Ellen Oberlechner
Ellen is an OSU legacy of her father (John March – B.S. Accounting, 1962). She earned a Bachelor of Science in Industrial Engineering & Management from Oklahoma State University (1989) and a Master of Science in Business Administration from Wichita State University (1996).
She began her career at Boeing Commercial Aircraft in Wichita, KS, in 1989, as a Methods Engineer supporting the Quality and Transportation organizations. Work at Boeing allowed her to expand into all facets of the build for composite structure and assembly, including Process Engineering, Methods Engineering, Tool Coordination, Shop Floor Manufacturing Research & Development, Parts Control Areas (PCA), NC programming and Manufacturing Engineering. This role was expanded in 2005, during the transition to Spirit AeroSystems, to include all fabrication support organizations including Capacity Planning, Hardware Variability Control (HVC) and Ergonomics support. She has supported multiple Boeing lines focusing in the propulsion area for 737, 747, 777 and 787 programs.
In 2006, Ellen transitioned to be the 747-8 Nacelle Define manager. In this role, she was responsible for the Design Engineering, Assembly Manufacturing Engineering, and Tool Design Engineering team for the Boeing 747-8 Inlet, Fan Cowl, and Primary Exhaust including flight test instrumentation. During this program, the team implemented new composite technologies & products within the design. In 2009, Ellen became the Define manager for the Bombardier CSeries pylon program. This program again implemented new composite applications into the design.
Ellen moved to work at Bombardier, Learjet in 2013. In that role, she was responsible for the Learjet 85 Nose and Forward Fuselage design engineering team. The program was halted in 2015 so she returned to Spirit AeroSystems to support Supply Chain Transfer of Work activities.
For the past seven years, Ellen has led the Operations Engineering team for multiple Spirit Defense Classified Programs. Work on the Defense programs has involved the stand up of secure facilities and programs in support of primarily composite fabrication and assembly areas for Defense production lines.
Ellen met her husband of over 30 years, John Oberlechner, at Boeing (now Spirit AeroSystems). They have 4 children. Jake, a construction project manager with McGown-Gordon; Erica, a nurse practitioner in Seneca, KS; Elise, a Neonatal ICU nurse in Columbia, MO and Jared, a student at OSU in the Sports Media program. Ellen and John have 4 grandsons, Owen, Brody, Tucker and Wade. Ellen enjoys spending time with her family at the lake, skiing and attending concerts and sporting events.