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Boeing Cuts Bring Change to OC Exec Lineup, Real Estate

Bouchard: shifts to C-17 program in Long Beach, will oversee regional consolidation

Boeing Co.’s plan to slash $1.6 billion in expenses by 2015 has prompted the Chicago-based defense contractor to sell off property in Orange County and shift a key local executive as part of a consolidation of its widespread operations in Southern California.

The company plans to sell two of the 11 buildings on its 45-acre campus in Seal Beach as part of an initiative to shed real estate and take other steps to cut costs, including a reduction in its executive ranks.

Nanette Bouchard, who was based in Seal Beach as vice president of program management, has been named vice president/general manager of the C-17 cargo planes program in Long Beach. She’s also been assigned to oversee the company’s larger Southern California consolidation.

Jean Chamberlin, who is based in Pennsylvania, has been tapped as Bouchard’s successor on program management. It remains to be seen whether she will be transferred to OC.

A number of other key executives remain in Orange County for Boeing, including:

n Alejandro “Alex” Lopez, vice president of the company’s Advanced Network & Space Systems and site executive for facilities in Anaheim and Huntington Beach, where Boeing also owns numerous buildings.

• Craig Cooning, vice president of development program excellence.

• Charles Toups, vice president and general manager of Boeing’s Network and Tactical Systems unit.

The decision to sell the two Seal Beach buildings follows a plan to consolidate several facilities in Huntington Beach. Some buildings there are set to be closed, with one pegged for demolition early next year and another slated to house employees moving from Seal Beach.

Two buildings in Huntington Beach were vacated earlier this year and primarily housed surplus office space, Kuhn said.

Boeing employs about 7,000 people in OC, a number that has significantly decreased recently amid a military shift away from big weapons and systems to stealth warfare. Boeing remains Orange County’s fourth-largest employer and nearly all of its work here is for the military.

It has slashed more than 3,000 jobs here in the last four years, but the company said the consolidation of real estate isn’t expected to lead to more cuts in its rank and file.

“No jobs are impacted by this planned divestiture,” spokesperson Brittany Kuhn said.

Buildings

Both of the buildings slated for sale in Seal Beach are part of the company’s St. Louis-based Defense, Space & Security unit, which has $32 billion in annual revenue and makes military equipment, systems and aircraft.

The unit employs about 61,000 companywide. Boeing does not provide local employment numbers by operating unit.

One of the buildings for sale is three stories and has 275,000 square feet of space. It’s due to be vacated in the first quarter of next year. The other building is eight stories and 300,000 square feet, and expected to close in mid-2013.

Both buildings house engineering, legal, marketing and administrative staffs, among others.

The company last week also announced numerous executive changes in the Defense, Security and Space program.

By the end of the year, the division projects to have 30% less executives than in 2010.

Prior Cuts

The Business Journal last year reported that Boeing’s Brigade Combat Team Modernization program—designed to upgrade Army communications in combat—was set to slash hundreds of positions nationwide.

The program was spread over Huntington Beach and other Boeing sites.

The cuts were prompted partly after an Army review of its networking and systems integration strategy in Afghanistan.

That followed 100 jobs cuts in June 2011 from its space exploration division in Huntington Beach as the space shuttle program neared its end.

In 2007 Boeing moved its Anaheim-based Aegis Ballistic Missile Defense program to its Huntsville, Ala., facility, transferring some 30 workers in the process.

A year earlier it announced plans to close the 1.7 million-square-foot Anaheim facility and move workers to its 2.6 million-square-foot Huntington Beach location. At the time about 3,700 workers in the Anaheim facility were scheduled to move to Huntington Beach.

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