Boeing Taps Qantas IT Chief as CIO

By Agam Shah 

Boeing Co. this week named a full-time replacement for former Chief Information Officer Ted Colbert, who was promoted to lead the aerospace giant's parts and services business.

Susan Doniz, currently CIO at Australian carrier Qantas Group, joins Boeing as CIO in May, reporting to Chief Executive David Calhoun. She succeeds interim CIO Vishwa Uddanwadiker, who took the role after Mr. Colbert was named CEO of Boeing Global Services in October.

Ms. Doniz will manage IT staff across 50 countries and lead digital initiatives such as Digital Enterprise, a companywide project to improve IT systems and processes, including those around enterprise resource planning.

"This transformation will enable Boeing to streamline and simplify work, deliver global-ready processes and systems, and evolve to meet future and expanding business needs," a company spokesman said.

Ms. Doniz's appointment comes as the Chicago-based company remains under investigation following two fatal crashes involving its 737 MAX jets. Regulators banned the MAX from flying last March.

Ms. Doniz's team also will be integral to a unit called Boeing AnalytX, which pulls together analytics and other capabilities across the company to provide insights internally and to its customers, Boeing said.

The aircraft maker has used analytics to manage inventories of its commercial and military fleets and to help customer airlines schedule flight crews and develop flight plans, among other use cases.

Boeing this week nominated Qualcomm Inc. Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf to its board.

Ms. Doniz was an enthusiastic adopter of cloud computing while at Qantas, said Samuel Engel, senior vice president at research and consulting firm ICF International Inc., which tracks the aircraft and airline market.

"More than moving systems to the cloud, she was early to take advantage of the cloud for business intelligence," Mr. Engel said.

Before joining Qantas as CIO in 2017, Ms. Doniz held a senior role at tech giant SAP SE.

Write to Agam Shah at [e-mail]

(END) Dow Jones Newswires

February 27, 2020 18:34 ET (23:34 GMT)

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