Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun to step down amid Board and management reshuffle

Boeing President and CEO Dave Calhoun has announced his decision to step down as CEO at the end of 2024. He will continue to lead Boeing through the year to complete the critical work underway to stabilize and position the company for the future.

Board Chair Larry Kellner has informed the board that he does not intend to stand for re-election at the upcoming Annual Shareholder meeting. The board has elected Steve Mollenkopf to succeed Kellner as independent board chair. In this role, Mollenkopf will lead the board's process of selecting Boeing’s next CEO.

In addition to these changes, Stan Deal, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and CEO, will retire from the company, while Stephanie Pope has been appointed to lead BCA, effective March 25, 2024.

“It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve Boeing,” said Calhoun in a letter to employees. “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 became Boeing President and CEO in January 2020. He has served as a member of Boeing’s Board of Directors since 2009 and served as board chairman from October to December 2019. Calhoun previously served as Senior Managing Director and head of portfolio operations at The Blackstone Group beginning in January 2014. He also served as Executive Chairman of the board for Nielsen Holdings from January 2014 to January 2016. He joined Nielsen in 2006 as CEO shortly after it was acquired through a consortium of private equity investors, including Blackstone. Calhoun began his career at General Electric Company (GE), where he rose to Vice Chairman of the company and President and CEO of GE Infrastructure, its largest business unit.

Larry Kellner has served on the Boeing Board for 13 years and served as its chair since late 2019. As chair, he oversaw the establishment of a new board aerospace safety committee, and during his tenure led the recruitment of seven new independent directors, bringing deep engineering, safety, manufacturing and aerospace expertise to Boeing’s board.

“Boeing plays an essential role in our world, and serving this company, and our people, has been a true honour,” said Kellner. “After over a decade on the board and several years as its chair, I have been considering the right time for a transition of leadership on our board, and have been discussing that subject with Dave and the board in conjunction with Dave’s own planning about his succession timeframe. I want to thank Dave for his tremendous leadership of our company, and I know he will finish the job this year that he started in 2020 to position Boeing, and our employees, for a stronger future. With Dave's decision to step down as CEO at the end of this year, now is the right time for a transition to my successor. Steve is the ideal next leader to take on the role of board chair, and it is important that the CEO selection process be led by a new chair who will stay at the helm as a partner to the new CEO. With a strong board, an excellent management team and 170,000 dedicated Boeing employees, I am fully confident in our company’s future.”

Steve Mollenkopf has served on the board of directors since 2020. He was previously CEO of Qualcomm. “I am honored and humbled to step into this new role,” said Mollenkopf. “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. I also want to thank both Larry and Dave for their exceptional stewardship of Boeing during a challenging and consequential time for Boeing and the aerospace industry.”

Stephanie Pope has been serving as COO of Boeing since January of this year. Previously, she was President and CEO of Boeing Global Services, where she was responsible for leading the company’s aerospace services for commercial, government and aviation industry customers worldwide. Prior, she was Chief Financial Officer of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, and has held positions in every Boeing business unit. She begins her role as President and CEO of Commercial Airplanes immediately.