Drucker School alumnus John Bruns named president of Boeing China

John Bruns, an alumnus of Claremont Graduate University’s (CGU) Drucker-Ito School of Management, has been named president of Boeing China, effective July 1, 2016. He is based in Beijing.

Bruns, (MBA, 1991), will serve as Boeing’s senior in-country executive and lead company-wide activities. He will be responsible for expanding Boeing’s local presence, for managing business partnerships, government affairs, and corporate citizenship. He will also develop and implement Boeing’s China strategy focused on new growth and productivity initiatives and relationships with customers and stakeholders in this key market.

“John is well-versed in every aspect of our China business and well-known by our Chinese stakeholders thanks to his stellar experience in the Chinese aviation sector over the past two-and-a-half decades,” said Marc Allen, president of Boeing International. “John’s leadership will carry on Boeing’s 40-plus year tradition of success in China, one of the world’s most dynamic markets for commercial aircraft.”

Boeing forecasts that China will need 6,330 new airplanes that are worth more than $950 billion over the next 20 years. This demand will make China Boeing’s largest commercial airplane customer. Last year, China became the first country outside the United States to take delivery of more than 1,000 Boeing airplanes.

“It’s the largest market outside the U.S. for commercial airplanes, period,” Bruns has said. “The potential growth in demand for air travel as China’s economy grows is staggering—it’s huge.”

Bruns, 51, grew up in Asia and speaks Mandarin Chinese. He is a member of the US-China Business Council, the U.S.-China Aviation Cooperation Program, and the American Chamber of Commerce in China. He most recently served as Boeing Commercial Airplanes (BCA) senior sales director for Northeast Asia, and as vice president of its China Operations.

Bruns joined McDonnell Douglas in 1986 and worked in Engineering Test & Evaluation. In 1990, he was assigned to the McDonnell Douglas China Program Office in Long Beach, and then moved to Beijing in 1994 as deputy to the president of McDonnell Douglas/China. Following the merger of Boeing and McDonnell Douglas in 1997, Bruns joined the BCA Sales organization and led numerous successful airplane sales campaigns with Chinese airlines and leasing companies. He was assigned to Beijing a second time from 2007 to 2015.

The Boeing veteran is a graduate of Bucknell University, and in 1991, he earned a master of business administration degree with an international business emphasis at CGU’s Drucker School. He is married and has two children.