Barbara Wilson builds upon a childhood dream - and plenty of preparation - to climb up Boeing's executive ranks.
by Shari Scales Finnell
It's a sweltering day, but an occasional thud coming from the large back yard of a Florissant home proves that the weather isn't deterring someone from getting a job done.
By now, the neighbors have become familiar with the sounds of the three Wilson kids getting ready for Little League games sometimes just minutes before the family leaves for their softball and baseball competitions.
The oldest, Barbara, is persistent in her efforts to make her bat connect with the softballs relentlessly pitched by her watchful father. With each swing, Barbara has an eye on a victory for her team. It's not until years later that she realizes the significance of those practices in the success of her career.
"My father was always making sure we were prepared for whatever we did. Being ready was extremely important," Barbara says.
As director and program manager for the T-45 Training System Program at Integrated Defense Systems for Boeing Inc., Barbara traces those childhood lessons to shaping her philosophy and work ethic.
"Those practices kind of started the discipline I have in terms of always striving to be your best," says Barbara, who makes her home in St. Charles. "To be the best, you have to be prepared. You can ensure you have that 'A game' if you're prepared."
That "What's next?" attitude - looking long term has been key to Barbara's success with every new challenge she takes on, say her colleagues at Boeing.
Looking to the skies
Barbara, 43, was born the first child to Bobby and Billie Wilson, an electrical engineer and registered nurse, respectively. The addition of her brothers, Bradley, now 41, and Brian, now 38, rounded out the family. By the time Barbara reached first grade, the Wilsons had moved from Moline, Ill., to St. Louis which she has called home ever since.
It didn't take long for Barbara to start shaping her long-term career goals after taking one look at the skies of her new hometown. Like many St. Louisans, she was enthralled by the F-15 or other fighter jets flying overhead from the nearby plant of McDonnell Douglas, the aerospace manufacturer and defense contractor that later merged with The Boeing Company.
"I became fascinated with aviation and aerospace very, very early on," recalls Barbara, who counted math and science among her favorite subjects. "I knew early on what I wanted to be when I grew up."
Her father further sealed her interest in aviation by bringing her to McDonnell Douglas on "Take Your Kid to Work" days and to air shows.
"I can't pinpoint exactly when I knew I was hooked, but I was definitely hooked," Barbara says.
Barbara's keen interest in aerospace didn't escape the notice of guidance counselors at Hazelwood East High School, who encouraged her to sign up for a high school engineering program sponsored by McDonnell. The three-year summer program for sophomores, juniors and seniors was designed to supplement students' lessons in physics, math and other engineering-related courses. When the participants reached their senior year, they spent the summer working side by side with McDonnell engineers at the plant.
"It was huge," Barbara says, recalling the experience. "That last summer was very eye opening for me. It really helped me understand what an actual engineer was."
Barbara also credits her parents' motto "education first" as a shaping influence. Though the family could have lived on one income, she says, her mother primarily worked to save for her children's college education. Because of that commitment, Barbara didn't have to pay student loans for college.
To this day, Barbara says with a laugh, her mother jokes, "You owe me."
When Barbara enrolled in Auburn University, she quickly decided to major in chemical engineering. However, during her sophomore year, she had some doubts about it as a long-term career.
"I just started to see that career path as something that would stifle me," Barbara says. "I'm a people person."
She also had some feelings of isolation in the engineering program, which at the time, had a scarcity of female students. "It wasn't the main reason I switched to business, but it was a factor," Barbara says.
Those observations influenced her decision to switch her focus to business and finance. She found the prospect of ensuring that a company not only built and designed the best product but made the process cost effective a challenge she would welcome.
That switch in majors was instrumental in shaping Barbara's career in the years that followed.
Back to the source of inspiration
It didn't take long for Barbara to make her way back to McDonnell/Boeing, the company that had so much influence in shaping her early interests.
