• Vice Chairman and Commercial Airplanes head Conner plans end-of-2017 retirement
• Industry veteran McAllister to succeed Conner as Commercial Airplanes CEO
• Deal to serve as president and CEO of new combined services business
• Moves support strategy to strengthen and grow company, Muilenburg says

Chicago | November 21, 2016– Boeing Chairman, President and CEO Dennis Muilenburg today named Kevin G. McAllister president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, succeeding company Vice Chairman Ray Conner in that role. Muilenburg also appointed Stanley A. Deal president and CEO of Boeing Global Services, a new business unit to be formed from the customer services groups within the company’s existing commercial airplanes and defense, space and security business units. McAllister joins Boeing from GE Aviation. Deal is a veteran Boeing executive.

Conner, 61, will continue to serve as Boeing vice chairman through 2017. He will work closely with McAllister in the months ahead on a purposeful hand-off of customer, supplier, and community and government relationships, and to ensure continuity of operations and customer support. Conner also will provide strategic oversight and guidance for the company’s transition to a single integrated services business and remain involved in ongoing product development strategy at Commercial Airplanes.

“With Ray Conner’s retirement timeline in sight and an expanding global services market to pursue, these moves will further strengthen and grow Boeing and better serve our customers, employees, shareholders and other partners in the years ahead,” said Muilenburg. “We are immensely grateful to Ray for his leadership and contributions to Boeing over nearly four decades, and we will continue to rely on his vast experience and keen insights in supporting the leadership and business transitions underway.”

McAllister, 53, joins Boeing after 27 years with GE Aviation, where he served since 2014 as president and CEO of GE Aviation Services. Before that, as vice president and general manager of global sales and marketing since 2008, he was credited with delivering record backlog growth for the nearly $25 billion GE business.

“Kevin is one of industry’s best and most highly regarded senior executives, and we are thrilled to have him join Boeing and our strong Commercial Airplanes team,” Muilenburg said. “He’s a passionate leader with decades of commercial aviation knowledge and experience. He knows Boeing well, shares our values and commitment to our people, and has the results-oriented operational and business experience needed to lead this vital and growing part of our company.”

Boeing Global Services will bring together core capabilities currently within Commercial Aviation Services and Boeing Defense, Space & Security’s Global Services & Support group. While some defense and commercial customer fleet support will remain within the two existing business units, the new unit will provide a broad portfolio of advanced services and incorporate the capabilities of various Boeing subsidiaries, including Aviall and Jeppesen.

Deal, 52, brings three decades of broad aerospace experience to his new leadership role. Since 2014 he has served as senior vice president of Boeing’s Commercial Aviation Services business, delivering consecutive years of record performance. Previously, he was vice president and general manager of Supply Chain Management and Operations for Boeing Commercial Airplanes, responsible for Supplier Management, Fabrication, Propulsion Systems and Quality groups. Deal joined the company as an engineer on the C-17 military aircraft program and also held senior roles in sales and marketing.

“Stan is an exceptionally capable and experienced leader, and he’s ideally prepared to stand up an integrated Boeing services business to expand our share of a global commercial and defense services market worth an estimated $2.5 trillion over the next 10 years,” Muilenburg said. “Substantial services growth is core to Boeing’s strategy as we enter our second century, and this move is a key enabler to accelerate our efforts and provide increasing value to our customers.”

Deal will begin immediately finalizing and executing detailed and deliberate plans to structure and organize the new business while ensuring all near-term customer commitments are met and value is maximized over the long term. He will work closely with Vice Chairman Conner and Defense, Space & Security President and CEO Leanne Caret during the transition.

Boeing Global Services is slated to begin fully operating as the company’s third major business unit by the third quarter of 2017, with a small core headquarters group based in Dallas, where Aviall currently has a sizeable presence. While specific business details and additional leadership assignments will be forthcoming, the vast majority of the work performed by Boeing Global Services is expected to remain at existing locations for the foreseeable future.

Deal and McAllister join Caret as business unit leaders reporting directly to Muilenburg. They also become members of the company’s Executive Council. The appointments are effective today.

 

Readers: This issue is far from IFE and we apologize for that fact. We did think you might find this story interesting, not because of the intrigue involved, but rather its’ “suspicions confirmed” flavor. Admittedly, we have never worked on a story like this before, however, many of us wonder what is happening inside the Seattle planemaker, Boeing. Late delivery schedules have never been tolerated in the past and relatively recent moves; buyouts and management shuffles may have taken their toll. Our story starts with one dedicated Boeing employee who worked tirelessly for the company, before and after his retirement. We know, we were there… we got the T-shirt! His website says it all but the background is so amazing we had to dig deeper. 

