Darlene Druyun was a lifetime government employee, working her way up through the system to a position of Air Force acquisition officer. In the early 1990s, she was mentioned in an inspector general's report for speeding up payments to McDonnell Douglas through the backdating of some records. She was the only one of five defense department employees involved who was not disciplined for her actions. \({ }^{39}\)

Despite this dust-up and investigation, she rose to the position of principal deputy assistant secretary in the U.S. Air Force. Known as the "Dragon Lady," Ms. Druyun had extensive knowledge about Defense Department policies and procedures and defense contractors, and had honed tough negotiating skills. Former Secretary of Defense Donald Rumsfeld said that Ms. Druyun acquired a great deal of authority and made a lot of decisions, and that "there was very little adult supervision." 40 In the last quarter of 2002, Ms. Druyun, nearing her retirement, was interested in job opportunities after leaving government service.

Ms. Druyun's daughter, Heather McKee, was an employee at the St. Louis facilities for Boeing, Inc., a company that does a significant amount of business with the federal government. In court documents, Ms. Druyun indicated that Michael Sears, who was then Boeing's chief financial officer (CFO) and the man considered to be in line to be the next Boeing CEO, helped place her daughter in her job at Boeing. Ms. McKee's husband also worked for Boeing and was hired along with Ms. McKee when he was her fiancé. In September 2002, Ms. McKee sent an e-mail to Mr. Sears to let him know that her mother was planning to retire. Ms. McKee mentioned to Mr. Sears that her mother would probably end up working for Lockheed following her retirement from her government position, but that Ms. Druyun really wanted to work for Boeing.

As a result of this contact, Mr. Sears met with Ms. Druyun in October 2002, which was one month before Ms. Druyun recused herself from working on any contract decisions involving Boeing as a bidder. At the end of the meeting, Ms. Druyun has testified, Mr. Sears said, "This meeting never took place." When he returned to the offices, however, Mr. Sears sent out e-mails indicating that Ms. Druyun was receptive to employment. In a note sent to the chairman's office, Mr. Sears wrote, "Had a 'non-meeting' yesterday. Good reception to job, location, salary................

 Discussion Questions
1. What category of ethical dilemma is involved here?
2. What questions or models did Mr. Sears miss in choosing to recruit Ms. Druyun when he did? What was he hoping would happen? What do you think of his asking Ms. Druyun to cover up their meeting? What should the chairman of the board have done when he received Mr. Sears's e-mail about the "non-meeting"?
3. What were Ms. Druyun's motivations? What questions or models did she miss in making her decision to meet with Mr. Sears?
4. Evaluate the conduct of Ms. Druyun's daughter, Heather.