Shortly after graduating from Auburn with a bachelor's degree in business administration, she took on a contracting position with Missouri Metals, LLC, a subcontractor of McDonnell before actually landing a job at McDonnell in 1996.
During those early years, Barbara steadily expanded her "toolkit" of expertise, as she calls it, by holding various financial and management positions within the departments of contracts and pricing, supplier management finance operations and estimating on aircraft programs like the F-15, T-45 and AV-8B.
She also earned master's degrees in business administration and in computer resources and information management at Webster University to add to her knowledge.
"From being a contract administrator to negotiating proposals with the government, and then moving up the ranks, you're able to see the whole big picture," Barbara says.
Mentors along the way
Motivated to take on additional challenges, Barbara, encouraged by colleagues whom she sought for advice, applied for a management position and got the job. After serving as a contracts manager for a couple of years, she still wanted to do more, she says.
That decision to seek a new opportunity took her far beyond what she had ever anticipated.
Virginia "Ginger" Barnes, who had been Barbara's boss and then a mentor, encouraged her to pursue a management opportunity that would take her to the Czech Republic.
Barbara asked herself, "Do I want to uproot and go halfway around the world?"
Ginger advised her to go for it. "She's always been extremely competitive," says Ginger, who didn't doubt Barbara's ability to succeed at the new challenge. "She tackles problems, hitting them head on. She has just excelled at everything that comes her way."
During 2004, Barbara packed her bags and moved to a vastly different terrain a country that had been under Communist rule and was unaccustomed to a woman, let alone a minority woman, working at an executive level. "They didn't have any females on the senior management team," says Barbara, who was responsible for fiscal and operational leadership of the business. The lone female in the Czech group worked in human resources.
"I felt like I was going back to the 1940s or the 1950s," says Barbara, who, as director of business management for Boeing Ceskα, held a position equivalent to the CFO of the Czech company with which Boeing had partnered. "It was like going back in time."
The experience also was eye opening in many ways, says Barbara, noting that many families in the far suburbs of Prague live very modestly by American standards. "The average income there is equivalent to about $12,000 a year here. We have so much. They have so little. It was very humbling."
Though the experience initially was exciting, with Barbara being able to take day trips to explore the cultures of nearby countries like Germany, the Netherlands, Austria and Poland, the long winter days without sunlight and the distance from her home in St. Louis started to take its toll.
"The long, long winters and being away from family and friends made me a little homesick," Barbara says.
Big picture, small details
After Boeing ended its partnership with Aero Vodochody in 2004, Barbara returned to St. Louis to become chief of staff for Jim Albaugh, the president and CEO of Integrated Defense Systems.
The new job allowed Barbara to a great perspective of what it takes to run an entire organization, she says.
"I was able to be a sponge for those two years, helping Jim Albaugh carry out whatever he needed to do in his capacity as CEO," Barbara says. "I was able to closely observe the attributes of a good leader."
As chief of staff, Barbara was responsible for executing the president's IDS activities across the enterprise. As a result, she frequently joined him on briefings, strategy meetings with high-level executives and brown bag luncheons with various employees, and accompanied him on shuttle launches or the rollout of new aircraft.
It seemed no detail was too small for the CEO to handle, she says. When an employee complained about the conditions in a restroom in one area, "he leaned over to me after the meeting and said, 'Barbara, go inspect the bathrooms,'" she recalls with a laugh.
When it was time to rotate out of the job, Barbara had intended to go back into finance where she had "grown up," she recalls. Her boss asked her why. "'You can do that stuff with your eyes shut,'" he told Barbara.
He challenged her to pursue an executive level ranking, which led her to take on the position of director for the T-38 avionics upgrade program, a project that entailed switching over analog cockpits to all-digital components.
Her current job as director and program manager of the T-45 Training System followed. She manages all aspects of the program, which assembles and delivers the U.S. Navy's T-45 Goshawk jet trainer and supports fleet maintenance and ground-based training.