Bob Bogash is a passionate man, but while this story is about Boeing, you might want to take a look at the man himself because he is probably respected and vilified by a lot of Boeing employees. First, check out Bob and his background here: http://www.rbogash.com. Now, you need to look at the website he put together with his (and thousands of others) view of the state of the Boeing Commercial Airplane Company: http://www.rbogash.com/boeing_delay.html. This is a stinging indictment of the management and practices of present-day Boeing so we dug a bit deeper after we got the anonymous website tip and followed-up with a bit of research. No doubt the company water cooler philosophers have their views, however, we sought other respected, retired executives and managers and got the following amazing responses:  

“The bottom line is that The Boeing Company, and Boeing Commercial Airplanes in particular, have always been run by people who “grew up” in the company and had actually executed programs: T. Wilson, Jack Steiner, Frank Shrontz, Ron Woodard, Dean Thornton, Alan Mulally, and Phil Condit, just to name a few. To effectively manage Boeing Commercial Airplanes, the leader must have a solid experience base there so he or she can independently “check the pulse.”  Wilson simply called his network of friends to find the truth about programs or walked out on the factory floor. Condit had his version of the same, as did Mulally.”   

“The current BCA CEO and the current Boeing Company CEO do not have any BCA program experience and therefore neither of them has a basis for knowing when they are being misled, told half-truths, or otherwise being given ‘get well proposals’ that don’t make sense. They have no perspicacity when it comes to managing the commercial airplane business.  And – during 2008 they forced out the only senior people who did. Harvard Business School teaches a good manager can manage anything.  Stanford Business School teaches a good manager can manage that which he knows about.  The Boeing Company clearly requires the latter, but the Board of Directors has put the former in charge of The Company.  Boeing Commercial Airplanes is no better off.  The current CEO came from the defense side and has no experience running successful (airplane) programs.  Connexion-By-Boeing should have been a clue. Both of these men, in the right position, are probably fantastic managers. They currently appear to be out of their realm.”  

“There is a larger problem that started with the acquisition of then McDonnell Douglas  – a company whose culture focused on personal achievement rather than on customer satisfaction and shareholder value.  The integration of these two cultures has been, and continues to be, traumatic – witness Mr. Sears going to jail, Mr. Stonecipher’s ethics lapse, Mr. Condit’s early exit, and the continuing exodus of seasoned Commercial Airplane & Boeing Aerospace executives. On the developmental program side, Boeing Commercial Airplane’s history was one focused on getting it right the first time, absolutely knowing and meeting customer expectations, and never being late – no matter what the cost. This industry does not forgive and does not forget.  Maintaining design responsibility at Boeing, having a staff and project check-and-balance, focusing relentlessly on configuration control, and backstopping troubled suppliers where hallmarks of every developmental program.  BCA lost that on the 787 program… enough said.” 

Often, criticisms from outside a technically focused company don’t really hit the mark because of the technical nature of the product and it’s changing nature…not to mention the cultural changes affecting people and organizations over time. You will have to be the judge, but we discovered a quiet, but real, retiree revolution with campaigners sending over 2000 emails each day to Bogash. Detractors of his website message don’t seem to exist because, according to Mr. Bogash he is apparently on-message with most readers. Here is what another respected retiree told IFExpress, “This (website) expresses what knowledgeable retirees feel. We get together and discuss these issues. We have all read Bob’s website and can only say “AMEN.” We think the problem is also expressed by the havoc in the auto and financial industry as well. They Just Don’t Get It!!!! They are all novices at the problems of designing/building/certifying a commercial airliner. The real sad part of it is we think it is too late to ever get back to where we all showed what’s needed to be done, and by whom, if there is a chance to succeed.” 

While these few words do not do justice to all the people we talked to, the level of disgust at the present day state of affairs at Boeing is deafening. We found no one disagreeing with Mr. Bogash.  When we talked with Bob we can report that he truly lives and breathes for change within Boeing. He and his “guerilla army” have sought any number of ways to get his/their message to Boeing employees, managers, executives and brass at the highest level. Boeing’s response to the efforts; “Tepid… at best.” Bob went on, “Our goal is to communicate that the company is in a state of denial and without change, the outcome for Boeing looks grim.” 

Readers might want to pickup the following book for even more enlightening reading matter. We suggest a historical knowledge of Boeing stock prices would be of use in doing so! http://www.amazon.com/You-Cant-Order-Change-Turnaround/dp/1591842395/ref=sr_1_2?ie=UTF8&qid=1236627694&sr=8-2