When Leanne Caret graduated with an accounting degree from Kansas State University in 1988, she went straight to work at Boeing Wichita.
Her first job there led to another, which led to yet another. And another.
When she retired more than 30 years later, Caret had become president and CEO of Boeing’s multi-billion dollar Defense, Space and Security operation, the first woman to hold the position. Fortune magazine named her to its Most Powerful Women in business list from 2017 to 2021.
Caret, a graduate of Derby High School, is now the Sam Bloomfield Distinguished Engineer in Residence at Wichita State University, working with faculty and mentoring students. Caret has her master’s degree in business from WSU.
She talked with Tom Shine and The Range about the importance of teamwork, the four Gs, why she’s spending time at Wichita State and the barriers keeping women out of STEM fields.
The interview was edited for length and clarity.
Tom Shine: In a 2005 40 under 40 article in the Wichita Business Journal, you said, ‘You never sacrifice your team. You sacrifice yourself for the team.’ Talk to me about that philosophy and how it applied to you in Boeing?
Leanne Caret: Every success is the team success. The failure, though, starts with us as a leader, and it has stuck with me throughout my 34-plus year career, not only with Boeing, but with other things I've done.
Your legacy isn't defined by whatever that win was, whatever that great accomplishment was. Actually, what is really your calling card is what happens after you're gone, and did you create an environment and a culture? Did you help get people to where they wanted to go? And so that's just a big part of who I am. And it's really important to me,
You were the first woman to lead Boeing's Defense, Space and Security business. Was there extra pressure in that role because you were a woman?
I wouldn't say that there was extra pressure. No, but I was clearly different. And I have a kind of a different style. I laugh. I smile a lot. I'm a hugger.
And so all of that in a very numbers-dominated world … it lets people underestimate me. And I actually think that's been a great advantage over my career.
One of the interviews I read, you talked about your four Gs: Grit, Gumption, Gratitude and Grace. And you said, “Grace is the biggest gift my mom gave me.” Tell me about your mom.
My mom … told us this over the years, ‘How you win is as important as how you lose.’ And that really stuck with me because you can have bad winners, as much as you can have bad losers. And bad winners actually make it even harder to lose because it just reinforces that whole psyche.
So for me, having her in my head over the years, she was a really big believer in you don't ask people to do things that you wouldn't do … you treat people well, regardless of who's watching, and how you win is as important as how you lose.
You have a pretty busy schedule … Why did you decide to spend time at Wichita State?
Being able to share with folks at a younger age that look, I had no career plan, I wasn't a top student, I didn't have internships. If you look at me on paper, there is absolutely no reason that I was able to do some of what I've had the blessing of being able to do.
And I want folks to know anyone can be a CEO, anyone can be a team leader, anyone can start their own business. They have to believe in themselves. They have to work hard. They’ve got to put in the time. They’ve got to be willing to sacrifice. But having folks around you that you can see who've done it, shows you the art of the possible.
What are the barriers keeping women out of engineering and other STEM fields?
What continues to stymie this actually starts in the earliest of grades in elementary school. Just last night, I was reading a report … and it said that by second grade … boys think that they are great at math. At third grade … girls think that they're a failure at math. In elementary school. In second and third grade.
And so that's where it starts. And so having young kids, girls and boys, actively involved in STEM-related efforts to where they can build up their confidence and … having a support system – teachers, parents, relatives, family, friends – who reinforce that. That is a huge opportunity to transform how folks approach it going into school.
Let's say there's a female high school student who has an interest in engineering, but her parents are concerned because it's such a male-dominated field. What would you tell the parents?
First, I don't think it is an either or situation. It isn't about being male or female. This is about where does your passion lie, where your skills and your talents are. And so run with it. And those fields are so widely distributed, that there's 100 different jobs that could apply to it, not one. To go to be an engineer doesn't mean you have to be an electrical engineer or an aerospace engineer; you could go be a civil engineer. There's so many different opportunities.
But the reality is that her uniqueness is going to make it better. Because it is having differences of perspectives, it's having differences of viewpoints, but it's also having differences of talents. And so let her shine and do what she wants to do. She's going to be more than capable to handle it.
You mentioned earlier your parents both worked for Boeing. Were they engineers?
So this is a great story. … My mom was an engineering aide, which means she helped the engineering team get drawings, different things like that. And she was working at the NASA facility outside of New Orleans … which is where they were building the Saturn V rocket. My dad was an engineer there, and that's where they met. So they get married, they have my sister and I; I'm actually born … right outside Kennedy Space Center, down in the Space Coast.
And what's really great about this story is not only I’m second-generation Boeing, but two things. One, as we (Boeing) were building the Space Launch System rocket … we built it in the same facility my mom and dad met in. And I would tell people that I'm in the facility that my mom and dad worked in, and I'm pretty sure the bathroom I was going to was the same bathroom that my mom went to. It may not have been updated; I'm not sure.
But what's even more exciting is my dad was given a coin from the Smithsonian for his work on the Saturn V program. And so on our Boeing Starliner mission, his coin was taken into outer space … and then it was brought back, and we were able to present my dad with his coin and it actually had gone to space. And is that just not wonderful?
So obviously you have a deep interest in space as well. Would you go into space if you had the chance?
I totally would. I totally would. Now … I'm not gonna lie. I don't want to go to Mars. That's a long way out and a long way back. You're gone for years, right?
I'm a generation of the Jetsons. I believe that spaceways are going to be a thing that people are going to be traversing on air like highways are today, and I believe that will be happening before I pass away. I'm absolutely convinced of it.
