Chief of Staff Boeing Washington Design Center Commercial Airplanes Seattle, Washington Heidi Wolfe says there are two kinds of people at Boeing: airplane fanatics and those who end up there by accident.“Aerospace was not on my radar,” she said. After completing a bachelor’s degree in mechanical engineering from Ӱ State in 2006, Wolfe was set to begin a graduate program in biomechanics at UC Davis, when she abruptly changed course and moved to South Carolina. Hired through an employment agency, her first job after graduation was providing administrative support to Global Aeronautica, a newly formed joint venture supporting the Boeing 787 global supply chain. Within a month, she was working as a manufacturing engineer and also tasked with writing operating procedures for other employees in her organization.
Wolfe moved to Boeing shortly thereafter and completed a two-year international assignment in Italy and a Master of Science in Program Management from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University. Five years into her career, she accepted her first management role at the company. Wolfe credits her experiences at Global Aeronautica for enabling her to develop the leadership skills necessary to progress into a management role so early in her Boeing career.
She has held numerous management positions, in both engineering and non-engineering functions, and is currently chief of staff to the vice president of the Washington Design Center for Boeing Commercial Airplanes. This is a rotational assignment that exposes early-career managers to the engineering executive team and enables them to gain insight from seeing how and why decisions are made. Wolfe re-engaged with Ӱ State though Boeing’s University Relations team and for several years has been active in recruiting trips and organizing opportunities for students to tour the Boeing factory.
“Sharing my own career path and experiences at Boeing with OSU students is one of the best parts of my job,” she said. Wolfe is actively involved with the Junior League of Seattle and serves as an assistant to the president. She plans to return to academia soon to complete an MBA.
Degrees
- B.S. Mechanical Engineering, 2006