Philip Condit, Boeing Chairman and CEO, to Speak at Embry-Riddle Commencement

The event will include a video tribute to Robert Baker, retired vice chairman of American Airlines, who will receive an honorary doctorate in business administration. Baker is a member of Embry-Riddle's Board of Trustees, serving on the development committee and the flight education and safety committee.

Under Condit's guidance, Boeing has grown to be the world's largest aerospace company. The leader in commercial aircraft, military aircraft and missiles, and space markets, Boeing employs close to 167,000 people and serves customers in 145 nations. The company has headquarters in Chicago, Ill., and is the largest exporter in the United States, with revenues of more than $58 billion in 2001.

Condit's career has spanned more than 35 years of service to Boeing in almost 20 assignments. He joined Boeing in 1965 as an aerodynamics engineer on the supersonic transport program. Next, he was the lead engineer for the Boeing 747 high-speed configuration airplane and for 747 performance. Condit also held positions as manager of the quiet short-haul system development, 727 marketing, and program planning. After a period as director of program management for the 707/727/737 Division, he was named 757 chief project engineer and then director of 757 engineering. Condit was named vice president and general manager of the 757 Division in 1983.

Next, Condit became vice president of the Renton Division, which built the 707, 727, 737, and 757 airplanes. With a promotion to vice president of sales and marketing for Boeing Commercial Airplane Company, he served during a period of exceptional sales. Condit was appointed executive vice president of Boeing Commercial Airplane Company in 1986 and then executive vice president and general manager of the New Airplane Division, which subsequently became the 777 Division. He was elected president and member of the board of directors in 1992. Condit became Boeing's chief executive officer in 1996 and soon after was elected chairman.

He is the author of several published papers on commercial aircraft technology and holds a patent, awarded in 1965, for the design of a flexible wing called the sailwing. Condit also led the team that launched the wide-body Boeing 777 airplane, and he pioneered management concepts that integrated design/build teams of customers, suppliers, and employees to design and produce the 21st-century jet. The 777 "Working Together" team has received numerous aeronautical awards, including the prestigious Collier Award.

Condit has won many awards for engineering and management achievements, including the Japan America Society's 1997 Kokusai Shimin Sho, or International Citizens Award, for global leadership in the private sector; Financial World magazine's Chief Executive Officer of the Year Award for 1997; the 1997 Ronald H. Brown Standards Leadership Award for advancing international standards; the 1998 Peter F. Drucker Strategic Leadership Award; the 1998 Distinguished Engineering Alumnus Award from the University of California at Berkeley; the Distinguished Eagle Award from the Air Command and Staff College in 1999; and the 1999 International Von Karman Wings Award from the Aerospace Historical Society.

He received a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering from the University of California at Berkeley, a master's degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University, a master's degree in management from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, and a doctorate in engineering from Science University of Tokyo, where he was the first Westerner to earn such a degree.

Baker retired from his position as vice chairman of American Airlines in 2002. Previously, he held a variety of top-level positions at American, including senior vice president of information systems, senior vice president of operations, and executive vice president of operations.

American Airlines, operated by the holding company AMR Corp., is the world's largest carrier. American and its regional affiliates, American Eagle and the American Connection carriers, serve more than 250 cities in over 40 nations and territories with some 4,400 daily flights. American's total revenue in 2001 was $15.8 billion.

Although retired, Baker is still involved in the airline business and represents American Airlines externally on technical and operational issues before the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), the National Transportation Safety Board, and other governmental agencies and industry groups involved with commercial aviation.

In recent years at American Airlines, Baker was asked by President George W. Bush and Transportation Secretary Norman Mineta to participate in a special task force following the Sept. 11 terrorist attacks to develop and define aviation security measures for the nation's airlines and airports. In another high-level appointment, President Bill Clinton named Baker to the FAA's Management Advisory Council.

Baker began his almost 35-year career with American Airlines in 1968 as a marketing management associate. Rising quickly through the ranks, he held management positions in the passenger and freight divisions. Baker became vice president of American's southern division in 1977 and went on to other vice president positions in freight marketing, passenger sales and advertising, and marketing administration.

Baker, who is recognized as one of the airline industry's leaders in many of its technical aspects, helped shape today's industry during the transition from prop to jet aviation, from manual processes to instantaneous automation, and from a highly regulated to a fiercely competitive deregulated environment.

He is a trustee of Trinity College and a board member of the American Lung Association, the Texas State Fair, and Zale-Lipshy University Hospital. Baker holds a degree in economics from Trinity College and a master's degree in business from the Wharton School of the University of Pennsylvania.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates 24,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Daytona Beach, Fla., and Prescott, Ariz., at more than 150 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.