Boeing management clearout betrays the seriousness of the company’s crisis

Published

2 years ago

March 25, 2024

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The scale of the management changes announced by Boeing are a recognition from the company of the grave situation in which it finds itself.

It is pretty rare for the chairman and chief executive of an organisation to step down at roughly the same time as Larry Kellner and Dave Calhoun are doing.

For the departure of another senior executive, running one of that company’s most important businesses, to be announced at the same time is almost without precedent.

Stan Deal, who steps down immediately as head of Boeing‘s commercial airlines operation, is clearly carrying the can for the crisis to have engulfed the 737 MAX 9 jet which has been subject to mass groundings since the incident, in January, in which one of the jets, operated by Alaska Airlines, suffered the blowing-out of a door plug in mid-air.

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Since then, Boeing has had to launch a root-and-branch investigation of its fuselage production to ensure that nothing like that happens again.

It has also had to tell some of its customers, most notably Ryanair in Europe and Southwestern Airlines in the United States, that deliveries of the aircraft will be subject to delays. That has led customers to rethink their flying schedules during the key summer months and Ryanair, for one, is demanding compensation.

What is especially damning about the departure of Mr Calhoun, in particular, is that he is now the second consecutive Boeing chief executive to be forced to step down due to questions over its poor quality of production and supply chains.

The man he replaced, Dennis Muilenberg, was sacked at the end of 2019 following two crashes involving an earlier version of the 737 MAX – a Lion Air flight in Indonesia in October 2018 and an Ethiopian Airlines flight in March that year – that claimed the lives of hundreds of people. On that occasion, Boeing was heavily criticised for not acting more quickly, with Mr Muilenberg’s continued occupation of the CEO’s office distracting from the company’s attempts to rebuild its relationships with its customers and regulators.

Mr Calhoun’s decision to depart at the end of the year suggests Boeing has learned from that experience but also reflects the fact that he failed in his most crucial role – to improve production quality – and clearly that has rattled the confidence of investors.

Their mood will not have been improved by a report in the Wall Street Journal last week that the chief executives of some of Boeing’s biggest airline customers in the US had requested a meeting with Boeing’s board to express concern over the Alaska Airlines accident and the subsequent production problems with the 737 MAX 9.

The outgoing CEO did his best today to suggest that this was part and parcel of the normal process of succession – telling CNBC’s Phil LeBeau that he would be 68 at the time of his departure, having been in the role for five years, making it an obvious time to step down.

But this is not a normal CEO succession, not when Mr Kellner and Mr Deal – who has spent nearly 40 years at the company – are also stepping down. It is emblematic of a company in crisis.

That Boeing – America’s biggest and most important manufacturing business – has been able to immediately announce a new chairman of the quality of Steve Mollenkopf, the former Qualcomm chief executive, will at least provide some reassurance.

His first task will be identifying a new chief executive. Stephanie Pope, who had only just been made chief operating officer before her second ‘battlefield promotion’ this year to replace Mr Deal, will obviously been seen as a contender.

However, it feels likely that Boeing investors will press him to appoint someone from outside the company, someone not tainted with the production disasters of the last few years.

In one way, though, Mr Calhoun does deserve some sympathy.

Boeing used to be run by engineers who took immense pride in what the company did. It was a key contractor in Apollo 11, the NASA mission that first put man on the moon, as well as the Space Shuttle – the world’s first reusable spacecraft.

More recently, the focus has been on financial engineering, with share buybacks given a greater priority than research and development. The 737 MAX family was emblematic of that – it was merely a re-engineering of the old 737 family of jets rather than a complete rethinking of what customers might want.

Airbus, which took a more conservative approach to its balance sheet, was by contrast more able to rethink its aircraft designs and invest in R&D. The European company’s reward is that it has now comprehensively overtaken Boeing in terms of production and aircraft sales.

In an ideal world, this boardroom reset would be aiming to recapture Boeing’s past glories.

For now, though, the task for the new management will be to rebuild the confidence of regulators, customers, investors and employees. It is that serious a situation.

US

Putin criticises Trump’s sanctions on oil firms – as Russian jets ‘briefly enter NATO airspace’

Published

3 hours ago

October 23, 2025

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Putin criticises Trump's sanctions on oil firms - as Russian jets 'briefly enter NATO airspace'

Vladimir Putin has described Donald Trump’s sanctions against two major oil firms as an “unfriendly act”.

However, the Russian president has insisted the tightened restrictions won’t affect the nation’s economy, a claim widely contradicted by most analysts.

In a major policy shift, Mr Trump imposed sanctions against Rosneft and Lukoil – Russia’s biggest oil companies – on Wednesday.

The White House said this was because of “Russia’s lack of serious commitment to a peace process to end the war in Ukraine”.

Putin has now warned the move could disrupt the global oil markets, and lead to higher prices for consumers worldwide.

A meeting between the two leaders had been proposed in Budapest, but Mr Trump said he had decided to cancel the talks because “it didn’t feel right to me”.

Speaking from the Oval Office, he had told reporters: “I have good conversations. And then, they don’t go anywhere. They just don’t go anywhere.”

Giving a speech in Moscow yesterday, Putin said “dialogue is always better than war” – but warned that Russia will never bow to pressure from abroad.

Earlier, his long-term ally Dmitry Medvedev had described Mr Trump as a “talkative peacemaker” who had now “fully embarked on the warpath against Russia”.

Oil prices have witnessed a sizeable jump since the sanctions were announced, with Brent crude rising by 5% – the biggest daily percentage gains since the middle of June.

In other developments, Lithuania has claimed that two Russian military aircraft briefly entered its airspace yesterday.

A Su-30 fighter and Il-78 refuelling tanker were in the NATO member’s territory for 18 seconds, and Spanish jets were scrambled in response to the incident.

