Apparently, he's known for being a problem-solver, and cleaner up of fuck-ups.
2008 LA Times article:
Boeing uses him as its heavy hitter
As it's done with other troubled programs, the company is relying on Patrick Shanahan to get the 787 back on track.
http://articles.latimes.com/2008/feb/24/business/fi-sunprofile24
FTA:
With little attention and few accolades, Patrick Shanahan has quietly turned around some of Boeing Co.'s most-troubled and complex programs.
His last rescue was a multibillion-dollar missile defense system that couldn't shoot straight.
Known inside Boeing as "Mr. Fix-It," Shanahan is now facing his most daunting challenge – under glaring public spotlight no less – as he attempts to get the development of the highly touted 787 Dreamliner passenger jet back on track.
The stakes are huge, not only for Chicago-based Boeing, which has already taken orders for nearly 860 Dreamliners valued at more than $110 billion, but also for Shanahan. If successful, he could become a front-runner for the top spot at the world's largest aerospace company.
"He's got quite a mess to clean up," said Scott Hamilton, an aviation consultant in Issaquah, Wash. "He has an enormous task ahead of him, but if he can do it, he'll certainly earn more than brownie points."
Shanahan, 45, is not a high-profile or celebrated newsmaker in Seattle or in the aerospace community. A career engineer at Boeing (except for two years at MIT), he is said to be just as comfortable donning work overalls as he is wearing pinstriped suits, seamlessly moving between the factory floor and the company's mahogany-paneled boardroom.
Since taking the helm of the 787 program, Shanahan has declined media interviews so that he can focus instead on solving the problem at hand, Boeing executives said.
. . .
"He reads things very quickly and can make decisions just as quickly," said longtime acquaintance Ricki Ellison, a former USC and NFL football player who now heads the Missile Defense Advocacy Alliance lobby group in Washington. "He's also straight to the point. There is no BS."
Last fall, production snags led Boeing to oust Mike Blair, who had spearheaded the Dreamliner program from its conception to development.
With Shanahan, Boeing said it was putting in place an executive with experience in running "technically demanding and complex programs."
Indeed. His resume could easily be mistaken for Boeing's clean-up list.
Before the 787 program, Shanahan ran Boeing's missile defense systems business, where he helped fix technical glitches that had led to failures of two high-profile missile defense tests.
. . .
Shanahan began his career at Boeing in 1986 as an engineer shortly after graduating from the University of Washington with a bachelor's degree in mechanical engineering.
He quickly rose through the ranks and held diverse management jobs, including heading the automation of the factory floor for commercial aircraft manufacturing, before becoming the general manager for aircraft tooling.
In the late 1980s, he took a break from Boeing to earn two master's degrees simultaneously, one in mechanical engineering and another in management at the Massachusetts Institute of Technology.
MOAR at link.