Lucent Names Boeing Exec as CFO

Lucent Technologies Inc. named Boeing Co.’s Deborah Hopkins as chief financial officer, filling a hole at the phone equipment maker and leaving an even bigger one at Boeing.

During 16 months as CFO at Boeing, Hopkins, 45, helped lead the aircraft maker’s turnaround from a period of operational turmoil and management upheaval. She will succeed Lucent’s Donald Peterson, who stepped down to run a spinoff from the Murray Hill, N.J.-based company.

Hopkins impressed Boeing’s investors by demanding operating improvements on its shop floors and setting clear profit targets after the Seattle-based company had repeatedly missed forecasts. Lucent is trying to restore shareholder confidence after fiscal first-quarter profit unexpectedly fell 23%.

Boeing treasurer Walt Skowronski will be acting CFO until a replacement is named, spokesman Larry McCracken said. No timetable has been set for the search.

Hopkins said she wanted to return to the information-technology industry, where she spent 13 years as an executive of Unisys Corp. during the 1980s and 1990s. Her appointment at Lucent is effective immediately.

“The primary consideration was the exciting growth opportunity in the communications industry, and really seeing the potential that Lucent has to be part of that,” she said.

After ranking as the worst performer in the Dow Jones industrial average in 1998, Boeing’s shares rose 27% last year. That was better than any of the seven other companies in the Standard & Poor’s aerospace and defense index.

Hopkins developed what she called the “value scorecard,” a quarterly measure released publicly that tracks Boeing’s cuts in overhead, factory space and the supplier base. She also led the company’s push to establish itself in markets beyond aircraft manufacturing, building an Internet trading exchange and managing an aircraft-leasing business.

On the New York Stock Exchange, Boeing shares fell $2.19 to close at $37.88, and Lucent shares fell $3.06 to close at $60.94.