Boeing's leadership change amid security crisis draws worldwide attention

In the States, there was no doubt that a reshuffle in Boeing's leadership would occur; the only question was when. When Boeing announced that its CEO, Dave Calhoun, would step down at the end of the year, some wondered why it took so long.

Calhoun, who is 66 years old, was appointed in 2020 to revive the company's financial success after one of the largest crises of confidence in its 100-year history, triggered by two fatal Boeing 737 MAX crashes in 2018 and 2019. As a result of these crashes, 346 people lost their lives, and the Boeing 737 MAX was grounded worldwide for many months.

In January 2022, there was another incident involving the 737 MAX of Alaska Airlines, when a door panel came loose, and the pilots had to take emergency measures. This incident only reinforced the belief that the company had learned no lessons and continues to operate under the same culture where safety is secondary to profit.

Barry Valentine, a former senior official at the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA), said that Boeing's leadership has traditionally been made up of engineers, but this changed with the arrival of new competitors like the French company Airbus, founded in 2000. "It has transformed from a company of engineers into a company of accountants," Valentine said.

Given that the FAA and the Department of Justice are already investigating Boeing, the company will have to demonstrate that it is listening to the public and taking changes seriously, as Valentine said, "in real estate, the most important thing is location; in air transportation, it's safety."

In addition to Calhoun's departure, Boeing will also lose its chairman Larry Kellner and the head of the company's commercial division, Stan Deal. Deal will be replaced by Stephanie Pope, Boeing's Chief Operating Officer.

In a letter to employees, Calhoun referred to Alaska Airlines as a "turning point for Boeing." "The eyes of the whole world are on us," he said. "We will fix everything that isn't working and get our company back on the path to recovery and stability."

Sean O'Keefe, former chairman of Airbus Group Inc. and a professor at Syracuse University in New York, said that the new leader of Boeing must be able to listen to the industry's concerns. He also noted that they will need to work closely with the company's partner airlines, from Alaska Airlines to United, to ensure that safety is the priority moving forward. "This will be more of a collaboration than consultations from Boeing, where they say, 'Okay, you tell me what should increase your confidence that we know what we're doing here,'" O'Keefe said. "You need to be attentive to your interlocutors and develop a comprehensive strategy that will respond to possibly differing viewpoints."

Currently, several dozen passengers who were on board Alaska Airlines flight 1282, which was traveling from Portland Airport to Ontario Airport in San Bernardino County, California, on January 5, 2022, have filed a lawsuit against Boeing.

Ed Pearson, a former Boeing informant and now the head of the Aviation Safety Foundation, said that this incident did not surprise him. Pearson had previously spoken out against Boeing following the fatal crashes in 2018 and 2019. He added, "This is a clear leadership failure. And it was predictable."

In addition to Calhoun's resignation announcement, Boeing stated that Steve Mollenkopf, the former CEO of technology company Qualcomm, has been appointed as the new chairman of the board and has been tasked with finding the next CEO.

Shem Malmquist, a current Boeing pilot who teaches at the Florida Institute of Technology, said he hopes Boeing will decide to appoint an engineer to the position, although shareholders may instinctively resist such an idea. The last engineer to hold the CEO position was Phil Condit, who led the company from 1996 to 2003. "At this point, the company is already taking strong hits, and shareholders will be looking for something that provides them with some stability," Malmquist said. "A reasonable decision would be to appoint someone from within the company and the engineering department, rather than someone from marketing or finance. Someone who understands engineering."