Rafael O. de Jesús
Group Vice President
Global Account Executive
ABB
BSAAE 1994
"The problem solving skills learned while at Purdue, coupled with the tough science and math curriculum required by the School of Aeronautics and Astronautics, have been a fantastic foundation to my career. These have served me well, not only when practicing in the aeronautical industry, but also in all endeavours I have engaged in professionally – that toolkit has been applied to solve a vast array of practical challenges encountered during my career.”
Rafael O. de Jesús completed his B.S. degree in Aeronautical and Astronautical Engineering from Purdue University in 1994. In addition to his Purdue degree, Rafael completed a S.M. in Mechanical Engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, a MBA from MIT’s Sloan School of Business, as well as a Senior Management Development Program at IMD in Lausanne, Switzerland.
de Jesús' industry experience is broad, with significant work and leadership positions in the aerospace industry, automotive industry, and in the power transmission and distribution industries, including renewable energy applications. He currently works with ABB, a pioneering technology leader that works closely with utility, industry, transport and infrastructure customers in roughly 100 countries around the world. His main role is as Global Account Executive for Bechtel Corporation. His charter in this role is to ensure that, through a win-win approach, the companies work together to successfully deliver the best value to their common end-customers – companies who invest in the most sophisticated and challenging engineering projects in the world. He leads various teams around the globe in developing the relationship with his customer, development of projects as well as their effective execution.
de Jesús joined ABB in September 2000 and has held several positions with the ABB Group. He has a proven record in operations consulting, business restructuring, manufacturing management, as well as general management. Prior to his current role, de Jesús was part of the Strategic Initiatives team for North America, managing business development programs in the areas of renewable power generations and transmission. From 2007 to 2009, he was responsible to expand ABB’s business in Mexico inclusive of over a dozen Business Units and over 500 employees. He has acted in various other capacities with the ABB group before that. Among them, de Jesús was the Americas Regional Manager for the Operations Development Group, restructured a poor performing European business unit, and was responsible for Advanced Manufacturing and Engineering projects in Europe and Asia.
Before joining ABB, de Jesús worked as Lean Champion with Visteon in Chihuahua, MX, driving the implementation of Lean Manufacturing practices. His previous professional experience was as a Senior Engineer with The Boeing Company, designing aircraft structures for large airplanes such as the 777, 767 and supporting all Commercial Aircraft Group programs in airframe structural analysis. While completing his engineering degree at Purdue, his engineering practice was conducted at NASA Langley Research Center in Langley, VA.
de Jesús' professional experience is global, having lived in U.S., Mexico, Finland and Ireland, and conducted work in over 25 countries and travelled to over 35 countries. His main pursuits outside of his professional career involve cycling, sailing and scuba diving. He currently lives with his wife and son in Durham, NC.