Boeing: change at the top due to 737 Max crisis, ceo to leave at the end of 2024

The 737 Max crisis leads to a change in Boeing's top management. The CEO, Dave Calhoun, will leave office at the end of 2024, while the resignation of the chairman of the board, Larry Kellner, will be effective at the annual general meeting in May. In Kellner's place will come Steve Mollenkopf, who has been on the board since 2020. Another important change concerns Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, who is leaving the company with immediate effect; in his place is Stephanie Pope, who became chief operating officer in December after leading Boeing Global Services.

The change at the top comes at a time when airlines and authorities are demanding changes from Boeing within the company, after problems emerged over the production and quality of aircraft, not least those which occurred on an Alaska Airlines plane on 5 January when an in-flight hatch exploded and it made an emergency landing. Boeing's stock gained 2.8% on Wall Street, but has lost 27.5% since the beginning of the year.

Calhoun, a long-time Boeing non-executive director with a career at General Electric and Blackstone, had come to lead the group in 2020 after two fatal accidents in 2018 and 2019 in Indonesia and Ethiopia. He had been criticised for his overemphasis on financial results and targets less on the quality and safety of the planes coming off the production lines.

While the US Department of Justice has launched a criminal investigation that the FBI is also working on, in an interview with Cnbc Calhoun said that leaving was 100 per cent his decision and that his opinion will be sought on the future Boeing CEO.

"As we begin this transition period, I want to assure you that we will remain focused on completing the work we have done together to bring our company back to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality in everything we do," he wrote in a letter to employees.