As the search for a replacement CEO at Boeing continues, shareholders at the company held a vote to reelect their outgoing CEO. The move comes in contrast to the Proxy Advisor’s recommendation, which hinged upon the existing safety culture crisis.
A recommendation from Proxy Adviser Glass Lewis last month leaned against shareholders reelecting Dave Calhoun, the outgoing Boeing CEO, at the annual meeting this week. However, according to a preliminary tally, shareholders ignored the guidance and ultimately voted in favor of passing the measure.
Dissatisfaction with the efforts to change the safety culture at Boeing abounded, and Lewis raised concerns about the generally accepted stance. Safety culture has come under intense scrutiny this year due to several high-profile incidents, one of which included the death of a whistleblower and, according to Reuters, multiple high-level malfunctions among other prevalent issues.
In mid-January, an incident on Alaska Airlines saw a door plug blowout mid-flight, almost immediately followed by a separate incident in which a plane was forced to land without its front landing gear in place. Additionally, there was an incident in which a plane skidded off of the runway in Senegal. Earlier this year, Calhoun announced that he would officially resign from his post at the end of 2024.
Facing whistleblowers is not new for Boeing. They have faced such people as Sam Salehpour, a man who testified to an “effectively… Putting out defective airplanes” type of culture, adding that the planes could quite literally “fall apart at the joints” if immediate action is not taken to address the issues.
As a man who spent 40 years as a quality engineer at Boeing, Salehpour says that he has been the victim of multiple physical threats for attempting to shed light on the concerns he had while he was employed at the company.
Salehpour testified, “My boss said, ‘I would have killed someone who had said what you said in a meeting.’” He added, “This is not a safety culture when you get threatened by bringing issues of safety concerns.”
Boeing has also been under scrutiny since the Federal Aviation Administration (FAA) opened an investigation into the company following information that revealed several 787 Dreamliner planes had missed vital inspections before being distributed, which led to major accusations of heavily falsified records.
This year, shares in Boeing have plummeted 30% in value due to ongoing issues. The newly appointed chairman of the company, Steve Mollenkopf, will continue his search for a permanent replacement for the CEO using his own experience as an engineer and CEO at Qualcomm to guide his decision.
To appropriately frame the challenges the new CEO of Boeing will face, Mollenkopf has been in deep discussions with Boeing suppliers and airline customers regarding their concerns. His approach is believed to help in the early stages, according to the Seattle Times.
Offering assurance to shareholders Mollenkopf says that the company will remain “committed to a process that will identify the next CEO to lead Boeing through our current challenges and into the future… The months and years ahead are critically important to our company as we take the necessary steps to regain the trust lost in recent times, get back on track, and perform with the company that we all know Boeing can and must be every day.”
