Boeing Co. has nominated Qualcomm Chief Executive Steve Mollenkopf to serve on the aerospace giant's board of directors.
Mollenkopf, 51, became Qualcomm's CEO in 2014 and led the wireless technology firm through a series of disputes, including a failed hostile takeover attempt by Broadcom, a nasty two-year legal fight with Apple and anti-monopoly sanctions from regulators worldwide.
Most of these battles are now behind Qualcomm, with the exception of the pending appeal of a monopoly ruling in a case brought by the U.S. Federal Trade Commission.
Boeing is wrestling with the fallout from sensor system flaws on its 737 Max aircraft, which remain grounded after two fatal crashes. The Chicago company's revenue plunged 24% last year to $76.5 million in part because of 737 Max woes. Chief Executive Dennis Muilenburg was fired in December. Boeing named David Calhoun as CEO and president effective Jan. 13.
"I look forward to benefiting from Steve's strong leadership skills and deep experience in developing, testing and deploying technologies at scale," said Calhoun in a statement.
An engineer, Mollenkopf has worked at Qualcomm for more than 25 years. He helped lead the company through the transitions to 3G, 4G and now 5G mobile technologies.
"I am honored to be nominated as a director of Boeing and look forward to the opportunity to work with the board and the executive team," said Mollenkopf in a statement.
Two Boeing board members, Edward Liddy and Mike Zafirovski, are not standing for re-election. Liddy has reached Boeing's mandatory retirement age. Zafirovski decided to leave after 15 years on the board.
Along with Mollenkopf, Boeing nominated Akhil Johri, former chief financial officer of United Technologies Corp., to fill the board seats. Johri, 58, also serves as an independent director of Cardinal Health. Shareholders will vote on the nominations at Boeing's annual meeting, which was held in April last year.
