Otis Elevator Company's Isabel Hovey Named to Academy of Women Leaders

FARMINGTON, Conn. (Map) - FARMINGTON, Conn., Nov. 19 /PRNewswire/ -- The YWCA of the City of New York has inducted Isabel Hovey of the Otis Elevator Company into the Academy of Women Leaders. Hovey is director of worldwide engineering product quality for Otis, a unit of United Technologies Corp. (NYSE: UTX).

(Photo: http://www.newscom.com/cgi-bin/prnh/20081119/NE47099 )

Hovey joins more than 3,000 women inducted by the YWCA since 1974 for their outstanding professional achievement, civic commitment and demonstrated leadership. She was honored at the YWCA's Salute to Women Leaders Lunch at The New York Sheraton hotel in New York City on November 17.

"Isabel's induction into the Academy of Women Leaders is a tribute to her professional achievements and contributions, which include her leadership in the development of Otis' new products while consistently ensuring our high-quality standards," said Otis President Didier Michaud-Daniel.

Hovey has worked for Otis since 1979. She began her career with Otis as an associate engineer in Farmington, Conn., and has held positions of increasing responsibility, including software engineer for elevator control systems development, field engineering, and manager for motion control systems. Isabel has also led worldwide software quality assurance initiatives and was a manager for software engineering. She also served as director of Otis' worldwide Engineering Center in Farmington, Connecticut, maintaining responsibility for the center's daily operations, and was named to her current position in 2005. She is responsible for Otis Engineering's Achieving Competitive Excellence (ACE) program, which is UTC's proprietary operating system that ensures world-class quality in products and processes. Isabel is also an avid supporter of the Otis Hispanic Leadership Forum and is a mentor to Latino and female engineers throughout the Otis organization.

Hovey holds a bachelor's degree in computer and systems engineering from the Universidad de los Andes in Bogota, Colombia. She is a graduate of Otis University, Otis' global management development curriculum, and holds several patents.

"I am honored to be inducted into the YWCA's Academy of Women Leaders, and join this accomplished group of women executives and professionals," Hovey said. "I thank UTC and Otis for the many challenging career opportunities I've had over the past 29 years."

Otis Elevator Company is the world's largest manufacturer and maintainer of people-moving products including elevators, escalators and moving walkways. With headquarters in Farmington, Connecticut, Otis employs 63,000 people, offers products and services in more than 200 countries and territories and maintains 1.6 million elevators and escalators worldwide. United Technologies Corp., based in Hartford, Connecticut, is a diversified company providing high technology products and services to the building and aerospace industries.