of the world’s largest, most complex and most exciting businesses and companies during a career that has spanned global business icons that include Procter & Gamble, GE, 3M, and most recently, The Boeing Company.

As chairman, president and CEO of Boeing, the world’s largest aerospace company at $96 billion in revenues and more than 160,000 employees, McNerney restored the 100-year-old global industrial champion’s reputation by instilling a culture of integrity, accountability and leadership development, and by dramatically improving its business performance with a focus on customer-inspired innovation, growth and continuous productivity improvement. During McNerney’s 11-year tenure, Boeing recaptured its historic market-share lead in commercial airplane deliveries, reasserted its leadership in human spaceflight and preserved its position among America’s top defense contractors, despite a severe downturn in U.S. and other allied nations’ defense spending. 

McNerney draws on his experience at Boeing as well as his tenure as chairman and CEO of 3M—then a $20 billion globally diversified technology company—to share critical lessons on innovation, management, leadership development and corporate culture that will inspire audiences to rethink their current business models, priorities and approaches. Before 3M, McNerney spent 19 years at General Electric, where he held top executive leadership positions in GE Aircraft Engines, GE Information Services, GE Lighting, GE Asia-Pacific, GE Electrical Distribution and Control and GE Capital. There is probably no senior business leader who has led a greater diversity of businesses across the breadth of the global economy.

McNerney was named “CEO of the Year” in 2015 by Chief Executive magazine, an honor previously bestowed on Bill Gates (Microsoft), Jack Welch (GE), Michael Dell (Dell Computers) and Bob Iger (Disney). McNerney also remains deeply engaged in the non-profit and business communities. He serves on the Kennedy Center board of trustees by appointment of President Barack Obama and on the board of trustees of the Center for Strategic and International Studies. He previously chaired the President’s Export Council and is a past chair of Business Roundtable. He has also chaired the US-China Business Council and The Business Council. He is a director of Procter & Gamble, a director of IBM, a member of The Field Museum Board of Trustees in Chicago, a trustee of Northwestern University and the chair of the Northwestern Memorial HealthCare Board.