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Boeing has been making lots of news lately around quality control issues. This all began with Alaska Airlines flight AS1282 where a body panel blew off of a Boeing 737 MAX 9 aircraft shortly after it departed Portland International Airport (PDX). After the January 5th incident, this aircraft type was grounded and both Alaska and United found loose bolts on other planes of the same type in their fleets. In light of all of this, Boeing is making some management changes.
Several executives and board members are stepping down or retiring. These include:
- David Calhoun, CEO, will leave Boeing at the end of 2024.
- Stan Deal, President and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, will retire effective immediately and be succeeded by Stephanie Pope (she is the current COO).
- Larry Kellner, Boeing’s Board Chair, will not run for reelection at the annual shareholder meeting (Kellner was the former CEO of Continental Airlines). He will be replaced by Steve Mollenkopf (he has been on the board since 2020 and is the former CEO of Qualcomm).
Calhoun released a letter to employees. It reads:
It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve Boeing. The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company. We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do.”
Mollenkopf also commented on his new role:
I am honored and humbled to step into this new role. I am fully confident in this company and its leadership – and together we are committed to taking the right actions to strengthen safety and quality, and to meet the needs of our customers. I also want to thank both Larry and Dave for their exceptional stewardship of Boeing during a challenging and consequential time for Boeing and the aerospace industry.”
Finally, Larry Kellner, said this about his departure after 13 years on the board:
Boeing plays an essential role in our world, and serving this company, and our people, has been a true honor. After over a decade on the board and several years as its chair, I have been considering the right time for a transition of leadership on our board, and have been discussing that subject with Dave and the board in conjunction with Dave’s own planning about his succession timeframe. I want to thank Dave for his tremendous leadership of our company, and I know he will finish the job this year that he started in 2020 to position Boeing, and our employees, for a stronger future. With Dave’s decision to step down as CEO at the end of this year, now is the right time for a transition to my successor. Steve is the ideal next leader to take on the role of board chair, and it is important that the CEO selection process be led by a new chair who will stay at the helm as a partner to the new CEO. With a strong board, an excellent management team and 170,000 dedicated Boeing employees, I am fully confident in our company’s future.”
Calls for a leadership change have been mounting since the January incident and subsequent findings. Since 2019, when the 737 MAX faced global grounding after two tragic crashes killed more than 346 people, Boeing has been criticized for an eroded engineering and safety-based culture. With new management a focus on safety will hopefully return as it envisions what the future holds.
Anthony’s Take: Something clearly needed to be done and Boeing made some big changes to its leadership today. This will hopefully drive change throughout the organization and return Boeing to its place of respect instead of fear and ridicule.
(Image Credits: Boeing.)
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