It’s been a turbulent decade for Boeing — the aircraft maker’s public image has suffered a slow and bumpy descent as the company found itself at the center of one controversy after another.
In early 2024, a door plug blew out of one of its aircraft shortly after departure, resulting in sudden cabin depressurization and an emergency landing. A few months later, a former employee and whistleblower set to testify about the company’s substandard safety and production protocols was found dead in his vehicle from a self-inflicted gunshot wound shortly before the final round of his deposition, sparking widespread speculation of foul play.
In the pilot’s seat of the company’s cockpit for much of its recent trouble was CEO Dave Calhoun, who took the position in 2020 in the wake of the fatal 2018 and 2019 Boeing 737 Max 8 crashes in Indonesia and Ethiopia. It was announced in the spring of 2024, however, that Calhoun, who had served on the company’s board before taking over as CEO, would step down from the helm at the end of the year as part of a leadership overhaul.
Leading a troubled public company during its darkest hours is no easy task, but Calhoun’s compensation was commensurate with the difficulty of the job. But just how much did he make as Boeing’s CEO? And how much is he worth now as he prepares to hand off his wings?
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Who is Dave Calhoun? How did he end up at Boeing?
Calhoun began his career at General Electric, working in his home state of Pennsylvania after graduating from Virginia Tech with a degree in accounting. During his 26-year tenure with GE, he assumed a number of roles, including a post within the company’s aircraft division.
Calhoun left GE in 2006 to join Nielsen, then called VNU, a large data-collection firm best known for tracking consumer purchasing and media habits. Nielsen was acquired by the Blackstone Group, an investment firm whose portfolio Calhoun began managing in 2014.
He joined Boeing in 2009 as a director and sat on the company’s board until he was pulled into the chief executive role to replace Dennis A. Muilenburg, who had served as the company’s CEO since 2015 before being ousted after the two deadly Max plane crashes in 2018 and 2019. Calhoun helmed the company through the subsequent grounding of the company’s Max jets through mid-November 2020.
It wasn’t smooth sailing from there, though — in early 2021, Boeing reached a deal with the Department of Justice to pay around $2.5 billion in exchange for immunity from criminal prosecution for the Max crashes. Just a few months later, however, the company identified an electrical problem with its Max planes and had to instruct airlines to ground them once again until the issue could be resolved.
Fast-forward to late 2023, and the company once again had to notify airlines about a potential pitfall in its airplanes — this time in the form of loose bolts. Just days later, on January 5, 2024, a door plug flew off of one of Boeing’s jets shortly after takeoff in a widely publicized incident that landed the company back in the hot seat. The FAA banned the company from expanding Max production until it could address its quality-control issues.
In March, the company failed a number of FAA safety audits, and by the end of the month, Calhoun announced he would be stepping down as CEO. It had been a rough four years, and Boeing’s reputation, which Calhoun had been appointed to repair, had only suffered further.
What is Dave Calhoun’s net worth?
Just months ahead of Calhoun’s resignation as CEO, his net worth is estimated to be above $59 million by financial data website GuruFocus.
Calhoun’s net worth comes largely from his holdings in various publicly traded companies, including Boeing. Here’s a breakdown of his largest stock positions as of SEC filings from November 2022:
- Boeing: 130,994 shares
- Caterpillar: 44,579 shares
- Nielsen Holdings: 506,921 shares
- GE Aerospace: 35,118 shares
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What is Dave Calhoun’s salary as Boeing CEO?
According to Nasdaq, Calhoun’s 2023 compensation totaled $32.77 million, up 45% from the year before. He received $1.4 million in base salary, $30.23 million in stock awards, and an additional $1.14 million in other compensation.
In 2022, Calhoun earned $22.60 million in total compensation compared to $21.17 million in 2021.
Why is Dave Calhoun stepping down as CEO?
Calhoun is just one of several high-profile Boeing executives who will be leaving their posts behind in late 2024 as part of the company’s top-level shake-up. Chairman of the board Larry Kellner and president of the company’s commercial planes division Stan Deal will also be stepping down.
According to Calhoun, the decision to leave was his own, but it came in the wake of criticism from several commercial airlines that rely on Boeing to manufacture the planes used in their fleets, as well as complaints from regulators and the public. According to Ryanair CEO Michael O’Leary, the European airline regularly noticed issues with Boeing’s planes that demonstrated “a lack of attention to detail and quality issues in Boeing.”
Who will replace Calhoun as CEO is not yet known, but the candidate search may prove difficult, as Boeing is no longer the well-respected company it once was — its stock was down nearly 30% year-to-date as of mid-July 2024.
Some have pointed to Pat Shanahan, the current CEO of Spirit AeroSystems (a major supplier that Boeing plans to acquire), as a possible successor.
One thing is sure, though — whoever does take the helm when Calhoun steps away will have no easy task repairing the company’s badly bruised professional and public reputation.
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