Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun Plans to Step Down Following 737 Max Crisis
After a series of aviation mishaps, including the door plug that ripped off an Alaska Airlines Boeing 737 Max jet earlier this year and other 737 and 777 incidents in recent weeks, coupled with intensified oversight from federal regulatory bodies, Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun is stepping down at the end of the year.
“As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing,” Calhoun wrote in a letter to employees.
Calhoun continued: “My decision to step down as CEO at the end of this year is one the board has been prepared for and will result in a number of changes at a management and governance level moving forward.”
Get woke, get fired
— zerohedge (@zerohedge) March 25, 2024
*BOEING DAVE CALHOUN ANNOUNCES INTENT TO STEP DOWN AS CEO
He also noted that the board’s chairman, Larry Kellner, will be stepping down at Boeing’s annual meeting in May. The board has elected Steve Mollenkopf to succeed Kellner as chair.
In addition to these major leadership changes, Stan Deal, president and CEO of Boeing Commercial Airplanes, will retire from the company, and Stephanie Pope will lead the commercial airplanes segment.
Last week, executives from major airlines spoke with Boeing’s board to express frustrations over quality control issues in the manufacturing process.
Calhoun has been on a mea culpa tour, acknowledging his company’s quality control issues. He has promised investors, airline customers, and the general public about the struggles and potential changes to the company.
Boeing shares are up 4% in premarket trading in New York on the major shakeup.
Calhoun replaced Dennis Muilenburg in 2019 for mishandling two deadly 737 Max crashes.
* * *
Here’s Boeing CEO Dave Calhoun’s full letter to employees:
Team,
As you all know, the Alaska Airlines Flight 1282 accident was a watershed moment for Boeing. We must continue to respond to this accident with humility and complete transparency. We also must inculcate a total commitment to safety and quality at every level of our company.
The eyes of the world are on us, and I know we will come through this moment a better company, building on all the learnings we accumulated as we worked together to rebuild Boeing over the last number of years.
I want to thank each and every one of you for how you have stepped up to this challenge and for the work now underway to make sure we demonstrate to all stakeholders that the Boeing of the future is everything they should expect it to be. We have been working together for the last five years to address some of the most significant challenges our company and industry have ever faced in our 108-year history. I am confident that the way we have confronted these challenges, and how we are responding to this specific moment, is establishing standards for future generations of employees and will be woven into the fabric of how we operate for decades to come.
It is the future of our company that is the subject of my letter to you today. I have been considering for some time, in discussion with our board of directors, the right time for a CEO transition at Boeing. I want to share with you that I have decided this will be my last year as CEO of our great company, and I have notified the board of that decision.
I originally agreed to take on the role of CEO of Boeing at the board’s request, stepping down as board chair in the process, because of the unprecedented circumstances the company was facing at that time. It has been the greatest privilege of my life to serve in both roles and I will only feel the journey has been properly completed when we finish the job that we need to do. We are going to fix what isn’t working, and we are going to get our company back on the track towards recovery and stability.
My decision to step down as CEO at the end of this year is one the board has been prepared for and will result in a number of changes at a management and governance level moving forward. My long-time partner in all things Boeing, our Chair Larry Kellner, has advised the board and me that he does not intend to stand for re-election at our upcoming Annual Meeting of Shareholders. The board has elected Steve Mollenkopf to succeed Larry as chair. Steve will lead the board process of selecting my successor as CEO. Larry, too, had been considering the appropriate moment to turn over the reins after more than four years as chair and 13 years on our board, and concluded that the CEO selection process should be led by a chair who will stay at the helm as a partner to the new CEO.
I want to express my deepest personal thanks to Larry for his outstanding leadership over the last number of years, and I know I speak for everyone at the company when I say, nobody could have worked harder or longer hours in dedication to his duties. Perhaps first, among the many legacies of his tenure, is profoundly strengthened governance at our company, including through his recruitment of several superb new board members, and his work with others on the board to establish our independent standing board aerospace safety committee. Larry is a professional in every way and someone to whom Boeing owes a great debt of gratitude.
I also want to thank Steve for his willingness to take on the role as chair. Steve has had a long and extraordinarily successful career with decades of experience as both a CEO of Qualcomm and a board member of several important public companies. Since joining the Boeing board, his contribution has been extremely valuable and his professional background as an engineer will serve him and the company well in this new role. I look forward to working with him for the remainder of this year to ensure a smooth transition.
