Boeing CEO to step down at end of year in overhaul sparked by safety crisis

Boeing chairman Larry Kellner will not stand for re-election and Stan Deal, who leads Boeing’s commercial aeroplanes division, will retire immediately

Changes come amid growing customer frustration as a crisis of the company’s manufacturing quality and safety shows no signs of receding

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Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun speaks to reporters as he departs from a meeting on Capitol Hill. Calhoun will leave the company at the end of this year. Photo: TNS

Published: 11:05pm, 25 Mar 2024

Boeing has announced sweeping changes to its management, with its chief executive officer, head of commercial aeroplanes and chairman all stepping down as the company grapples with a crisis centred on its most important product, the 737 Max jetliner.

Dave Calhoun, the company’s CEO will leave the company at the end of this year, while chairman Larry Kellner will not stand for re-election, Boeing said in a statement on Monday. Stan Deal, who leads Boeing’s commercial aeroplanes division, will also retire immediately. Chief operating officer Stephanie Pope will take on Deal’s role, the company said.

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. He is ending a four-year stint as CEO dealing with the fallout from another near-catastrophe with the same model.

A section of the Boeing 737-9 Max that lost a panel in flight, in Portland, Oregon. Photo: AP

“I have been considering for some time, in discussion with our board of directors, the right time for a CEO transition at Boeing,” Calhoun said in a message to employees. “The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years.”

The changes come amid growing customer frustration with Calhoun and Deal as a crisis centring 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 mid-air incident in January involving its 737 Max jetliner plunged it into an ever-deepening crisis.

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 chief executives of major airlines sought to bypass Calhoun and meet with the board of directors directly.

“While someone losing their job is rarely something to celebrate, we think that this is probably a wise move by the Boeing board of directors,” Robert Stallard, an analyst with Vertical Research Partners, said on 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.”