Boeing announced sweeping changes to its leadership, including its chief executive officer, after a
safety crisis
spiralled in recent months.
CEO
Dave Calhoun
will exit at the end of 2024, while chairman
Larry Kellner
will not stand for re-election, Boeing said in a statement Monday. Stan Deal, who leads Boeing’s commercial airplanes division, will also retire immediately.
COO Stephanie Pope will take on Deal’s role, the company said.
The
overhaul
reflects growing customer frustration with Calhoun and Deal as the crisis centering on the planemaker’s manufacturing quality and safety shows no signs of receding. Kellner, Calhoun and Deal mark the highest-profile departures after a near-catastrophic incident in January involving its 737 Max jetliner plunged Boeing into an ever-deepening turmoil.
Suspicion over whether Calhoun and Deal would keep their jobs started bubbling up after the Alaska Airlines incident, but questions over their leadership reached a crescendo last week when CEOs of major airlines sought to bypass Calhoun and meet with the board of directors directly.
“This is probably a wise move by the Boeing board of directors,” Robert Stallard, an analyst with Vertical Research Partners, told clients Monday. “Many of Boeing’s customers, suppliers and other stakeholders have arguably lost faith in the company, while its relations with the FAA and NTSB are clearly strained.”
A sweeping audit of Boeing and its suppliers by the US Federal Aviation Administration raised concerns about the company’s safety culture, the agency’s top official said last week. Boeing’s stock has tumbled 28% this year through March 22, the worst performer in the Dow Jones index.
Calhoun, a long-time Boeing director and veteran of General Electric and Blackstone Group, stepped into the top role in early 2020 as the planemaker was reeling from a global grounding of the 737 Max following two crashes.