In addition to these changes, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President and Chief Executive Officer Stan Deal will retire from the company and Stephanie Pope will lead our BCA business, effective today. I want to thank Stan for his many contributions and dedication since first joining our ranks 38 years ago, and for his tireless service as our BCA leader during an uncommonly difficult period for our company and for our industry.
I also want to thank Stephanie for taking on this critical role. With nearly 30 years of experience at Boeing, including her successful tenure leading our global services business, Stephanie knows our company inside and out and has a proven track record of superb leadership, including an innate talent for listening and responding to our people. Stephanie is a third-generation Boeing employee. She is deeply committed to our company, to our employees and to our shared future; and she is the perfect person to take on the leadership of our commercial airplanes business at this moment.
As we begin this period of transition, I want to assure you, 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.
Thank you,
Dave
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Shakespeare Plays Officially Labelled ‘Hate Speech’ by UK Gov’t
The British government has declared that William Shakespeare’s work is “racist, sexist, and ableist” and should therefore not be celebrated in schools or theatre’s. According to a taxpayer funded study by the University of Roehampton, […]
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FDA Issues Urgent Warning: ‘Higher Risk of Deadly Seizures in Toddlers After COVID Vaccination’
Toddlers and young children are at risk of suffering from deadly seizures shortly after COVID-19 vaccination, according to an urgent warning issued by the U.S. Food and Drug Administration (FDA). The occurrence of febrile seizures […]
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Surgeons Achieve ‘Groundbreaking’ Pig-to-Human Kidney Transplant
A gene-editing tool has enhanced pig-to-human kidney compatibility, signaling major advances for patients with terminal health conditions.
Doctors at Massachusetts General Hospital have reached a medical milestone by transplanting a genetically modified pig kidney into a 62-year-old man who was suffering from advanced renal failure.
The four-hour procedure performed on March 16 marks a pivotal advancement in providing viable organs for patients in dire need.
The kidney came from a biotech firm specializing in human-compatible engineered organs. Leveraging CRISPR-Cas9 gene-editing technology, scholars modified the pig’s genes, eliminating three of them involved in producing carbohydrates targeted by the human immune system.
Emmanuelle Charpentier of the Max Planck Unit for the Science of Pathogens and Jennifer Doudna of the University of California, Berkeley, jointly won the 2020 Nobel Prize in Chemistry for developing the CRISPR/Cas9 method for genome editing.
Moreover, seven human genes were introduced into the organs to prevent immune-related complications that could lead to rejection. Additionally, snippets of viral DNA known as endogenous retroviruses, which pose risks to humans, were deactivated within the pigs’ genomes.
Before the transplant, the recipient, identified as Rick Slayman, underwent two antibody-based treatments and received immune-suppressing medications to stave off organ rejection.
Leonardo V. Riella, the medical director for kidney transplantation and a Harold and Ellen Danser associate professor of surgery at HMS, expressed optimism for the medical procedure’s fate, envisioning a future where dialysis becomes obsolete.
“At MGH alone, there are over 1,400 patients on the waiting list for a kidney transplant. Some of these patients will unfortunately die or get too sick to be transplanted due to the long waiting time on dialysis. I am firmly convinced that xenotransplantation represents a promising solution to the organ shortage crisis,” Riella noted.
The patient, afflicted with type 2 diabetes and hypertension, had been on dialysis for seven years before undergoing a human kidney transplant in December 2018. However, the transplanted organ exhibited signs of failure five years later, prompting a return to dialysis in May 2023, accompanied by severe complications necessitating frequent hospital visits.
“I have been a Mass General Transplant Center patient for 11 years and have the highest level of trust in the doctors, nurses, and clinical staff who have cared for me,” Slayman said in a statement.
Slayman stated that when his transplanted kidney started failing in 2023, he once again placed his trust in the care team at MGH to fulfill their objectives of not only enhancing their quality of life but also prolonging it.
His nephrologist, Dr. Winfred Williams, and the team at the Transplant Center, proposed a pig kidney transplant, thoroughly discussing the advantages and disadvantages of this procedure with him.
