Commencement Speaker

MICHAEL P. DELANEY, BE, ’85; MBA

Michael Delaney is the chief aerospace safety officer of The Boeing Company, senior vice president of Global Aerospace Safety, and a member of the company’s Executive Council. In this role, Mr. Delaney is responsible for strengthening the safety practices and culture at Boeing and developing the company’s comprehensive Global Aviation Safety strategy, including integrated responsibility for Product and Services Safety, Aerospace Safety Analytics, Global Aviation Safety System, and Boeing’s Confident Travel Initiative to help the aviation industry safely resume global air travel amid the COVID-19 pandemic. The Confident Travel Initiative brings together Boeing’s vast resources to support customer airlines, test and implement new technologies, and partner with industry associations to amplify work that will keep passengers safe. Mr. Delaney is accountable to the Aerospace Safety Committee of the Boeing Board of Directors.

In his previous role as vice president of Boeing Commercial Airplanes Digital Transformation, Mr. Delaney led efforts to establish a digital thread across development and production programs to drive a connected flow of engineering data through the production system and across the in-service fleet of Boeing airplanes. Additionally, he provided cross-functional business architecture leadership to improve data capture and analytics insights that support “digital smart factory” workflow simplification and realignment as well as machine learning optimization to improve quality.

Mr. Delaney was previously vice president and general manager of Airplane Development. In that role, he led the design, development, integration, testing, and certification of the next generation of various commercial airplane models. He also oversaw all aspects of product development, including the engineering team responsible for formulating the preliminary design of new and derivative airplanes and systems, improving environmental performance, and developing advanced technology.

Mr. Delaney also served as vice president of engineering for Commercial Airplanes, where he was responsible for product development, design, delegated compliance, certification and safety activities for all commercial airplane models, their derivatives, and post-delivery upgrades. Additionally, he served as senior chief engineer of Airplane Performance and Product Architecture and oversaw information technology, export compliance, and intellectual property activities in Commercial Airplanes.

Before his engineering role, he was vice president and chief project engineer for the 787 Program, leading the readiness effort for first airplane delivery, technical configuration, product integrity, and safety. Other leadership roles included vice president of 747/767/777 Engineering, vice president of Commercial Airplanes Test and Validation, and chief project engineer of the Next-Generation 737 Program.

Mr. Delaney began his career as an aerodynamics engineer at Grumman Aerospace. In 1988, he joined McDonnell Douglas, and in 1997, he became senior manager of Flight Test Engineering. That same year, he became director of 717 Airplane Test and Validation, Flight and Lab Test/Flight Operations and the 717 deputy chief project engineer.

Mr. Delaney is an American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics Fellow and a member of the Aeronautics and Space Engineering Board. He has been a member of the Hofstra University Board of Trustees since 2019 and serves on the Advisory Board of the DeMatteis School of Engineering and Applied Science at Hofstra.