Nicole Piasecki ’80
personae
Top Flight by Joseph “Josh” Groves ’80
6
Groton School Quarterly
•
Fall 2013
Her position today, as vice president and general manager of the Propulsion Systems Division of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, almost seems inevitable. After Groton and a mechanical engineering degree from Yale, Nicole held technical positions at Piasecki Helicopter and United Technologies before earning a Wharton MBA and heading to Towers Perrin, Weyerhaeuser Japan Ltd., and finally to Boeing in 1992, where she has worked in engineering, sales, business strategy, and marketing, on aircraft including the revamped 737 and the Dreamliner. Before 9/11, Boeing’s commercial strategy included the Sonic Cruiser, which was fast, sleek, and sexy but consumed a lot of fuel. To Nicole and her marketing
Boeing vice president Nicole Piasecki ’80, in a classic flight deck display at the Future of Flight in Everett, Washington
Gail Hanusa
“S
aturday is a work day!” Nicole Piasecki’s father, Frank, started each weekend with the same refrain. An innovator, helicopter pioneer, and founder of Piasecki Aircraft Corporation, Frank was determined that his seven children would learn to solve problems early on. In his office, Nicole and her siblings (including Frank ’83 and Lynn ’79) mopped floors, filed papers, typed, and, in their spare time, drew pictures. Nicole remembers, at age five, proudly presenting a helicopter drawing to her father, who handed it back, saying, “How can this helicopter fly? You forgot the rotor blades.” When she was a bit older, her father would grill her on key components of his design blueprints.