Boeing executive D. Christopher Raymond, Central Intelligence Agency (CIA) official Richard L. Hoch, and small engineering and composites company owner David A. Shaw are Aerospace Engineering at Illinois’ 2015 alumni award winners.

D. Christopher Raymond, AE Distinguished Alumnus Award
Raymond, BS 1986, is Vice President of Business Development & Strategy for Boeing Defense, Space & Security. The 53,000-employee business is a broad-spectrum security provider for U.S. and international customers.

Within BDS, Raymond reports to the Chief Executive Officer and leads a team focused on listening to and serving customers’ needs. His organization advocates customer views, helps develop and resource customer solutions, leads business capture efforts, drives strategic planning, and supports merger and acquisition work. The group also has responsibility for international defense-related sales activity and alliance work.

Prior to his current position, Raymond was a vice president in the company’s Air Force Systems group. Before joining Business Development, he held leadership assignments in Engineering, Supply Chain Management, Program Management and Operations. He joined the company in 1986 as an engineer at its Long Beach, California, operation.

Raymond serves on the board for the Center for New American Security, as well as the National Defense Industrial Association. He also is an advisory board member of Defense Acquisition University. He chairs the BDS Senior Advisory Group and supports Boeing’s business alliance with Cisco Systems.

He is a member of the Air Force Association, the Airlift Tanker Association, the Navy League, and the Association of the U.S. Army; an associate fellow in the American Institute of Aeronautics and Astronautics; and a fellow in the Royal Aeronautical Society.

In addition to his AE degree, Raymond is a Defense Acquisition University graduate, and holds a contract management certificate and a master’s degree in business administration from the University of California-Irvine.

Richard W. Hoch, AE Distinguished Alumnus Award
Hoch, BS 1984, is the Director of the CIA’s Directorate of Intelligence (DI). He leads the CIA’s analytical branch, which is responsible for the production and dissemination of all intelligence analysis on key foreign issues, as well as the professional development of its analysts in the United States and abroad.

Hoch joined the CIA in 1991. His previous DI leadership positions have included the Deputy Director of the Directorate of Intelligence, Director of the Office of South Asia Analysis, Deputy Director of the Office of Terrorism Analysis, and Director of the Office of Transnational Issues in CIA’s Counterterrorism Center.

Hoch has received several awards during his CIA career, including the Director’s Award presented by CIA Director Leon Panetta, and the George H.W. Bush Award presented by the CIA’s Counterterrorism Center.

Prior to his CIA service, Hoch worked as an aerospace engineer for Douglas Aircraft Company in Long Beach, California. In that position, he worked on transonic wing designs, and for the Naval Research Lab in Washington D.C., where he evaluated the flight characteristics of unmanned aerial vehicles.

Hoch was a Bronze Tablet recipient upon graduating from Illinois. He also earned a Master’s in Aerospace Engineering from the University of Southern California.

David A. Shaw, Outstanding Recent Alumnus Award
Shaw, BS 1996, is owner of Flying-S Inc., a small engineering and composites company located in Palestine, IL.

Upon graduating from AE, Shaw gained valuable work experience at Cessna and Scaled Composites.

In 2001, after moving back to their family farm in southeastern Illinois, Shaw and his wife, Penny, started Flying-S. What began as an engineering consultancy business soon turned into a company with the ability to design and fabricate projects across the aerospace industry. Flying-S has worked on general aviation, UAV and space projects for companies like Cessna, Warrior Aero-Marine, Aurora Flight Sciences and NASA.

Shaw’s education is complimented by his holding a commercial, multi-engine pilot rating. He is also a flight instructor and private glider pilot.