Mary Ek

Mary Ek is retired from a long career in aerospace leading various program business teams.  It was a great pleasure to lead and mentor talented teams on various programs in support of NASA, the US Air Force, the US Navy, and many others.  The business teams included all manner of financial activities including: contract negotiations, managing financial plans, budgeting, ensuring financial resources were available, and managing the reporting structures to corporate as well as the program management teams.  In addition, Mary was privileged to be the Boeing Financial Planning and Reporting lead for all the Boeing Defense business.  This enlightening role provided valuable experience in corporate reporting and relationships with Wall Street and company leadership.

 

Following retirement from The Boeing Co., Mary began a new career in higher education as the Controller for the California State University system.  This team was responsible for reporting and analysis for all 23 CSU campuses and 90 component units.  Also included was leadership of the investment committee of the CSU 403(b) and 457 employee plans.  A mindset of continuous improvement and cost control measures led this team to implement a Financial Services balanced scorecard and implementation of new software for monthly and annual reporting among other improvements.  

 

Following her CSU retirement, Mary was persuaded to take over the Controller position at UC Irvine to drive improvements in Financial Services for the campus and leave a long-term leader ready to take the helm.  After a short time as a consultant for The Smithsonian Institute, Mary is now retired and enjoying quality family time. 

 

Mary’s undergraduate degree in Business is from CSULB and MBA from UC Irvine