Boeing announced on Monday that CEO Dave Calhoun will step down at the end of the year. The company said Calhoun will stay on until the end of 2024 to “complete the critical work underway to stabilize and position the company for the future.”
Board Chair Larry Kellner, a board member for nearly 15 years, plans to forgo nomination for an additional term at the company’s annual shareholder meeting this spring, Boeing said, adding that Steve Mollenkopf, former CEO of chipmaker Qualcomm, will immediately take over as Boeing board chair and lead the search for a new chief executive. Mollenkopf said: “I am fully confident in this company and its leadership — and together we are committed to taking the right actions to strengthen safety and quality, and to meet the needs of our customers.”
The move comes amid fallout from a high-profile safety failure onboard an Alaska Airlines flight in January, when a door plug blew out of Boeing’s 737 Max 9 aircraft while the plane was in flight. In a statement, Calhoun shared: “The eyes of the world are on us, and I know that we will come through this moment a better company. We will remain squarely focused on completing the work we have done together to return our company to stability after the extraordinary challenges of the past five years, with safety and quality at the forefront of everything that we do.”
Calhoun served as CEO of Boeing for four years, and in a letter to employees on Monday he said: “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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