Satellies: Profile on Boeing's Craig Cooning
I've interviewed a number of generals over the years, none of them as easy-going as Craig Cooning.
Boeing vice president has a Tab on success
By Muhammed El-Hasan Staff WriterRetired Air Force Gen. Craig Cooning sits at a side table in his El Segundo office, an open can of Tab diet soda at his elbow.
Another of the distinctive pink Tab cans sits on Cooning's desk, 12 stories above the runways of LAX.
On a display case - amid mementoes that include an ink well from his grandparents and a toy dancing hamster - a model satellite made of Tab cans helps put Cooning's distinctive mark on his work space.
"I got hooked on Tab in the '70s," Cooning explained during a recent interview in his office.
On Feb. 1, this retired two-star general with the casual manner of someone hosting a backyard barbecue became vice president and general manager of Boeing Space and Intelligence Systems, Boeing Co.'s satellite development arm.
Cooning is responsible for 7,500 employees, with 5,500 in El Segundo.
Although the business is based in Seal Beach, Cooning spends about three days a week in El Segundo overseeing the Boeing Satellite Development Center, a million- square-foot facility that builds military and civilian satellites.
"Anytime you're closer to the factory where you can kick the tires, so to speak, it changes the tempo," Cooning, 57, said.
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