March 12, 2026
Jim Young, Boeing executive program director and advanced defense and national security systems portfolio leader, received the Missouri Honor Award for Distinguished Service.
The Mizzou College of Engineering bestowed its highest honor, the Missouri Honor Award for Distinguished Service, on Jim Young, BS CE ’89, at the college’s annual awards banquet March 12.
Young addressed the students at the banquet.
“As you’re going through your Mizzou career and you get different experiences, you may not know where you’ll end up. But just take in all the experiences you have and then see where your career goes,” he said. “It’s really endless when you have a good, solid engineering program.”
Young is currently executive program director and portfolio leader in the development of advanced defense and national security systems at Boeing. Over the course of his career, he has served on technical engineering teams, in managerial roles for large-scale programs, and in international business development.
As Boeing’s university relations executive for Mizzou, Young partnered with his alma mater to reinvigorate the portfolio of Boeing capstone projects. Boeing capstones reflect a vision for expanding opportunities for Mizzou engineering graduates and aligning long-term priorities for research and development.
“We currently at Boeing have over 500 Mizzou graduates across all the disciplines working around the world,” Young said. “I look forward to more Mizzou engineers joining Boeing and becoming innovators and growing in their STEM careers.”