Boeing (BA) shares moved firmly higher Monday after the aerospace giant unveiled major leadership changes, including plans for a new chief executive, as the planemaker reels from a series of manufacturing and safety issues.
CEO Dave Calhoun, who has lead the group since 2020, will step down at the end of this year, with the group launching an intensive search for a new chief executive in the coming days, the company said.
Board Chairman Larry Kellner also said he would not stand for reelection, paving the way for Steve Mollenkopf, who will lead the CEO search process.
Stan Deal, Boeing's highly respected head of its commercial aircraft division, has also opted to retire, and will be succeeded by Chief Operating Officer Stephanie Pope.
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"It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve Boeing," Calhoun said in a letter to employees made public by Boeing. "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 said.
Boeing shares were marked 1.5% higher in early Monday trading immediately following the announcements to change hands at $191.40 each, a move that would still leave the stock down more than 23% for the year.
Boeing 737 Max troubles
Boeing has suffered a series of major safety issues over the past five years, with the second of two major disasters in 2019, the fatal crash of a Boeing 737 Max in Ethiopia, leading to the resignation of then CEO Dennis Muilenburg.
Boeing's years-long effort to win back trust in the safety of its workhorse jet, which was grounded by virtually every aviation administration in the world, found support when the planemaker won permission to resume deliveries of the 737 Max aircraft to China, the world's biggest aircraft market, earlier this year.
However, Calhoun's effort suffered a major setback shortly after when a door plug on a different version of the aircraft blew open during an Alaska Airlines flight.
Calhoun said the incident, which triggered the grounding of hundreds of Max 9 flights, as well as investigations by both the Federal Aviation Administration and the National Transportation Safety Board, left him "shaken to the bone."
Related: Boeing expects major financial impact from recent incidents
The FAA has said Boeing won't be able to expand its current 737 Max production rate until the probes are complete and the planemaker can ensure the fleet's ultimate safety.
Calhoun's position, however, became increasingly untenable after reports emerged last week that several major U.S. airline CEOs requested a meeting with Chairman Kellner to discuss safety concerns and the likely delay of scores of planes over the coming years tied to various probes into Max safety.
Boeing, which has reported only one profitable quarter over the past three years, said its adjusted core loss for the three months ended in December was 47 cents a share, narrowed from the $1.75 share loss it reported over the year-earlier period and better than the Wall Street consensus forecast of a 78-cent loss.
Group revenue, Boeing said, rose 10.2% from a year earlier to $22.02 billion, topping analysts' forecasts of a $21.08 billion tally.
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