Ex-Boeing Defense CEO Ted Colbert Joins XeleratedFifty

Theodore "Ted" Colbert III, the former chief executive of Boeing Defense, Space & Security, has joined XeleratedFifty as a senior partner, the deep-tech innovation firm announced this week at the Farnborough International Airshow.

The appointment brings one of the aerospace industry's most prominent recent executives to a young, Singapore-based company that positions itself as a bridge between early-stage technology startups and the governments and corporations seeking to deploy their work at scale. XeleratedFifty said Colbert would help guide its push into national resilience and deep-tech commercialization.

Colbert spent roughly 15 years at Boeing, where he rose to become chief information officer before leading Boeing Global Services and, from March 2022, the company's sprawling defense and space division. He departed that role in September 2024 amid a broader management shake-up at the manufacturer, according to contemporaneous reporting. A member of the National Academy of Engineering and a former board chairman of the Aerospace Industries Association, Colbert also holds engineering degrees from Morehouse College and the Georgia Institute of Technology.

A Bet on Startups

XeleratedFifty describes its mission as accelerating solutions that modernize heavy industries such as aerospace, shipping and energy by connecting founders with investors, established companies and public-sector buyers. The firm grew out of Aerospace Xelerated, an accelerator program originally backed by Boeing, and now operates independently as part of a wider collection of sustainability-focused ventures known as The Fifty Group.

"The technologies that will keep nations secure tomorrow are being built by startups today," Colbert said in a statement announcing the move.

The company has been visible at Farnborough, one of the aerospace sector's largest gatherings, where it outlined a strategy aimed at strengthening national resilience through emerging technology. XeleratedFifty has also pointed to recent activity that includes the acquisition of a carbon-management platform and partnerships intended to help scale deep-tech ventures in the United Kingdom.

New Leadership Chapter

Colbert joins a leadership group led by founder and Chief Executive Nichola Quinn, with Krishnan Narayanan serving as chairman. In welcoming him, Quinn said she was "proud and excited" to add an executive of Colbert's stature to the team, framing the hire as a signal of the firm's ambitions in defense-adjacent and dual-use technologies.

For Colbert, the position marks a shift from running a multibillion-dollar unit inside a legacy manufacturer to advising and shaping earlier-stage companies. His background in data, digital transformation and large-scale program management overlaps with the kind of operational scaling XeleratedFifty says it aims to provide to the startups in its portfolio.

The firm did not disclose financial terms of the appointment or specify how much of Colbert's time the role would require. Additional information on the company is available through its website.