‘We need someone to fix Boeing.’ Here’s who could replace Calhoun as the troubled plane maker’s CEO

Help wanted at Boeing.

CEO Dave Calhoun on Monday announced he is stepping down from the aerospace giant’s top post at year’s end as the company struggles with a safety and production quality crisis tied to its bestselling airplane, the 737 Max. Boeing said it will begin a search for Calhoun’s replacement.

Boeing also announced Monday it’s replacing board Chair Larry Kellner and the chief executive of its all-important commercial airplanes unit, Stan Deal.

Calhoun told CNBC on Monday that the decision to retire was “100%” his own and that he would be involved in finding his successor. His departure isn’t much of a surprise given the struggles of the last few months.

Boeing’s customers had grown frustrated under Calhoun’s watch as they faced the fallout from recurring quality issues that span programs like the 737 Max, the 787 Dreamliner and the two 747s that will serve as Air Force One aircraft.

“We need someone to fix Boeing,” one major airline executive, who wasn’t authorized to speak to the media, told CNBC after Boeing announced the management shake-up Monday. “They unequivocally needed a change.”

With supply chain issues, quality lapses and more regulator scrutiny in the wake of a panel blowout from an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 in January, airplane deliveries are arriving late, and airline executives say the problems have forced them to change their growth and fleet plans.

Executives at Boeing’s customers told CNBC they want the company’s new leader to have manufacturing acumen, expertise in the highly regulated and technical world of aviation, and, perhaps most difficult of all, the ability to rally Boeing’s employees and ensure a culture of safety, consistency and innovation.

“This is going to be a challenging role to fill. You’re going to need someone with a huge amount of energy and commitment,” said John Plueger, CEO of Air Lease, a major buyer of Boeing planes that leases them to airlines. “You don’t want somebody for two years. You want someone at the head of the ship for as long as possible.”

The next boss at Boeing will have to contend not just with the company’s internal struggles but lost market share to rival Airbus. Meanwhile, China has been pushing ahead with building its own commercial aircraft.

“I want somebody who knows how to handle a big, long-cycled business like ours,” Calhoun told CNBC in an interview Monday while announcing his departure. “It’s not just the production of the airplane. It’s the development of the next airplane. Our next lead is going to develop … the next airplane for the Boeing company.”

Financial analysts applauded the amount of time Boeing is giving itself to find Calhoun’s replacement. Four-year Boeing board member Steve Mollenkopf, an ex-Qualcomm CEO who will take over as independent chairman of the board, will lead the search.

“It provides leadership continuity, which a knee-jerk change would not, and CEO Dave Calhoun clearly is on board with the need to bolster safety,” said TD Cowen analyst Cai von Rumohr, in a note Monday.

While Boeing didn’t comment on its top candidates, here’s who some aviation experts say could potentially lead Boeing:

General Electric CEO Larry Culp is “probably at the top of the list for a Boeing CEO,” said Richard Aboulafia, managing director at AeroDynamic Advisory, an aviation consulting firm.

Culp is set to head the aviation unit of GE that is about to spin off, a company that makes and overhauls engines that power both Boeing and rival Airbus planes. Culp has led a turnaround for the conglomerate and oversaw the split of the company.

“The relationship with Boeing has never been stronger,” Culp told reporters earlier this month at an investor event. “Clearly, 2024 hasn’t played out the way they would have liked let alone the way we would have liked. We’re trying to support them in every possible way.”

But Culp is focusing on GE’s aerospace unit as a stand-alone company, a GE spokesperson said in response to questions about a potential future for him at Boeing.

Pat Shanahan, the interim CEO of Spirit AeroSystems, is another possibility, Aboulafia said.

A three-decade Boeing veteran, Shanahan was appointed last October to head the Boeing supplier, which makes fuselages for the company’s 737 Max and other parts, as Spirit dealt with its own quality problems that have spilled over to Boeing.

Boeing is in talks to buy Spirit, bringing the fuselage manufacturer back in-house after spinning it off almost two decades ago. A reunion could naturally slot Shanahan in as chief executive of the merged company.

“Mr. Shanahan remains solely focused on driving a zero-defects culture across all aspects of Spirit AeroSystems,” Spirit spokesman Joe Buccino told CNBC on Monday.

Aboulafia also mentioned Carrier Chairman and CEO David Gitlin, who serves on Boeing’s board.

Gitlin has experience in aviation, previously working as president and chief operating officer at Collins Aerospace. Aviation experts have said said someone with a strong background in manufacturing and operations would be needed.

Carrier did not respond to a request for comment.

Stephanie Pope, who was recently promoted to chief operating officer after serving as head of Boeing’s global services unit, is the most obvious internal option to succeed Calhoun. (Former Boeing CFO Greg Smith retired from the company in 2021. He was also seen as a possible successor.)

But Pope will take over from Deal, who is retiring from his post as head of Boeing’s commercial airplane division. And one aviation executive questioned why Boeing wouldn’t have announced her appointment on Monday if she were the choice.

The “management changes are geared to institutionalize a priority on safety throughout the company by bringing in new blood,” TD Cowen’s von Rumohr wrote.

— CNBC’s Phil LeBeau contributed to this report.