llen C. Haggerty, retired vice president and general manager of Engineering for Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile System, will be the featured speaker at Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University's spring graduation ceremony for 260 students on Saturday, April 27, at 10 a.m. on the athletic field.

Haggerty was vice president and general manager of Engineering for Boeing Military Aircraft and Missile System until he retired in March 2001. He was also the executive focal point for the Lean Enterprise for the unit. Previously, he was vice president of Engineering for Douglas Aircraft Co., the commercial aircraft business unit of McDonnell Douglas.

Haggerty joined McDonnell Douglas in 1981 as senior vice president of Operations for McDonnell Douglas Helicopter Company, and in 1986 he was named executive vice president for Engineering and Operations.

He is a former naval officer and was the chief engineer of a U.S. Navy destroyer. Haggerty was with Boeing Helicopters for 19 years, serving as director of Operations for Heavy Lift Helicopters; director of Operations for the CH-47 Modernization Program; and director of Commercial Helicopters, responsible for the development and production of the 44-passenger Boeing 234 Chinook commercial helicopter designed for North Sea oil rig support.

Haggerty is currently serving as the Jerome Hunsaker Visiting Professor in the Department of Aeronautics and Astronautics at Massachusetts Institute of Technology (MIT).

The Society of Automotive Engineers honored Haggerty with its 1998 Clarence "Kelley" Johnson Aerospace Design and Development Award, and Aviation Week & Space Technology presented him with its 2000 Laurels Award for Outstanding Contributions to Aeronautics and Propulsion.

He participates on the Board of Counselors to the School of Engineering, University of Southern California; the Engineering Advisory Board of Embry-Riddle Aeronautical University; the Advisory Board of the School of Engineering, University of Missouri-Rolla; and the Chancellor's Advisory Board, University of Missouri-St. Louis.

Previously, he was a member of the Executive Board of the U.S. Air Force/MIT Lean Aerospace Initiative, a Fellow of the Institute for the Advancement of Engineering, a senior member of the Society of Manufacturing Engineers, and a member of the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics.

Haggerty holds a bachelor's degree in aeronautical engineering from Princeton University and a master's degree in management from Rensselaer Polytechnic Institute. He also is a graduate of the Harvard Graduate School of Business Program for Management Development.

Embry-Riddle, the world's largest, fully accredited university specializing in aviation and aerospace, meets the needs of students and industry through its educational, training, research, and consulting activities. Embry-Riddle educates 24,000 students annually through the master's level at residential campuses in Prescott, Ariz., and Daytona Beach, Fla., at more than 150 teaching centers in the United States and Europe, and through distance learning.