In her role, Barbara has exhibited the traits of a leader who has plenty of foresight, says Chris Chadwick, president of IDS Precision Engagement and Mobility Systems.
"A big challenge Barbara has been facing is that her product line, the T-45 Trainer, is going out of production at the end of 2009," Chadwick says. "With this end state at hand, Barbara has had to put in motion the necessary steps to close down the production line in a timely and inexpensive fashion. She's had to ensure that the supply chain continues to deliver needed parts on time or ahead of schedule and perhaps most importantly, she's had to ensure a positive mindset across her team during what clearly is a difficult and uncertain time.
"From all aspects, Barbara has succeeded," he says. "The shut-down plan is on schedule, while there have been some hiccups, the supply chain continues to deliver, and her team not only is performing, but it continues to aggressively look for 'life beyond' T-45 and how they can perpetuate a very successful product line.
"It takes dedicated and unique leadership skills to accomplish this trifecta," Chris says, "and Barbara has done it."
Giving back
Though Barbara devotes countless hours to her career, she is equally as dedicated to giving back by acting as a mentor to more than a dozen people, both inside and outside of Boeing. She serves on the boards of the Saint Louis Zoo and St. John's Mercy Foundation and as the Boeing executive focal to Tuskegee University.
She also serves as a member in the Boeing St. Louis Leadership Association and Boeing Women in Leadership, participates as a mentor for the Mathews-Dickey Boys and Girls Club and volunteers with Big Brothers Big Sisters. Additionally, she was selected to participate in FOCUS Leadership St. Louis, a nine-month program designed for recognized leaders in their fields who have demonstrated a commitment to improving the St. Louis community. The St. Louis Business Journal recently named her one of the city's Most Influential Business Women of 2009.
Her example has motivated numerous people, says her friend and former co-worker, Theresa "Terry" Ford, customer support manager for Missouri Metals, LLC.
"She gave me the foundation to say, 'Yes, you can,'" says Terry, noting that their industries are male dominated. "She's never been afraid of the glass ceiling. She's broken through it so many times.
"She's a very driven person. She's among the women who have put their career first, and I don't think she regretted that. She strives at the opportunity for a new challenge," Terry adds.
When that new challenge involved that move to Prague, she didn't back down, Terry says with a laugh. "It was funny. I knew she was so lonely there, so I would try to send her movies," she says. "But I teased her, 'I won't be coming to visit. I'll see you when you get home.'"
Through it all, Terry was impressed with Barbara's fortitude.
"It was yet another step for her. And she succeeded," she says.
"She's definitely a role model who is both caring and demanding. Just as she holds herself to high expectations, she expects the same of others," Ginger adds.
In mentoring others, Barbara stresses the importance of being flexible and open to changes or opportunities even if they may cause some discomfort, like the trip to Prague.
"Oftentimes a lot of young people want to rise up the ranks quickly, but they don't want to take risks, like working extra hours or moving to another city," Barbara says. "The key to being successful is being flexible. The other thing I encourage them to do is to develop and nurture mentors as sponsors or advocates of their careers."
Barbara, who enjoys golfing, bowling and hanging out with her family, including two nephews, takes another step in her journey of self-development when she starts a 10-month Industrials Fellows Program at the Industrial College of the Armed Forces in Washington, D.C. It is the only formal academic program within the Department of Defense that links industry with government agencies.
"It's an incredible honor for her," Ginger says. "Just being nominated is quite an honor. To be nominated, accepted and chosen the first time out is exceptional. It's a testament to her capability."
Though the ride is far from over, Barbara says her career at Boeing has been just as exciting as she imagined it would be.
One of the most gratifying parts of the job, Barbara says, is knowing she plays a key role in leading an organization of hard-working, dedicated employees in their mission to support the U.S. military.
"When I go out to the ramp, I think, There goes another aircraft that will be used to train a young man or a young woman to be a pilot," she says. "That's when it hits home of how much we're benefiting our nation."
