Following the infamous door-plug blowout on Air Alaska flight 1282 on January 5, the Boeing board tore up its succession plan. Only three weeks earlier, Boeing had announced that Stephanie Pope, who'd served as CFO at both the Global Services and Commercial Airplanes divisions, and then headed the former unit for the previous fifteen months, would ascend to chief operating officer on January 1. The promotion clearly marked Pope as heir apparent to current CEO David Calhoun, the 67-year old GE veteran who'd championed her as the best choice for his successor.
But the disaster at 16,000 feet over Portland delivered a shattering shock that reduced Calhoun's clout and gave the board second thoughts on succession. On March 25, Boeing announced that Calhoun would depart as CEO by year end, and that former Continental Airlines chief Larry Kellner would step down as chairman, replaced by Steve Mollenkopf, retired CEO of Qualcomm and a Boeing director since 2020. The board fired the head of the troubled Commercial Airplanes unit that produces the 737 Max and 787 Dreamliner series, and put Pope in charge, adding to her role as COO.
