Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun will resign amid mountain of controversy | Mashable.
Boeing's CEO will resign amid mountain of controversy and bad headlines
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| Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is stepping down. Credit: Aaron Schwartz / NurPhoto via Getty Images |
Things are going incredibly poorly for Boeing these days. The company's reputation is so bad people are going out of their way to not book flights on its planes.
It makes sense, then, that the CEO said Monday he would resign.
Boeing president and CEO Dave Calhoun wrote in a letter to employees that he plans to step down at the end of the year. The executive acknowledged mounting safety concerns, specifically citing the recent Alaska Airlines flight where an entire panel of the plane flew off mid-air.
"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," Calhoun opened the letter.
He added: "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."
There will be a slew of other changes with Boeing's leadership, Calhoun's letter noted, including a new board director and a new CEO of Boeing's commercial airlines division. Calhoun told CNBC that stepping down was "100 percent" his own idea.
It's difficult to list the myriad issues at Boeing recently, but the serious safety concerns began with the two 737 Max crashes that killed 346 people in 2018 and 2019. Ever since, there have been troubling reports on safety and quality procedures at the company.
Calhoun, a longtime Boeing board member, took over as CEO from Dennis Muilenburg in the wake of those accidents in 2020. It's unclear who will take the role with Calhoun stepping down. But what is clear is that they'll have their work cut out for them.
This is what good leaders do. They drive the company into the ground, then they take their bucks and scram. Bam! Ready for the next gig.
ReplyDeleteWhat many of you don't know is that Dave Calhoun took over after both deadly 37 Max crashes. Dennis Muilenburg was at the CEO leading up to the crashes until he was fired shortly after failing to get the FAA to sign off on the MCAS updates and pilots trained properly. MCAS is what caused the runaway trim issue and was a bandaid to a problem which never should have existed in the first place. Dave stepped into an unwinnable battle and did his best. The Boeing/MD merger/acquisition can be traced as the cultural and quality shift where Boeing went from and engineering centric company to one concerned about shareholder happiness.
ReplyDeleteWondering what kind of golden parachute did he got?
ReplyDeletethey only take the job if they are getting the golden parachute, board, stockholders enable that behaviour like they are slaves to a lack of accountability.
Deletemore than he’s worth and less than the damage he’s done
DeleteI don't know mister Calhoun personally. But I do know people who do, including my brother and my daughter. My brother was a fraternity brother of his at Virginia tech and my daughter works for Boeing. Both of them describe him as a bright, stand up guy. As others here have alluded, perhaps Boeing's issues predated him and a company with over 150,000 employees is difficult to turn around.
ReplyDeleteGood
ReplyDeleteFinally! A tiny bit of accountability! If they make a documentary on the massive quality changes of your company maybe there’s something wrong!
ReplyDeleteAs he was in the board room being fired:"There's the door". (** sound of another door falling off**)
ReplyDeleteThe term “golden parachute” has never been more appropriate. 🙄
ReplyDeleteIf it’s Boeing I ain’t going
ReplyDeletehttps://giphy.com/gifs/theoffice-the-office-episode-24-tv-Yycc82XEuWDaLLi2GV
Grab his big pension
ReplyDeleteAnd retire with millions from his corporate parachute. As President and Chief Executive Officer at BOEING CO, David L. Calhoun made $22,480,396 in total compensation. Of this total $1,400,000 was received as a salary, $3,418,800 was received as a bonus, $8,500,000 was received in stock options, $8,500,000 was awarded as stock and $661,596 came from other types of compensation
ReplyDeleteShocked, shocked I say
ReplyDeleteA CEO position is the only (job ?) where one can be fired from but still get paid !?! So more than likely just like many other CEO'$ who lose their position before their contract expires he will still be paid his multi-million dollar salary till his contract expires or receive a multi million dollar "Golden parachute" while the corporation's board of directors will replace him with another CEO with a multi million dollar salary !? Many mega corporations have one or more former CEO'$ who still get paid their multi million dollar salary till their contract expires or receives a multi million dollar "golden parachute" pay off while the new replacement CEO currently in the position is paid more than the previous CEO & with a similar golden parachute contract. All of which eventually raises the cost of their products and or services !?😠😡🤬
ReplyDeleteWith bonuses…
ReplyDeletebetter to take responsibility. all these companies keep rotating faces so they can never be held accountable
ReplyDeleteTime to hire Trump as spokes or brokeperson and change the name to “BLOEING.”
