Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down; board chair and commercial airplane head replaced in wake of 737 Max crisis

[BumRushDaShow]

Source: CNBC

Published Mon, Mar 25 2024 8:00 AM EDT Updated 4 Min Ago


Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of 2024 in part of a broad management shakeup for the embattled aerospace giant.

Chairman of the board Larry Kellner is also resigning and will leave the board at Boeing’s annual meeting in May. He has been replaced as chair by Steve Mollenkopf, who has been a Boeing director since 2020.

And Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is leaving the company effective immediately. Moving into his job is Stephanie Pope, who recently became Boeing’s Chief Operating Officer after previously running Boeing Global Services.

The departures come as airlines and regulators have been increasing calls for major changes at the company after a host of quality and manufacturing flaws on Boeing planes. Scrutiny intensified after a Jan. 5 accident, when a door plug blew out of a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9, minutes into an Alaska Airlines flight.

Read more: https://www.cnbc.com/2024/03/25/boeing-ceo-board-chair-commercial-head-out-737-max-crisis.html

[Stargazer99]

1. Capitalism is a failure yet the business community keeps praising it while it kills and mains people

Is not that the definition of stupid? Or I forgot business allows you to become rich

[SpankMe]

2. "[former] Qualcomm CEO Steve Mollenkopf will succeed Kellner"

So, they're taking a non-pilot, non-engineer with a background in accounting, finance and asset management and replacing him with a non-pilot electrical engineer whose career has been mostly in management and whose experience is running a chip and consumer electronics company.

I'm not saying the Boeing *has* to be led by an aircraft engineer/pilot to be successful, and I know that a pure engineer in general lacks certain business knowledge that would be required to be the CEO of an aircraft manufacturer.

But, companies the size, scope and breadth of Boeing have to have internal development processes that facilitate paths to leadership by taking long-term, career-track engineers and diversifying their experience portfolios to include business, marketing and economic competence.

These "business-augmented" engineering leaders would exist throughout the company in various management positions such that when a CEO leaves, there are perhaps dozens of internal candidates to chose from who could be transitioned to the CEO position without the company having to go outside to recruit CEO leadership from non-germane backgrounds.

At a minimum, Boeing's CEO should be required to have done a few years on the shop floor as a rank and file production technical team member - be it engineer, mechanic or pilot - even if that experience was 20 years prior.

It is certainly possible that an outside person who is extraordinarily innovative and with an enlightened flair for learning and an ability to adapt to new paradigms could be a good CEO for Boeing. But an internal farm system for top level leaders would be better.

Changing out Kellner with Mollenkopf will do nothing to change Boeing's fortunes.

[dlk]

4. The definition of insanity...

If nothing changes, nothing changes. Cosmetic musical chairs won't improve the abysmal quality control at Boeing.

[Johnny2X2X]

9. You've got it wrong

Mollenkopf will not succeed him as CEO, he's leading the board in picming the next CEO.

[SpankMe]

10. Yep. I brain-farted

I misread the sentence in the article. It said Mollenkopf will succeed Larry Kellner as chair of the board, not CEO.

So, you can delete the stuff about Mollenkopf's suitability as CEO. But, my larger point still stands about an accounting guy with little direct background in aerospace manufacturing being CEO of a company like Boeing. I maintain my position that a company of this size should always have a line of CEO's-in-waiting throughout the organization unless a true superhero of charisma and talent from outside is truly needed to transform the company.

Thanks for the correction. I just got mad and started typing.

[RubyRose]

3. I'm sure he'll still be compensated handsomely. 😡

[RobinA]

5. So, Do Any Of These People

know anything about aircraft? No? Quell surprise.

[Yo_Mama_Been_Loggin]

6. Wonder how big a golden parachute he's going to get?

These CEO's get quite a compensation for fucking up.

[ArkansasDemocrat1]

7. Boeing rearranges the deck chairs as the ship sinks lower and lower.

[Paladin]

8. Be sure to watch John Oliver's show this week on HBO.

He rips Boeing a new asshole.

[maxsolomon]

11. Someone had to go.

I wonder if this will be the end of it. Probably not.

I know they're planning to pull Spirit (fuselage subcontractor) back into the mothership.