Boeing

The Hispanic Engineer National Achievement Awards Corporation (HENAAC) has recognized the contributions of two Boeing [NYSE: BA] employees.

Mike Cave , Boeing Commercial Airplanes Senior Vice President of Airplane Programs received HENAAC's 2004 Executive Excellence award and Monica Jacinto, a Boeing Integrated Defense Systems engineer and Boeing Associate Technical Fellow with an expertise in metallic alloy development , was named a HENAAC Luminary.

The awards, which honor world-class Hispanic engineers, scientists, technology professionals, and academicians, were presented at the 16 th annual HENAAC Awards Show held on October 8, 2004, in Pasadena, Calif.

"These two honorees demonstrate the diversity of ideas, talent, leadership and technical expertise we value at Boeing," said Joan Robinson-Berry, director, Technical Excellence, for Boeing. " This recognition from HENAAC validates our company's competitiveness and innovation, and acknowledges the value we bring to our customers."

Cave was honored for successes throughout his 21-year career at Boeing, including his current leadership of the Airplane Programs organization, which produces the company's line of commercial jetliners and generates over $15 billion in annual revenue. As the chief financial officer of BCA at the time of the 9/11 attacks, Cave was handed the difficult task of surviving an incredible downturn in commercial travel.

"We made some tough decisions during those days," said Cave. "Now we can look back and say that we not only stayed afloat, but we were actually profitable during those trying times by focusing on aggressive implementation of lean principles, restructuring supplier agreements and fundamentally rebuilding the infrastructure of the company to be competitive at a production rate that was only half of what it was only two years earlier."

Cave also makes his position as a role model a priority.

"Who will show them that the center of all value creation comes from applied engineering and technology?" Cave asked the assembled business government and education leaders. "And who will show them that the keys to that world are available to all of us?" Cave, who credits his Panamanian mother with giving him a compassion for people to go along with his analytical engineering mind, feels his heritage plays a big part in what he has accomplished.

Jacinto was recognized with an inaugural Luminary Award for her significant contributions to the Hispanic technical community and for inspiring youth to pursue engineering and technical careers. A metallurgical engineer who works in the laboratories at Rocketydyne in Canoga Park, Calif., Jacinto works on research and development of metals used in the building of rocket engines. She recently was the co-inventor of Mondaloy, a new high-strength, burn-resistant alloy, which allows space vehicles to be made thinner and lighter and removes the need for protective coatings, which increases safety and reliability while decreasing costs.

HENAAC is a nationwide organization committed to motivating students to pursue careers in engineering, science, technology and math and to increasing the role the Hispanic community plays in maintaining America 's status as the world's technology leader.