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Boeing CEO, Many Other Top Execs To Step Down in Leadership Shakeup at Embattled Plane Maker (mediaroom.com) 119

Boeing announced a major leadership overhaul Monday, with CEO Dave Calhoun set to step down at the end of 2024 amid mounting pressure from airlines and regulators over quality and manufacturing issues. Chairman Larry Kellner will also resign and depart the board at Boeing's annual meeting in May, the company said. He will be replaced as chair by Steve Mollenkopf, a Boeing director since 2020. Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is leaving the company effective immediately. Stephanie Pope, who recently became Boeing's Chief Operating Officer after leading Boeing Global Services, will take over Deal's role.

The shakeup comes as the aerospace giant faces increasing scrutiny following a series of production flaws and a recent incident involving a nearly new Boeing 737 Max 9, where a door plug blew out minutes into an Alaska Airlines flight on Jan. 5. Airlines and regulators have been calling for significant changes at Boeing to address these issues and restore confidence in the company's products. The leadership changes appear to be a response to these growing concerns.

An excerpt from a letter the CEO wrote to employees, also on Monday: As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing. 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.

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.

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Boeing CEO, Many Other Top Execs To Step Down in Leadership Shakeup at Embattled Plane Maker

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  • by bradley13 ( 1118935 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @07:25AM (#64342319) Homepage

    Link to the Boeing announcement [boeing.com]

    Quick summary

    • CEO stepping down, but not until the end of the year
    • Chairman of the board serving out his term, which ends in May
    • Head of "Boeing Commercial Airplanes" is retiring immediately

    There's a link to a letter from the CEO, but both my ad-blocker and my pi-hole object to it. Great job, Boeing, where the heck did you put that letter? Right next to the door-plug removal documentation?

    • by Striek ( 1811980 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @07:46AM (#64342363)

      There's a link to a letter from the CEO, but both my ad-blocker and my pi-hole object to it. Great job, Boeing, where the heck did you put that letter? Right next to the door-plug removal documentation?

      No, it was next to the door plug reinstallation documentation.

    • Link to the Boeing announcement [boeing.com]

      Quick summary

      • CEO stepping down, but not until the end of the year
      • Chairman of the board serving out his term, which ends in May
      • Head of "Boeing Commercial Airplanes" is retiring immediately

      There's a link to a letter from the CEO, but both my ad-blocker and my pi-hole object to it. Great job, Boeing, where the heck did you put that letter? Right next to the door-plug removal documentation?

      None of this matters, because they're being replaced by people within Boeing that worked very close with them. It's not like they're bringing in fresh blood. This is the appearance of "doing something".

  • by sjgman9 ( 456705 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @07:43AM (#64342357)

    They need to expunge the mcdonnell douglas culture, bring everything back to Seattle, and be a company making really cool flying machines again, damn the cost. Make it engineering led with a focus on safety, bean counters be damned

    • by Ol Olsoc ( 1175323 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @07:59AM (#64342395)

      They need to expunge the mcdonnell douglas culture, bring everything back to Seattle, and be a company making really cool flying machines again, damn the cost. Make it engineering led with a focus on safety, bean counters be damned

      The huge problem with the MBA/Accountant culture is they lose sight of the prime focus, which is to make good planes in this case.

      They look at themselves as the purpose of the company. The planes are now an unfortunately expensive things that are built to serve the MBA's and accountants and shareholders.

      But if you make a good and safe plane, the sales and profits will tend to take care of themselves.

      • They need to expunge the mcdonnell douglas culture, bring everything back to Seattle, and be a company making really cool flying machines again, damn the cost. Make it engineering led with a focus on safety, bean counters be damned

        The huge problem with the MBA/Accountant culture is they lose sight of the prime focus, which is to make good planes in this case.

        They look at themselves as the purpose of the company. The planes are now an unfortunately expensive things that are built to serve the MBA's and accountants and shareholders.

        But if you make a good and safe plane, the sales and profits will tend to take care of themselves.

        Blaming this on MBA/Accountant culture is a fallacy. A good businessman/woman realises what the core factors are that are essential to making a business profitable and that profit is not the only measure of success. In this case it is above all safe aircraft. Boeing, Airbus, they all stand and fall with their safety record. Anybody who forgets that is a poor MBA/Accountant/Business-person. The problem with America’s business community is that it seems to think Gordon Gekko is someone to emulate.

        • by SoCalChris ( 573049 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @10:41AM (#64342885) Journal

          A good businessman/woman realises what the core factors are that are essential to making a business profitable and that profit is not the only measure of success.

          That all goes out the door when the shareholders are demanding continuous quarter over quarter growth. Almost every company now is looking no farther than the next quarter, how they can squeeze more recurring revenue from their users while cutting costs. This isn't just a Boeing problem, it's an unregulated capitalism problem that is going to destroy our country pretty quickly. Boeing just happens to be in the spotlight right now because their products are falling out of the sky and killing hundreds of people in a spectacular fashion.

