Please join the Engineering Character Strength Initiative for its next Moments of Strength Speaker Series event with former astronaut and high-hazard operations leader Jim Wetherbee.
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The Engineering Character Strength Initiative welcomes Jim Wetherbee to its April Moments of Strength Speaker Series event.
With thirty-five years of experience in high-hazard operational environments, Jim is passionate about helping leaders and operators in dangerous endeavors with critical mission objectives. He is the only U.S. astronaut to have commanded five missions in space and to have landed the Space Shuttle five times.
Jim began his career as a Naval Aviator aboard the USS John F Kennedy, flying the A-7 Corsair. In his second tour, he was a test pilot in the F/A-18 Hornet.
In 1984, Jim was selected to join NASA in its tenth group of astronauts. Over his twenty-year career, he flew six times on the Space Shuttle. The five-time commander flew two missions to the Russian Space Station, Mir, and two missions to the International Space Station. In 1998, he was appointed as Director, Flight Crew Operations, specifically selected to improve the flight and ground safety in the astronaut corps. For five years, he was Deputy Director, Johnson Space Center, NASA’s center for human space flight. After the Space Shuttle Columbia accident in 2003, Jim was the operational search director, responsible for finding the Human Remains of the flight crew.
Bringing his experience from the aerospace industry as a former NASA executive and astronaut, Jim joined the oil and gas industry as a Safety and Operations Auditor for BP, America. In 2010, he was a member of the investigation team for the Deepwater Horizon accident and was the technical editor for their report. As VP, Operating Leadership, Jim helped to improve operating results consistently over the long-term, by emphasizing effective leadership behaviors to inspire people to perform with operating excellence.
Jim is the author of Controlling Risk—In a Dangerous World. Currently, he operates Jim Wetherbee LLC while advising, and learning from, companies involved in hazardous operations.