ReplyDeleteOh, don’t worry they’ll replace him with another Jew
ReplyDelete...and a dead whistle blower
ReplyDeleteyou know how many stockholders wanted that guy gone?
DeleteI hope they fly on Boeing jets
DeleteThe last CEO made millions after the plane crashes..... lets see what this one makes
ReplyDelete20 million plus other options. I might be low on that estimate though.
DeleteSounds about what i remember too
DeleteIt's not just him thats leaving either. A bunch of assholes from the top are all taking their money and running.
DeleteTo be fair, the way their pay is tied to shares, they could take the pay and stay too- but nobody wants that.
DeleteWhy stay with a struggling company? That requires work and effort. It's easier to just move on to the board of another company and repeat the process. They need younger people in the industry. Half of these assholes were there when the Wright Brothers took their first flight.
DeleteHe should be in prison
ReplyDeleteBest we can do is an estate on a large private island
DeleteBoeing in the last decade is what happens when the bean counters won’t let engineers engineer and view quality auditors as obstacles instead of fellow stakeholders holders trying to keep the business alive.
ReplyDeleteStock buybacks are a cancer. They stifle innovation and hurt consumers.
ReplyDeletewon't someone please think of the poor investors and their profits /s
ReplyDeleteHis golden parachute should be a 737MAX door.
ReplyDelete“Give me my umbrella package “
ReplyDeleteOh? another rich executive sacrificing themselves at the altar of the golden parachute. How original. Time for the new mission statements and .01% effort to do things differently.
ReplyDeleteHe will end up with hundreds of millions of dollars in compensation for people dying
ReplyDeleteWe need a revolution yesterday.
With a huge scapegoat thank you package worth millions, and another job leading another company where he'll implement the same company policies within a couple of years.
ReplyDeleteSo like Larry Kellner, CEO of Continental after the crash of Colgan flight 3407, he ended up on Boeing's Board.
DeleteGood. This guy should be rotting in prison.
ReplyDeleteDon't let the door hit you on the way out
ReplyDeleteThis is exactly what is wrong with aerospace manufacturing. These assholes take a ton of risk, at the expense of everyone’s safety, then get rewarded when it sometimes literally blows up. This guy and his predecessor should be in fucking jail.
ReplyDeleteId rather see the board replaced but I regularly get called delusional so there's that.
ReplyDeleteShit let's up the ante and nationalize that bish.
Nationalization should be the answer whenever too big to fail corporations fuck up like this. Looking at you Norfolk Southern.
Delete
ReplyDeleteStock buybacks not working out? Maybe Boeing should get out of the stock buyback business and start making
FUNCTIONAL AIRCRAFT
I’d be ok with him getting a golden parachute, as long as it was manufactured by Boeing itself.
ReplyDeleteCan we put engineers in charge of Boeing again please?
ReplyDeleteThey should immediately show him the door.
ReplyDeleteto a 737 Max
The face steps down while the hands never stop
ReplyDeleteNo you mean Boeing is experiencing a "CEO escape"
ReplyDeleteGuessing his golden parachute will work just fine
ReplyDelete"The problems won't be fixed. We're just swapping out scapegoats."
ReplyDeleteJon Oliver’s show on max did an episode on Boeing 2 weeks ago and holy fuck is there a bunch of shit I didn’t know about. That company is completely fucked.
ReplyDeletethe board should resign also
ReplyDeleteMaybe increasing shareholder profit to the point of not caring about safety is bad for business. WHO KNEW.
ReplyDeleteCEO should be fired for cause with no compensation.
ReplyDeleteHe “leaned” himself right out of a job.
ReplyDeleteShareholders really are the source of the problem and none of it gets fixed as they will just install another puppet to do their bidding.
ReplyDeleteWe’re all part of this, we invest our money in 401k’s and whatnot, while we don’t know the exact composition of the funds we are investing in, we all expect these funds to perform well
DeleteBoeing CEO to spontaneously detach from company and land in field somewhere in Oregon.
ReplyDeleteTill the end of the year. And sailing down with a huge golden parachute I’m sure. This is the kind of corporate shit that needs to end. CEO royally fucks up a company and walks away 10 times richer.
ReplyDeleteHow much is his exit package? Did CEO get a golden parachute?