Russia’s defence ministry denied this – and said its planes did not violate the borders of any other country during a “training flight” in the Kaliningrad region.

Volodymyr Zelenskyy attended a European Council summit in Brussels to discuss the war in Ukraine – and said the meeting had delivered “good results”.

He said Ukraine had secured political support for frozen Russian assets and “their maximum use” to defend against Russian aggression, adding the EU would “work out all the necessary details”.

Mr Zelenskyy thanked the bloc for approving its 19th sanctions package against Russia earlier today, and work was already beginning on a 20th.

European leaders are going to arrive in London later today for a “critical” meeting of the “Coalition of the Willing” – with the goal of discussing “how they can pile pressure on Putin as he continues to kill innocent civilians with indiscriminate attacks across Ukraine”.

Prime Minister Sir Keir Starmer said: “The only person involved in this conflict who does not want to stop the war is President Putin, and his depraved strikes on young children in a nursery this week make that crystal clear.

“Time and again we offer Putin the chance to end his needless invasion, to stop the killing and recall his troops, but he repeatedly rejects those proposals and any chance of peace.

“From the battlefield to the global markets, as Putin continues to commit atrocities in Ukraine we must ratchet up the pressure on Russia and build on President Trump’s decisive action.”

US

Trump’s sanctions are no slap on the wrist – they’re a punch to the gut of Moscow’s war economy

Published

18 hours ago

October 23, 2025

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Trump's sanctions are no slap on the wrist - they're a punch to the gut of Moscow's war economy

The new US sanctions are no slap on the wrist – they’re a punch to the gut of Moscow’s war economy.

Oil giants Rosneft and Lukoil are the twin engines pumping money through Russia’s military veins.

Washington framed the bold move as a bid to “degrade the Kremlin’s ability to raise revenue for its war machine”.

Oil is Russia’s bloodstream, and the Trump Treasury just cut off the blood flow.

But every blow struck in the ring comes with the risk of self-inflicted pain, and there’s potential for collateral damage.

By squeezing Russia’s oil sector, the president is tightening the global market’s chest – and America’s own pump could feel the pressure.

The White House is gambling that the geopolitical payoff will ultimately outweigh the domestic sting.

“These are tremendous sanctions and I hope they don’t last long,” Mr Trump said.

That mix of swagger and caveat summed up his approach – maximum pressure, but with an eye on prices back home.

Europe rushed to mirror Washington’s stance, adding restrictions on imports and tightening loopholes in shipping.

The EU was clearly signalling that it’s in Trump’s corner, that the Western alliance holds.

‘Wasted journey’

On both sides of the Atlantic, they know that Moscow will seize on any disunity and slip through the cracks.

An Oval Office meeting with the NATO Secretary-General Mark Rutte provided the diplomatic stagecraft.

Mr Trump repeated that he’d cancelled a planned summit with Vladimir Putin because he “didn’t want to have a wasted journey”.

Mr Rutte played the part of loyal ally, twice labelling the US president “the only one who can get this done”.

Earlier, Mr Rutte played down my suggestion that his visit indicated Trump’s meeting with Zelensky last Friday had been a disaster.

It wouldn’t be the first time Mr Rutte, who famously referred to Mr Trump as “Daddy”, has poured oil on troubled waters.

But it’s Moscow’s apparent refusal to accept Trump’s terms that has put plans for another summit with Putin on hold.

China’s diplomatic influence with Russia could give it some leverage when Mr Trump meets Xi Jinping for trade talks next week.

The US president’s sanctions are more than punishment – they’re a strategic gamble to corner Putin – but the margin of error is razor thin.

If energy prices surge or allied unity splinters, Mr Trump could find himself on the ropes.

US

Entire East Wing of White House will be demolished for ballroom – as Trump urged to pause project

Published

18 hours ago

October 23, 2025

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Entire East Wing of White House will be demolished for ballroom - as Trump urged to pause project

The entire East Wing of the White House will be demolished “within days” – much more bulldozing than initially expected for Donald Trump’s new ballroom construction project.

Two Trump administration officials told Sky News’ US partner NBC that the demolition is a significant expansion of the initial plans announced this summer.

“It won’t interfere with the current building,” Mr Trump had said on 31 July. “It’ll be near it, but not touching it, and pays total respect to the existing building, which I’m the biggest fan of.”

But a White House official told NBC News the “entirety” of the East Wing would eventually be “modernised and rebuilt”.

“The scope and the size of the ballroom project have always been subject to vary as the process develops,” the official added.

The East Wing was built at the beginning of the last century and was last modified in 1942.

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Construction on the ballroom – which is expected to hold up to 900 people when finished – began this week.

The National Trust for Historic Preservation, a non-profit agency created by Congress to help preserve historic buildings, warned administration officials in a letter on Tuesday that the planned ballroom “will overwhelm the White House itself”.

“We respectfully urge the administration and the National Park Service (stewards of the White House) to pause demolition until plans for the proposed ballroom go through the legally required public review processes,” Carol Quillen, the trust’s chief executive, said in a statement.

‘Fake news’

The White House called the uproar “manufactured outrage” by “unhinged leftists and their fake news allies” in a statement.

Last week, Mr Trump said the total price would be about $250m (£187m), which would be paid for by himself and private donors will pay for. However, on Wednesday, he said the ballroom’s price is “about $300m (£225m)”.

The 90,000 sq ft ballroom will dwarf the White House itself – and would be able to accommodate almost five times more guests than the East Room, the largest current space in the mansion.

Mr Trump says the ballroom won’t cost US taxpayers at all. Instead, “donors” would pay for it.

Comcast, the parent company of Sky News, was included on a list of top donors released last week – but it is unclear how much it or others have contributed.