        • by sjames ( 1099 )

          That's exactly why the MBAs deserve the blame. There ARE people in business that understand the importance of the core product and core competency, but that's not MBAs.

          • That's exactly why the MBAs deserve the blame. There ARE people in business that understand the importance of the core product and core competency, but that's not MBAs.

            Yeah, the bloom is off the MBA abomination. Applicants are dropping, thank goodness.

            A company making a technological engineering based product needs people who are familiar with the process, not people who spent a few years in college to come out as masters of the universe, able to lead the country into a brave and profitable new direction, without knowing anything about the devices that earn that money.

            It is pretty obvious which group was running Boeing.

        • by tlhIngan ( 30335 )

          Blaming this on MBA/Accountant culture is a fallacy. A good businessman/woman realises what the core factors are that are essential to making a business profitable and that profit is not the only measure of success. In this case it is above all safe aircraft. Boeing, Airbus, they all stand and fall with their safety record. Anybody who forgets that is a poor MBA/Accountant/Business-person. The problem with Americaâ(TM)s business community is that it seems to think Gordon Gekko is someone to emulate.

          Bla

        • Blaming this on MBA/Accountant culture is a fallacy.

          Okay, let's run with that.

          A good businessman/woman realises what the core factors are that are essential to making a business profitable and that profit is not the only measure of success.

          On the face of it, how could you argue with that? But it veers into some interesting territory. Allow me..

          MBA's and Accountants run a whole spectrum of competencies and core focus of intent. So while a long term focus is good for the company, it is not universal. I'm not certain it is the majority for all that matter, because not all companies have such a drastic fault case, be it software causing a plane to auger in, or half attached doors to pop off in flight. You could have

          • by cusco ( 717999 )

            The main point of the MCAS was to prevent having to recertify the aircraft, which at a minimum would have cost millions and delayed its introduction by a couple of years. Once upon a time the FAA had staff who could say, "This is/isn't too big a change and now it needs/doesn't need to be recertified." Since the days of Newt gingrich and the Libertardians their budget for enforcement has been squeezed to the point where they're required to just accept the word of the manufacturer. For a really in-depth ex

            • The main point of the MCAS was to prevent having to recertify the aircraft, which at a minimum would have cost millions and delayed its introduction by a couple of years.

              And look how much that they made from that. Business genius that only cost them 20 Billion in direct costs, and all of the indirect costs, like paying the surviving families that they killed a loved one, we're still waiting on the established negligence total - I think

              And boy howdy - that saved timeline really was a hit, amirite?

              Sarcasm aside, this whole debacle is going to be a textbook case in the future. From the design that changed the flying characteristics of the plane, the short sighted MCAS imp

              • by cusco ( 717999 )

                Indeed, the MBA Disease has struck again. Boeing laid off all its experienced software engineers and started hiring cheap contractors. Dealing with multiple inputs, failovers, and realtime outputs is a very specialized skill set, but as far as the executives were concerned programmers are a fungible input so the contracted the MCAS with a company that normally wrote software for financial institutions. All programmers are the same, right?

                Penny smart, pound stupid.

    • SEC administrative courts interpret that as illegal behavior, shirking their fiduciary duty to return value to the shareholders at the next quarterly report.

      It's absurd and hateful of American Business, but unless SCOTUS overturns the /Chevron/ doctrine this Spring you can expect most American businesses to follow the same path because SEC controls their behavior more than markets do.

      But check back in six months and all these guys will be working for COMAC - there you get into real Kissinger economics.

      (I kn

      • by whoever57 ( 658626 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @08:12AM (#64342443) Journal

        SEC administrative courts interpret that as illegal behavior, shirking their fiduciary duty to return value to the shareholders at the next quarterly report.

        Got an actual citation for that? Because courts have generally given management wide latitude to decide what is best for shareholders. There is no legal requirement to optimize this quarter's results, if management believe better results can be obtained long term.

        What has really driven the drive for short-term profits is CEO compensation schemes, which have prioritized the short term.

        • SEC administrative courts interpret that as illegal behavior, shirking their fiduciary duty to return value to the shareholders at the next quarterly report.

          Got an actual citation for that? Because courts have generally given management wide latitude to decide what is best for shareholders. There is no legal requirement to optimize this quarter's results, if management believe better results can be obtained long term.

          What has really driven the drive for short-term profits is CEO compensation schemes, which have prioritized the short term.

          I suspect many investors actually want is a company that does a lot of R&D and a company that prioritizes quality and long term growth.

          The problem is that big corporations are hideously complex, so even if a company says they're doing R&D and investments in quality it's really hard for even sophisticated investors to evaluate that claim (or the quality of those investments). So they're stuck doing the same thing as short term investors, basing their decisions on the last quarter's profits.

