An aerial photo shows a Boeing 737 Max aircraft parked on the tarmac at the Boeing factory in Renton, Washington, on March 21, 2019.
Lindsay Watson | Reuters
Boeing needs help.
Chief Executive Dave Calhoun announced on Monday that he will step down from the aerospace giant’s top job at the end of the year as it grapples with a safety and production quality crisis related to its best-selling plane, the 737 Max. boeing company Said it would begin a search for Calhoun’s successor.
Boeing also announced on Monday that it would replace Chairman Larry Kellner and CEO of its most important commercial airplanes unit, Stan Deal.
Calhoun told CNBC on Monday that the decision to retire was “100 percent” his own and that he would be involved in the search for a successor.Four-year Boeing board member Steve Mollenkopf, formerlyQualcomm The search will be led by the chief executive, who will serve as independent chairman of the board.
Calhoun’s departure is not surprising given the struggles of the past few months.
Under Calhoun’s watch, Boeing’s customers became increasingly frustrated as they faced the consequences of recurring quality problems. He was named CEO four years ago to get the manufacturing giant back on track after two fatal Max crashes in 2018 and 2019.
Other projects, including the 787 Dreamliner and the two 747s that will serve as Air Force One, have also seen one quality issue after another.Due to supply chain issues, quality lapses and more scrutiny from regulators after panel blowout Alaska Airlines The 737 Max 9 was delivered in January and plane deliveries have been delayed, with airline executives saying the problems have forced changes to their growth and fleet plans.
Boeing’s shares have fallen more than 26% this year, and its chief financial officer warned last week that the company was burning through more cash than expected.
“We need someone to fix Boeing,” one major airline executive told CNBC after Boeing announced a management shakeup on Monday. “They clearly need change.”
Executives at Boeing customers told CNBC they want Boeing’s new leader to have manufacturing acumen, expertise in the highly regulated and technical world of aerospace and, perhaps most difficult of all, the ability to unite Boeing employees and ensure safety, consistency and safety. A culture of safety. Innovation.
“This will be a challenging position. You need someone with energy and dedication,” said CEO John Plueger. aviation leasingIt is a major buyer of Boeing aircraft and leases them to airlines. “You don’t want one person to be alone for two years. You want one person to lead the ship for as long as possible.”
Boeing’s next boss will have to deal with not only the company’s internal struggles but also market share taken away by rivals airbus. Meanwhile, China has been pushing to build its own commercial aircraft.
“I wanted someone who knew how to handle a large, long-cycle business like ours,” Calhoun told CNBC when he announced his departure on Monday. “This is not just the production of aircraft. This is the next generation of aircraft. Development. Our next leader will develop…Boeing’s next airplane.”
Financial analysts applauded Boeing for spending considerable time searching for Calhoun’s successor.
“It provides leadership continuity that knee-jerk changes don’t do,” TD Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr said in a note Monday. ) clearly agrees with the need to strengthen safety.” Analysts said other board changes were also possible, with von Rummel saying the board could consider moving Boeing’s headquarters back to Seattle, where most of the company’s commercial aircraft production is based.
While Boeing has not commented on its top candidates, some aerospace experts say the following are the people who could lead Boeing:
Larry Culp
General Electric Chairman and Chief Executive Officer Larry Culp speaks at the Semafor World Economic Summit in Washington, DC, Wednesday, April 12, 2023.
Al Drago | Bloomberg | Getty Images
General Electric Richard Aboulafia, managing director of aviation consultancy Aerodynamics Consulting, said Chief Executive Larry Culp “is probably the best CEO at Boeing.”
Culp will lead the soon-to-be-spinoff GE Aviation unit, which makes and overhauls engines that power Boeing and rivals airbus airplane. Culp led the group’s turnaround and oversaw the company’s spin-off.
“The relationship with Boeing has never been stronger,” Culp told reporters at an investor event earlier this month. “Obviously, 2024 is not going the way they wanted it to, let alone the way we wanted it to go. We’re trying to support them in every way possible.”
But in response to a question about his potential future at Boeing, a GE spokesman said Culp was focused on keeping GE’s aerospace unit as an independent company.
Pat Shanahan
On October 19, 2015, Pat Shanahan, then senior vice president of aircraft programs at Boeing Commercial Airplanes, delivered a speech at the grand opening of the new Boeing 737 Delivery Center in Seattle, Washington.
Stephen Brashear | Getty Images
Pat Shanahan Interim Chief Executive Officer spirit aviation systems inc.is another possibility, Aboulafia said.
Shanahan, a three-year veteran of Boeing, was named in October the head of Boeing’s suppliers that produce fuselages and other parts for the company’s 737 Max that Spirit Airlines was handling at the time. own quality problems, these problems have spread to Boeing.
Boeing Co. is in talks to acquire Spirit, bringing the airframe maker back into the company after it was spun off nearly two decades ago. The reorganization would naturally allow Shanahan to serve as CEO of the combined company.
“Mr. Shanahan remains focused on driving a zero-defect culture in all aspects of Spirit AeroSystems,” Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino told CNBC on Monday.
David Gitlin
On Wednesday, May 25, 2022, on the third day of the World Economic Forum (WEF) in Davos, Switzerland, Carrier Global Corp. CEO David Gitlin was interviewed by Bloomberg TV.
Jason Alden | Bloomberg | Getty Images
Aboulafia also mentioned carrier CEO and Chairman David Gitlin (David Gitlin), currently a member of Boeing’s board of directors.
Gitlin has experience in the aviation industry, having previously served as president and chief operating officer of Collins Aerospace. Aviation experts say people with strong manufacturing and operations backgrounds are needed.
Stephanie Pope
Boeing’s Stephanie Pope holds a news conference at Le Bourget Airport in Paris on June 20, 2023.
Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt | Geoffroy Van Der Hasselt AFP | Getty Images
Stephanie Pope, recently promoted to chief operating officer after serving as head of Boeing’s global services division, is the most obvious internal choice to succeed Calhoun. (Former Boeing CFO Greg Smith Retired from the company in 2021. He is also seen as a possible successor. )
But the company said on Monday that Pope would replace Stan Deal, who is stepping down as head of Boeing’s commercial airplanes division. One aerospace executive questioned why Boeing did not announce her appointment on Monday if she was selected.
TD Cowen’s von Rumohr wrote, “The management changes are intended to institutionalize safety priorities across the company by bringing in new blood.”
— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.
About The Author
