Charles Toups
Vice President
Engineering & Mission Assurance
Integrated Defense Systems
Charles Toups is vice president, Engineering & Mission Assurance for Boeing Integrated Defense Systems. Appointed to the position in February 2008, Toups has functional management responsibility for the IDS engineering processes, engineering tools, and the approximately 30,000-person engineering team. He is responsible for ensuring world-class technical integrity for Integrated Defense Systems products and services that exceed customers' expectations.
Most recently, Toups served as vice president of Navigation & Communication Systems for Boeing's Space and Intelligence Systems division, the company's center for all intelligence programs and government/commercial satellite programs. In this position, Toups oversees various government satellite programs, including the Wideband Gapfiller Satellite (WGS) system, Transformational SATCOM Space Segment (TSAT), GPS IIF satellite system, the Modular Communications Programs (MCP), and Systems Technology Laboratories (STL). He also oversees Boeing's work on the Mobile User Objective System, or MUOS. He was appointed to this position in August 2006.
Prior to this role, Toups was responsible for the development and deployment of the engineering workforce and for improving and standardizing engineering processes and tools, while ensuring the highest technical integrity of all S&IS products and services. Toups managed Boeing's El Segundo facility, the location of Boeing's Satellite Development Center, the world's largest satellite factory. He also led the implementation of Lean initiatives across S&IS to deliver best-in-class quality, cost and schedule performance for both government and commercial programs.
Toups joined the company in 1982. Before accepting his latest position, he was vice president of Engineering and Operations at Boeing Satellite Systems (BSS). Prior to that, he was vice president of Programs at BSS with responsibility for profit and loss on all Commercial Programs and Department of Defense-Civil Government Programs. He was also responsible for formulating and executing market segment marketing and sales activities, building on experience gained earlier in his career as director of all BSS commercial marketing for customers in Asia, Europe and North America and as campaign manager for the government Modular Communications Program (MCP).
Toups also previously served as general manager of the Electron Dynamic Devices (EDD) subsidiary and drove its successful performance as the industry's leading supplier of high power amplifiers for space, military and terrestrial applications as well as power electronics, electric propulsion, and passive microwave devices for space systems.
He additionally directed the groundbreaking Spaceway program at Boeing and led the critical early development of the space segment of this global broadband satellite network project, including launch services and associated systems engineering.
Earlier in his career, Toups held a variety of senior engineering and management positions where he was responsible for company performance on major government space and ground communications programs. He headed the MCP Program during its procurement, development and production phases and it was awarded the David Packard Award, which is the Department of Defense's highest award for acquisition, and the NRO Gold Medal of Distinguished Performance.
Toups earned a Bachelor of Science degree in engineering from the University of California at Irvine in 1980 and a Master of Science degree in mechanical engineering from Massachusetts Institute of Technology, Cambridge, in 1982. In 1997 he completed a Sloan Fellowship and earned a master of business management degree from Stanford Graduate School of Business in Palo Alto, Calif.