    • by sjames ( 1099 )

      I'll bet that even though listening to the engineers might have reduced profitability in the short term, the loss would never be as great as the cost of the negative headlines inspiring the saying "If it's Boeing, I ain't going".

  • by Snotnose ( 212196 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @07:52AM (#64342381)
    At least he's an engineer, and 30 years ago when I knew him he was a hella nice guy.

    Well, didn't really know him. He was in a weekly meeting I attended while I was at Qualcomm. He was just an engineer then and seemed like a good guy.
  • by Anonymous Coward
  • Surprised that it took so long and that they keep the CEO for another 9 months.
  • Between having doors blown off and murdering whistleblowers, I really do not want to trust my life to this company. They should be forcibly broken up and the C level execs should go to jail.
  • Running away. (Score:4, Insightful)

    by Gravis Zero ( 934156 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @08:41AM (#64342509)

    Instead of making a plan that involved hard choices in order to fix the problem, the executives is simply running away from the problem they created.

    Nobody should hire a single one of them for even the lowest management position.

    • by micheas ( 231635 )
      Well, there is the position of VP of going to jail. One of them is also known as Uber's VP of French operations. I can't see an ethical problem of having one of them take one of those roles
  • No... Golden parachute out

  • by sinij ( 911942 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @08:53AM (#64342545)
    Boeing is at fault here, but so is FAA that was supposed to regulate Boeing and instead was asleep at the wheel.
  • by Eunomion ( 8640039 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @09:05AM (#64342569)
    Chop up Boeing for parts and grand jury everyone in the last thirty years who touched its executive suite with anything more than a broom.
  • I'm trying to think of the last time I heard an aircraft mechanic use the word inculcate...
  • The hack job that 737 Max should have never been allowed to ever happen, if they have to make custom software to keep it flying properly then there's something wrong with it, balance? Center of gravity? Something was throwing it off and it should never been allowed to go beyond testing and sent to the scrap yard instead
    • What seems to have happened was they tried to save money by taking the same design as the original 737 and just scale it up to be proportionally larger. A cheap hack to get more space and more revenue with minimal engineering or training cost that might have worked fine if not for the fact that at the last minute some manager who had never flown a plane decided to double the size of the engines so it would feel more "ballsy."

  • by byronivs ( 1626319 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @09:30AM (#64342629) Journal
    Ah, the sounds of golden parachutes after jumping out a hole blown in the side. Great job!
  • by Opportunist ( 166417 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @10:03AM (#64342713)

    Trying to get out before the attorney general gets involved?

  • What the hell does the board have to do with daily operations like safety inspections? Unless these people were responsible for constantly saying "save more money by any means necessary," I don't see a single connection to the problem from that high up.
    All I'm seeing is a company accused of favoring "oppressed" "minority groups" just replaced a man with a woman. Not good optics, just saying. Why not just zero the company's stock price and announce you're hiring an LGBTQ+ illegal immigrant in a wheelchair f
    • by micheas ( 231635 )

      What the hell does the board have to do with daily operations like safety inspections? Unless these people were responsible for constantly saying "save more money by any means necessary," I don't see a single connection to the problem from that high up. All I'm seeing is a company accused of favoring "oppressed" "minority groups" just replaced a man with a woman. Not good optics, just saying. Why not just zero the company's stock price and announce you're hiring an LGBTQ+ illegal immigrant in a wheelchair for your CEO and get it over with?

      The board is the ones who approved moving headquarters away from Seattle and putting share price above safety as company goals.

  • they will get rid of all the bean counters and hire engineers to run the company. Start concentrating on making a good product.
  • by groobly ( 6155920 ) on Monday March 25, 2024 @12:11PM (#64343249)

    New CEO (replacing Deal) is an accountant and MBA, apparently no experience in engineering. But she is a girl, so that's a plus. No, really, because it seems that women in these positions behave more ethically than men for some reason, despite being promoted for the wrong reasons.

    • But she is a girl, so that's a plus. No, really, because it seems that women in these positions behave more ethically than men for some reason, despite being promoted for the wrong reasons.

      yeah, about that "women are more ethical" position that you have. Read this: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]

      Are you implying that none of the owners of those companies were of the female persuasion? I recall one woman being given the Death Penalty at the time. I can find no evidence that the penalty was actually applied to her.

      See? This is where DEI has gone wrong. Women are just as capable as men of being fucked up and narcissistic.

  • They need to step down now so the changes can begin ASAP. And all new leadership selections should be based solely on competence.

  • Isn't she part of the problem? What makes her a good candidate to promote to CEO?
  • Yes, it's a huge fucking shame that they'll get their golden parachutes. And then they'll either be hired somewhere else with equivalent pay and benefits, or go through the revolving door and become government aviation consultants.

    The closest people like this get to falling on their swords is accidentally poking themselves with their swizzle sticks as they celebrate their soft and lucrative landing in some other cushy circle-jerk job.

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