XeleratedFifty today announced that Ted Colbert, former chief executive officer of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, has joined the firm as Senior Partner.
According to the press release, Colbert will work directly with founders across XeleratedFifty's portfolio and network, mentoring entrepreneurs, helping shape the firm's innovation programs, and connecting emerging companies with the customers, partners, and funding pathways they need to scale.
Colbert will be at the Farnborough International Airshow throughout the week, where XeleratedFifty is exhibiting in the Enterprise Gateway Zone.
Nichola Quinn, founder and CEO of XeleratedFifty, said she was proud and excited to welcome someone of Ted's caliber to the team.
He has led at the very top of this industry, and he has chosen to spend the next chapter of his career backing founders.
Where the future of defense is being built.
XeleratedFifty launched as an independent company less than a year ago and has moved quickly to build out its platform: acquiring Terrascope, a carbon management and sustainability platform; forming a strategic partnership with Future AeroLab to accelerate aviation innovation; and announcing a strategic partnership with CPI to scale breakthrough UK deep tech onto the global stage.
In a 15-year career at Boeing, Colbert served as chief information officer, president and CEO of Boeing Global Services, and president and CEO of Boeing Defense, Space & Security.
A member of the U.S. National Academy of Engineering and former board chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, he brings extensive expertise in data, technology and digital transformation, and a deep understanding of how complex organizations adopt new capabilities at scale.
Colbert said the technologies that will keep nations secure are being built by startups today. Those founders need mentors, customers and capital who understand what they are trying to build.
He added that at this stage in his career, nothing energizes him more than helping them succeed.
Throughout Colbert’s career, he has championed founders and engineers who too often go overlooked by traditional defense funding pathways.
He and XeleratedFifty share the view that an ecosystem drawing on the widest pool of talent, across gender, ethnicity and geography, is simply better placed to find the best ideas – and in a world changing this fast, that breadth is a strategic advantage.
Colbert won the top award at the 36th annual BEYA STEM Conference in 2022.