ReplyDeleteWhat a joke. He's set for life.
You know exactly what the executives at big corporations like this get paid for right? Marketing, stock price boosting, and being fall guys with a golden parachute before they become CEO of either company.
ReplyDeleteLook at that! It’s all fixed now! Nothing to worry about anymore! (The Media)
ReplyDelete"Let me just take my 9-figure bonus golden parachute and I'll just slide out the back door....."
ReplyDeleteThis guys entire resume is pure villainy. He ended up at Boeing after running the company that does Nielsen ratings and doing some time at Blackstone. So he's responsible for TV getting worse and the subprime mortgage crisis.
ReplyDeleteEvery single business this guy touches becomes unproductive to such a degree that it might be criminal. Dave Calhoun seems to operate like any other low-level mobster. He should never have been put in charge an essential part of American infrastructure.
How big is the golden parachute?
ReplyDeleteOh did the stock price go down?
ReplyDeleteAh yes, rich asshole who got where he is by cutting corners retires to a life of unimaginable wealth (or moves to some other company to do the same), and some new rich asshole that will cut corners to get rich takes over. Tell me, what change will this actually effect at Boeing? None, it's never any real change. CEO's are all just a shell game, you find the corruption under one, it just moves to a different one. They're all the same.
ReplyDeleteStep down means a graceful exit which is so unlike a crash which means the death of all aboard one of the plane he sold.
ReplyDelete"Step down" implies it was a choice. He should've been thrown down the stairs.
ReplyDeleteNew Incoming CEO’s first job: A fresh new round of stock buybacks. Need to pump that shit up!
ReplyDeletelol doesn't matter. never boarding a Boeing again. the damage is done
ReplyDeleteDont worry he will land nicely with his golden parachute, and some other big company will pick him up in a year or two so he can go back to making millions
ReplyDeleteHow long has he been in that position? And how much money has he made during his tenure?
ReplyDeleteMy point is that he doesn't care.
everyone talking about the window blow out, what about the guy he had murdered?
ReplyDeleteMost people go to prison for murder. Guess this guy just gets to try on another hat at a different company.
ReplyDeleteAny effort by companies to cut costs around consumer saftey in order to save money and boost personal financial interests aka bonuses and stock prices, should face CRIMINAL charges.
ReplyDeleteThey fucked around and need to find out.
I hope he will be ok. He has a family too. Maybe buy less Starbucks and cancel Netflix.
ReplyDeleteHow about the whole board of directors who also played a major role in pushing the company to this point?
ReplyDeleteIs anybody going to look into the fact that he had John Barnett killed?
ReplyDeleteOr the numerous safety violations on his jets that lead to injury and death?
Or is he just going to get to walk away with millions and go live on an island somewhere?
The 737 program needs to end now. The final versions should have never been built. Everyone responsible for every bad decision needs to be fired now, going back years.
ReplyDeleteJust rearranging the deck chairs on the Titanic.
ReplyDeleteWhy is Pope an accountant being put in charge. So, nothing has changed? What about a jet engineer????????????
ReplyDeleteOne news agency reported "Calhoun’s total compensation package increased to $22.5 million in 2022, up from $21.1 million in 2021"
ReplyDeleteSo don't expect any real change. This is performance art, Calhoun understands his role in the show, and he has at least 43 million reasons not to feel too upset.
Calhoun should resign now! Boeing has become an embarrassment to the reputation of the American industry. Just compare the quality of Boeing airplanes with those from the European Airbus. Remember the crash landing of an Airbus airplane in Tokyo a few months ago? Experts credited the survival of all passengers and the crew among others to the good design of the airplane. You never hear that about Boeing airplanes.
ReplyDeleteQualifications for next CEO: Can not have ever worked at GE. The rot that GE executives have caused at major corporations is incredible. The executives under Jack Welch epitomized the bean counter mentality. GE was forced to stop promoting from within in order to save the company. They hired a Danaher executive to finally right the ship and start fixing the culture.
ReplyDeleteIt's mind-boggling how many formerly great American companies of all sizes were ruined by CEOs who Jack Welch mentored at GE. They all made absurd amounts of money while running their companies (into the ground), including usually getting multi-million dollar golden parachutes even when they were kicked out of the door for incompetence.
Delete"Mr. Calhoun said that the Jan. 5 incident involving Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 “was a watershed moment for Boeing.”
