Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun has written a detailed resignation message to his team. Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun. DAVID RYDER/Reuters
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of 2024, the company said Monday. He was under special observation because of several mishaps.
In a message to employees, he explained that he had been thinking about leaving the company for some time.
He explains who will not be running again as chairman of Boeing, who will be his successor and that Stan Deal, CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, is retiring and has been replaced by Stephanie Pope.
This is a machine translation of an article from our US colleagues at Business Insider. It was automatically translated and checked by a real editor.
Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is stepping down from his position. He made the announcement in a note to staff on Monday, March 25. In it, he writes that this year will be his last as CEO after four years at the helm. He says he has been thinking about when to leave the company “for some time.”
Calhoun does not directly attribute his resignation to the incident on Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 in January, when a Boeing 737 Max lost a door plug during the flight. But he describes the incident as an “important” event.
After the incident, the Federal Aviation Administration temporarily ordered the shutdown of models of the aircraft with the same door stopper – Boeing itself has been ordered not to further expand production of the 737 Max.
“The eyes of the world are on us,” Calhoun wrote in his message, emphasizing the importance of humility, “complete transparency,” and a commitment to safety and quality.
Calhoun writes that Boeing Chairman Larry Kellner will not run for re-election. Instead, Steve Mollenkopf was elected by the board as his successor. Calhoun added that Boeing Commercial Airplanes CEO Stan Deal is retiring. He will be replaced by Stephanie Pope with immediate effect. Pope is now the new COO, i.e. Chief Operating Officer of the group, and therefore has the second highest position in day-to-day business.
Calhoun was named CEO and president of the company in January 2020. He has served on Boeing’s board since 2009.
Read Calhoun’s full message to staff here
„Team,
As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a turning point for Boeing. We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We must also embed an absolute commitment to safety and quality at all levels of our company.
The eyes of the world are on us, and I am confident that we will emerge from this moment as a better company, building on everything we have learned together over the last few years to rebuild Boeing .
I want to thank each of you for how you met this challenge. I thank you for your current efforts to ensure that we demonstrate to all stakeholders that the future Boeing meets all expectations. We have been working together for the past five years to address some of the most significant challenges our company and our industry have ever faced in our 108-year history. I am confident that the way we have met these challenges and how we are responding to this specific moment will set standards for future generations of employees and will be woven into the fabric of how we work for decades to come.
The future of our company is the subject of my letter to you today. I have been thinking with our board for some time about the right time for a CEO change at Boeing. I would like to inform you that this year will be my final year as CEO of our great company and I have informed the Board of Directors of this decision.
I originally agreed to assume the role of CEO of Boeing at the request of the Board of Directors, stepping down as Chairman of the Board due to the unprecedented circumstances the company was facing at the time. It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve in both roles. I will feel that the journey is properly completed when we have done the work we need to do. We will fix what isn’t working and we will put our company back on the path to recovery and stability.
My decision to step down as CEO at the end of this year is one that the Board was prepared for and will result in a number of changes at a management and governance level. My long-time partner in all things Boeing, our Chairman Larry Kellner, has informed the Board and me that he does not intend to seek re-election at our upcoming annual meeting.
The board has elected Steve Mollenkopf to replace Larry as chairman. Steve will lead the Board’s process of selecting my successor as CEO. Larry had also been thinking about when would be the right time to hand over the reins after more than four years as chairman and 13 years on our board. He concluded that the CEO selection process should be led by a chairman who will remain at the helm as a partner of the new CEO.
I would like to express my deepest personal gratitude to Larry for his outstanding leadership over the past few years, and I know that I speak for everyone in the company when I say that no one would have worked harder or longer in dedication to their duties. Perhaps above all, one of the many legacies of his tenure is the fundamentally strengthened accountability within our company – including his recruitment of several outstanding new board members and his work with others on the board to establish our independent Standboard Aerospace Safety Committee. Larry is a professional in every sense and someone to whom Boeing owes a great debt of gratitude.
I would also like to thank Steve for his willingness to take on the role of Chairman. Steve has had a long and exceptionally successful career with decades of experience as both CEO of Qualcomm and as a board member of several key public companies. Since joining the Boeing Board, his contributions have been extremely valuable, and his professional background as an engineer will serve him and the company well in this new role. I look forward to working with him for the remainder of this year to ensure a smooth transition.
In addition to these changes, Stan Deal, President and Chief Executive Officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, will be retiring from the company and Stephanie Pope will lead our BCA business immediately. I would like to thank Stan for his many contributions and dedication since joining our ranks 38 years ago, and for his tireless efforts as our BCA leader during an unusually difficult time for our company and our industry.
I would also like to thank Stephanie for taking on this important role. With nearly 30 years of experience at Boeing, including her successful tenure leading our global services business, Stephanie knows our company inside and out and has a proven track record of outstanding leadership, including an innate talent for listening and responding to our people. Stephanie is a third-generation Boeing employee. She is deeply invested in our company, our people and our shared future; and she is the perfect person to take the reins of our commercial aircraft business at this time.
As we begin this transition period, I want to assure you that we will remain fully focused on completing the work we have done together to put our company back on a stable course after the extraordinary challenges of the last five years , with safety and quality at the core of everything we do.
Thanks, Dave
Dave Calhoun
Read the original article Business Insider.
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After a series of mishaps: Boeing CEO announces his resignation at the end of the year