Veteran Boeing executive Virginia A. "Ginger" Barnes has been named to replace Richard O. Covey as President and Chief Executive Officer of United Space Alliance (USA), effective immediately. Covey retired from USA last month.

"Virginia Barnes is an exceedingly talented leader and executive," said Dan Brandenstein, USA's Executive Vice President and Chief Operating Officer. "Her unique and wide-ranging combination of aerospace and defense industry experience makes her an excellent choice to lead the United Space Alliance team as we complete the Space Shuttle program and transition to the next phase of operations."

Barnes, who is the first woman to serve as USA's President and CEO, joins USA from The Boeing Company where she has worked on a variety of programs, a diverse set of customers and in a vast number of roles. Her experience includes Simulation and Training, the International Space Station, fighter and support programs, defense modernization and Weapons. Customers included all defense services, NASA and many international agencies.

Barnes has almost 29 years of experience within The Boeing Company. Most recently, Barnes served as the Vice President, Chief Operating Officer and Deputy Program Manager, overseeing the programmatic and financial aspects of the Army's modernization efforts. From 2006 to 2008, she served as the Vice President of Weapons Programs and St. Charles Site Leader.

In that role, she led the integration of Direct Attack programs (JDAM, Small Diameter Bomb) with Surface Warfare (Harpoon, SLAM-ER) missiles.

She served as Vice President of Naval Support Systems from 2004 to 2006, where she was responsible for all sustainment solutions for the Navy and Marine Corps customers. Barnes developed a customer-facing organization consolidating all logistics functions and programs to include performance-based logistics programs, depot partnering and field service representation.

Preceding that position, Barnes was the Director for Business Management of the F/A-18 Program where her responsibilities included providing a focal point for all services related to Business Management for the F/A-18 Program.

She also has served as Boeing's Director of Contracts and Pricing in Aerospace Support, the International Integration/FGB Program Manager for International Space Station, the FGB (now known as the ISS' "Zarya" module) program manager, Chief of Staff for Boeing's ISS Office, and Director of Business Operations for ISS.

Barnes joined The Boeing Company in 1981 as a financial cost analyst after graduating with high honors in accounting from The University of Alabama in Huntsville, Ala. In 1991, she earned her master's in business from the Owen Graduate School of Management at Vanderbilt University in Nashville, Tenn. She is a commercial pilot, instructor and has served as FAA-designated examiner for hot air balloons.