Jerry Gravitt
Executive Director Production System IPT Air Proprietary 2

Jerry Gravitt received a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering from Southern Illinois University Edwardsville and joined Boeing in June 2004 as an Industrial Engineer supporting the F/A-18E/F production system. While at Boeing he earned a Master’s in Engineering Management (2007) and a Master’s in Information Management (2009). Over the first decade of his career he led the stand-up of multiple production systems and new facilities. In 2014 he transitioned to his first leadership role in Boeing Research & Technology, overseeing more than $200M in equipment and technology investments across Boeing St. Louis programs. Jerry served as a Senior Production Engineering leader for MQ-25—supporting T1 first flight—and supported F/A-18 final assembly before assuming the Senior Production Engineering leadership role for Air Proprietary 2.

Jerry currently serves as Executive Director Production System IPT for Air Proprietary 2. Throughout his leadership tenure, Jerry has prioritized building strong, collaborative relationships with Department of War counterparts to enable effective, mission-focused program execution. His objective is to drive innovation that sustains Boeing’s manufacturing excellence and competitiveness. By applying digital insights and artificial intelligence to integrate global supply chains and operations, he aims to develop future production systems that deliver positive predictable performance that safely enables teams to deliver next generation products to Boeing customers worldwide.

Ben Fjellanger
Executive Director Advanced Production System Technology

Ben Fjellanger is the Director, Advanced Production System Technology within the Chief Technology Office, Advanced Production and Automation team. In this role I am privileged to work with a team of brilliant minds, innovators, research scientists, and technologists to develop innovative, yet pragmatic solutions for new and enduring production systems across the Boeing Enterprise. Our team leverages a network of internal research, external consortia, university & industry partnerships and project execution to ideate, experiment and productionize advanced technologies for our manufacturing environments.

Prior to my current role, I was the Production Engineering Senior Manager within Boeing Phantom Works Air Proprietary 1 leading the development of Production System architectures, facilities and large scale prototyping activities across multiple Phantom Works development programs. My experiences span the full program lifecycle ranging from proposal authoring, early configuration involvement, production system design through prototype build activities and transition to flight test. Previously worked as a member of an Integrated Product Team (IPT) on the F-15 AP117 Fwd Center Fuselage redesign program, T-7A, MQ-25, 737, 787 and BCA-Product Development.