While not the first ever pig-to-human kidney transplant, this achievement builds on past endeavors, with previous attempts conducted on brain-dead individuals sustained by life support. The most recent such transplant, performed by Robert Montgomery at NYU Langone Health in July 2023, saw the kidney function for over a month without rejection or infection.
This medical feat follows a line of successes from the first human organ transplant in 1954 to the nation’s initial penile transplant in 2016.
With over 100,000 Americans awaiting organ transplants and 17 dying daily due to organ shortages, urgent solutions are imperative, particularly amid projections of escalating terminal kidney disease cases in the US from 29 to 68 percent.
“The continued success of this groundbreaking kidney transplant represents a true milestone in the field of transplantation. It also represents a potential breakthrough in solving one of the more intractable problems in our field, that being unequal access for ethnic minority patients to the opportunity for kidney transplants due to the extreme donor organ shortage and other system-based barriers,” said nephrologist Winfred Williams, associate professor of medicine at HMS.
A Baby In a Mother’s Womb ‘Is a Parasite,’ Claims Polish Gynecologist
During a debate on abortion organized by web channel Zero, Dr. Anna Orawiec, a gynecologist, likened pregnancy to a form of parasitism that women consciously decide to engage in.
“From the point of view of biology, parasitism is a situation in which one organism takes from another and gives nothing in return. Pregnancy is such a situation in a way because the fetus does not nourish the woman in any way, so it is a parasite. But most women, however, decide to engage in this parasitism and are happy with the parasite that is inside,” said Orawiec.
Orawiec also explained that she advocates for the legalization of abortion up to the 12th week of pregnancy.
“I believe that it should be the woman who decides whether she wants to be pregnant or wants to terminate it. If a patient decides to have an abortion by the 12th week, it is a procedure that is safe enough, safer than wisdom tooth extraction. So, here, whether we continue the pregnancy or not, should depend on the person who is pregnant,” the gynecologist said.
The shocking words uttered by the doctor during the debate on the right to abortion received wide coverage on social media.
“The child is a parasite. The woman agrees to carry the parasitism inside and is happy to give birth to the parasite. How can a doctor call a child a parasite?” one user asked on X.
Oto Anna Orawiec (Parzyńska)- Klinika Perinatologii i Położnictwa Szpitala MSWiA w Warszawie. Ginekolog.
— Mateusz (@Gameover1920) March 18, 2024
“Dziecko to pasożyt, Kobieta zgadza się nosić w środku pasożytnictwo i jest szczęśliwa urodzić pasożyta”.
Jak Lekarz może nazwać dziecko Pasożytem? To się w głowie nie mieści! pic.twitter.com/UuXTTJA8h7
“It’s sad, but such people should make such statements more often, because they ridicule the left’s views on abortion. They take them to such an extreme,” said another.
“I cannot find words in the language of civilized people to comment on these disgusting words,” said another user while another simply wrote: “Barbaric views.”
The debate on liberalizing abortion legislation was reignited in Poland in November last year when the Left submitted two bills, with one that partially decriminalizes abortion and assistance for the procedure, and another that allows termination of pregnancy until the end of the 12th week.
At the end of January this year, a draft was submitted by a group of MPs from Donald Tusk’s Civic Coalition to parliament, which allows for abortion on-demand until the 12th week of pregnancy. Another draft, by the Third Way Alliance, reverses the Constitutional Court judgment of 2020 on abortion regulations, bringing back abortion on grounds of damage to the fetus. Third Way politicians also want a referendum to be held on abortion.
Szymon Hołownia, the speaker of Poland’s parliament, has decided that all drafts regarding abortion will be discussed in the Sejm on April 11, after the local elections. This caused a major row in the ruling coalition, as the Left and Tusk’s party wanted the matter debated as soon as possible.
The abortion regulations in force in Poland since 1993 were changed after the Constitutional Court’s judgment of October 2020. Previously, the Act on Family Planning, known as the abortion compromise, allowed abortion also in the case of severe and irreversible fetal impairment or an incurable disease that threatens the child’s life. The Constitutional Tribunal found this ground for termination of pregnancy to be unconstitutional, as it did not meet the standards to protect life.
The judgment led to mass protests in 2020, with the issue hurting the ruling conservatives (PiS) in the 2023 election.