[SatNews] Boeing Executive Vice President, Corporate President and Chief Financial Officer James Bell has announced plans...

Mr. Bell plans to retire from the company, effective April 1, 2012. Greg Smith, 45, corporate controller and finance vice president, has been elected by Boeing's board of directors to succeed Bell as executive vice president and chief financial officer effective Feb. 1, 2012; the two will work together over the coming months to ensure a smooth transition. Diana Sands, 46, vice president of investor relations and financial planning and analysis, has been appointed corporate controller, also effective Feb. 1, 2012. Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Jim McNerney said Bell will leave a legacy of leadership in a career marked by exemplary personal and professional accomplishment. Bell, 63, has served as CFO since 2003 and was appointed corporate president in 2008. He served as the company's interim CEO for several months in 2005, immediately preceding McNerney. Smith has more than two decades of aerospace industry experience. Prior to being named corporate controller in February 2010, he led the company's financial planning and analysis and internal audit groups; served as controller of the Boeing Shared Services Group; and held various leadership and operational roles in supplier management, factory operations and program management. He led investor relations for Raytheon from 2004 to 2008. Bell joined the company in 1972, at what was then Rockwell International, as a staff accountant; Boeing acquired Rockwell's aerospace business in 1996. His career spans a wide spectrum of assignments and roles across Boeing.