ReplyDeleteWhen I learned of the Alaska Airlines incident, which came just months after the crashes of two 737 Max planes, I wondered whether the company would survive. Decades. of good will were cancelled out by those three accidents.
Here’s a thought: require that a Boeing exec be seated on every single commercial flight on any Boeing aircraft, preferably near a door plug. Watch the quality and safety records soar!
ReplyDeleteOr better yet, require the exec to bring his or her child along, and watch the quality and safety standards rise even more rapidly.
I'll be watching to see how much the CEO leaves with in pay. It makes me sick to see these guys run companies into the ground and then walk away with millions of dollars.
ReplyDeleteWhy is the chief executive waiting nine months to resign? They need new hands-on leadership now.
ReplyDeleteDave Calhoun is very, very lucky that nobody died from Boeing's criminal recklessness on his watch, unlike his predecessor Dennis Muilenberg, who got a $62.2 million retirement package (call it a super-golden parachute, if you will; so different from the "hard landing" suffered by 346 unfortunate Boeing passengers who died) after presiding over reckless practices that caused two plane crashes within a 4 month period.
ReplyDeleteSince Dave Calhoun's lapses, rather than resulting in the deaths of 346 people, merely gravely endangered them while inflicting traumatizing terror, will Boeing give him a $100+ million retirement package?
Money over morals...it is the MO of a significant number of American corporations. Hypercapitalism - focusing solely on generating profit and so-called shareholder wealth at the grave expense of the well-being of our people (e.g., like building unsafe planes) and/or our planet - will be the down fall of the country. The senior executives at Boeing who are responsible ought to be prosecuted - perhaps, that will motivate other companies to "rediscover" their moral compass.
ReplyDeleteThese departures should have happened years ago, because Boeing’s problems did not happen overnight. Maybe Calhoun read Gerald Levin’s recent obit and can imagine what is in store for his own.
ReplyDeleteHe should avoid eating his lunch in his truck.
ReplyDeleteIt is nice that Calhoun will be able to help find his successor.
ReplyDeleteAMD and NVidia are in charge by engineers, and Intel and Boeing have not been for decades, just see where they are now.
ReplyDeleteMillions of people fly at 32,000ish ft. in Boeing jets. Maybe Boeing can hire some executives that understand this.
ReplyDeleteWhether end of the year is not too far out, given the culture surrounding safety that has developed.
ReplyDeleteAnother criminal capitalist who will never see jail time. What else is new?
ReplyDeleteIf it is true that corporate HQ are far from the Seattle manufacturing location, the big wigs should immediately move back to be near the factory. Immediately!
ReplyDeleteStephanie Pope, another accountant, will become CEO of the Commercial Airplane division. Won't they ever learn?
ReplyDeleteWonder what his golden parachute will look like? (And given Boeings recent mishaps I sincerely hope the word “parachute” isn’t triggering to any readers.)
ReplyDeleteAn absolute dereliction of duty. The level of greed is sociopathic.
ReplyDeleteHow often are they drug testing employees at Boeing and at affiliated parts makers?
ReplyDeleteHave you noticed that no one says “the buck stops here” anymore? Like integrity, “accepting responsibility” has gone out of fashion.
ReplyDeleteThe safety crisis began with the MacDonald-Douglas take over of Boeing. Until that time Boeing was an excellent company to work for with a stellar safety record. There are several good documentaries about Boeing’s implosion.
ReplyDeleteAlways look to leadership. What they say to the press is one thing. The message the rank and file hear may be different. I believe most people want to do a very good job - want to know they are important contributors to the business bottom line which is not just financial but safety & quality and customer care. Leadership proves this to them not just by words but by actions. Alignment of goals. Bonuses for all levels tied to appropriate goals. Sharing business data. Minimal hierarchy. Listening to the people and truly hearing them.
ReplyDeleteJust Shuffling the deck. The higher ups do bear a lot of responsibility for not recognizing what’s been going on down in the trenches but middle management is probably where the biggest problems are.
ReplyDeleteThe "end of the year" sounds a little leisurely. A lot of urgent lightening bolts are befalling Boeing.
ReplyDeleteBig money people like to do things leisurely. Biden is negotiating with big pharma on certain expensive (overpriced) drugs, but these price reductions won’t take effect for two years. This gives the companies plenty of time to overcharge on other drugs. In some cases, their patents may expire.
Delete