Boeing CEO to step down as 737 Max crisis worsens

Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of 2024 as part of a broad management shake-up for the embattled aerospace giant.

• CEO Resignation: Boeing’s CEO, Dave Calhoun, is stepping down at the end of 2024 amidst ongoing challenges, including the 737 Max crisis.

• Management Changes: Larry Kellner, the chairman, won’t seek reelection. Steve Mollenkopf will take over as chair, while Stan Deal, head of commercial airplanes, is leaving immediately. Stephanie Pope will replace Deal.

• Industry Pressure: Airlines and regulators are demanding significant changes at Boeing due to quality and safety concerns. These issues have led to production delays, strained relationships with customers, and a decline in Boeing’s stock value.

Larry Kellner, chairman of the board, will not stand for reelection at Boeing’s annual meeting in May, Boeing said Monday.

He will be succeeded as chair by Steve Mollenkopf, who has been a Boeing director since 2020 and is a former CEO of Qualcomm. Mollenkopf will lead the board in picking a new CEO, Boeing said.

And Stan Deal, president and chief executive of Boeing’s commercial airplanes unit, 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.

Quality flaws

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.

“As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing,” Calhoun wrote to employees on Monday.

“We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We also must inculcate a total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company.

It’s been a bad start to 2024 for Boeing.

“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,” he wrote.

“We have another mountain to climb,” Calhoun said.

“Let’s not avoid the call for action. Let’s not avoid the changes that we have to make in our factory. Let’s not avoid the need to slow down a bit and let the supply chain catch up.”

Calhoun, a more than decade-long board member at Boeing, took the top job there in January 2020 after the company ousted its previous chief executive, Dennis Muilenburg, for his handling of the aftermath of two deadly 737 Max crashes.

Production issues

Boeing’s production problems have delayed deliveries of new planes to customers and hampered growth plans.

CEOs of some of the company’s largest customers, including United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, and American Airlines have publicly complained about the delays.

Ryanair, Boeing’s largest airline customer in Europe, said in a statement Monday it welcomes the management changes.

“Stan Deal has done a great sales job for Boeing for many years, but he’s not the person to turn around the operation in Seattle, and that’s where most of the problems have been in recent years,” Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary said in a video posted to social media platform X.

United’s CEO, Scott Kirby, earlier this month said he urged Boeing to stop making yet-to-be-certified Max 10 planes for the company because it wasn’t clear when the FAA would clear those aircraft to fly.