MEET THE 2020 SAE Prez

Veteran Boeing engineer Todd Zarfos brings an open-minded focus to the SAE presidency.

“Thrust” is a term that Todd Zarfos uses to describe moving forward, and that's not surprising since the 2020 SAE International president built his 35-year engineering career at Boeing. He's served as VP of Engineering for the 747, 767, and 777 programs-iconic commercial aircraft that have carried many of the world's ground-vehicle engineers in their travels. He also was VP of Product Development. Zarfos is the first aerospace-sector executive in quite a while to be selected for the year-long SAE presidency, and he brings a decidedly non-parochial and open-minded focus to this important role.

“I think there's so much commonality in terms of what engineers are trying to achieve that, to me, the sector is not what's important,” Zarfos told SAE Update editor Pat Ponticel during his inaugural interview at SAE world headquarters in suburban Pittsburgh. “It's about what we are trying to do together to advance the mobility space.”