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2008 Board of Directors

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Maurice Okagua President okagua@yahoo.com
Leo Chiasson Past President leo.e.chiassonjr@boeing.com
John Wirth President Elect John.M.Wirth@Boeing.com
Ray Willaford Secretary ray.willaford@boeing.com
Ted Sanders Director ted.sanders@boeing.com
Tracy Farwell Director  
Christie Maldonado Director christie.m.maldonado@boeing.com
Halil Kizilca Director exacal@yahoo.com
Derek Van Alen Treasurer derek.j.vanalen@boeing.com

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Maurice Okagua, President - Maurice Okagua is a systems Engineer with the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems MMA program. Prior to his current position, he was a System of Systems Engineer on the Future Combat Systems Program. Previous Boeing Engineering positions include, 767/747 Electrical Avionics and 737 Airplane Level Integration Team.

Prior to joining Boeing in 1997, Maurice worked at Dell Computer Corporation in Austin, TX. He is currently a PhD candidate in Computer Science and Information Systems.

Leo Chiasson, Past President - Leo Chiasson received his B.S. in Aerospace Engineering from Boston University, and holds M.S. degrees from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology in Mechanical Engineering and jointly from The Massachusetts Institute of Technology and the Woods Hole Oceanographic Institute in Oceanographic Engineering. Mr. Chiasson is also currently enrolled in a systems engineering masters program at the University of Southern California, is a member of INCOSE, and is also a licensed Professional Mechanical Engineer.

Mr. Chiasson is presently working for the Boeing Company. He is a Systems Engineer responsible for developing System's Requirement Specifications for the Future Combat System. He has been with the Boeing for 1 year. Prior to his career at Boeing, Leo served in the U.S. Navy as a Nuclear Engineer and a Submarine Officer. Much of his 18 year career involved manufacturing, testing, and preventive and corrective maintenance of complex systems.

John Wirth, President Elect - John Wirth is a Senior Systems Engineer with The Boeing Company. John is currently working within the 737 AEW&C Program for the Turkish Peace Eagle contract within the Systems Engineering and Integration Team.

During his 24 years with Boeing, his experiences have included a wealth of government programs, concept development contracts, and technology development initiatives.

John Wirth earned his Master of Science in Engineering from the University of Washington on a full fellowship awarded by the Boeing Company. His Bachelor's degree was in Mechanical Engineering from Oregon State University.

John was Technical Committee co-chair for the INCOSE National Symposium held in Seattle, and chaired the INCOSE Communications Committee for several years. He has also taught several Boeing-sponsored systems engineering courses and continues to press for more efficient and disciplined systems engineering practices.

Ray Willaford, Secretary - Ray Willaford is a systems Engineer with the Boeing Integrated Defense Systems MMA program. Prior to his current position, he was a Systems Engineer on the Air Traffic Management Program. Previous Boeing Engineering positions include 747 Functional Test, 777 Airplane System Integration, Airborne Surveillance Testbed and Conventional Air-Launched Cruise Missile (CALCM) Team.

Prior to joining Boeing in 1989, Ray worked at Navy Undersea Warfare Engineering Station in Keyport, WA.

He is currently an officer with the Washington Air National Guard

Ted Sanders, Director - Ted has been involved with System Engineering for 29 years. He retired as a Naval Reserve Commander in 2000 after spending the last 11 years doing systems engineering and research assessment work for the Office of Naval Research. He has been working for the Boeing Company since 1987 and doing systems integration and systems process design the entire time. Currently Ted is working on future airplane products for the Boeing Company in the Cabin and Network Systems arena.
Tracy Farwell, Director

Christie Maldonado, Director - Christie Maldonado received her B.S. in Aviation Computer Science with Minor in Air Traffic Control from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University, and has completed M.S. courses in Human Factors and Systems from Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University.

Mrs. Christie Maldonado is presently working for the Boeing Company as a Real-Time Software Engineer under the Commercial Airplane Flight Operations, Test and Validation group. Prior to her career at Boeing, Christie worked at Georgia Institute of Technology as a Research Scientist for the Aerospace Engineering Department. Her passion for simulation has not been only on the aviation industry. She has 5 years of experience programming M1 Abrams Tanks and M2 Bradley Fighting Vehicle Gunnery Trainer simulators for the Army National Guard with the Raydon Corporation.

Halil Kizilca, Director - Halil Kizilca is a System Engineer with the Boeing AEWC 737 Peace Eagle Program. He is currently working on System Level Verification and Validation activities. Before his current position he supported Software Process Improvement activities as a Software Quality and Risk Management Engineers in HAVELSAN Company

Halil is currently enrolled in the Software Management Master Degree at the Informatics Institute of Middle East Technical University.

Derek Van Alen, Treasurer - Derek Van Alen is presently working for the Boeing Company.  He is an Associate Technical Fellow responsible for the system design of the Future Combat System.  He has been with the Boeing Company for over twenty-six years.  Derek started his career at Boeing as a circuit design engineer and has gradually expanded his skill base to encompass the skills necessary to perform systems engineering.
 

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