William E. Boeing Distinguished Lecture 2001

The School of Aeronautics and Astronautics was proud to host the third William E. Boeing Distinguished lecture on September 5, 2001. Our guest speaker was Dr. Jürgen Weber, Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Deutsche Lufthansa AG. Dr. Weber shared his vision of aviation in the new millennium with his presentation Trends Influencing Air Transport in the 21st Century.

Weber has served as CEO of Lufthansa since 1991. Under his leadership, the airline was restructured and privatized in 1997. He was also instrumental in initiating an improvement of aero-engine monitoring systems. "Jürgen Weber is a forward thinking man whose work has won him accolades from many in the air transport industry," said Boeing Air Traffic Management President John Hayhurst B.S.A.E. '69, HDR '98, who attended the lecture, "Mr. Weber's insight and foresight will prove to be highly valuable as we develop the new paradigm of air traffic management. I look forward to partnering with Lufthansa, to improve air traffic safety, reduce delays and open the skies to increase capacity".

Weber has been internationally recognized for forming a number of airline alliances, including the Star Alliance, for which Aviaiton week and Space Technology Magazine presented him with the Laurels 2000 Award. Other honors include being named Manager of the year 1999 by the German Manager Magazine for his role in Lufthansa's privatization and his leadership in transforming the airline into an aviation group.

Weber earned an aeronautical engineering degree in 1965 from Stuttgart Technical University. He joined Lufthansa's engineering division in Hamburg in 1967. In 1980, he graduated from the senior management-training program at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology, where he specialized in business administration. Before being elected as CEO, Weber served as chief operating technical services and chief executive technical services for Lufthansa. As CEO, he is active with the Association of European Airlines and the International Air transport Association, for which he chaired the strategy of the board of governors in 1996.

Lufthansa and Boeing have a long history of successfully working together, witnessed by several airplane models that the airline has launched over the years. Purdue University is the alma mater of more than 500 Boeing employees.