Boeing's board of directors has a short list of candidate chief executives from within and outside the company, but is still some months away from making its decision. Click on Read More for the full story.
The board can afford to wait because James Bell, the acting CEO and full-time chief financial officer, has done a "great job" of calming the turmoil that followed the resignation four months ago of Harry Stonecipher, Chairman Lewis E. Platt said. Stonecipher was forced out after e-mails surfaced revealing he had a personal relationship with a female company executive.
Though his last days were marred, Platt said, Stonecipher "took hold of the reins" of Boeing's ethics issues with the Pentagon and Congress, especially regarding an aborted effort to lease KC-767 tankers to the U.S. Air Force. Platt recounted an early meeting with senators at the air show who said, "There's no question that you guys have made progress" in repairing relations in Washington. "But you realize it takes a long time to retrieve trust once you've broken confidence." He says he accepts that judgment.
Platt reiterates a position that Bell himself has stated: He is not a candidate for Boeing's top job. But his tenure as acting CEO has "given us a chance to look at a broad list of candidates" without feeling undue pressure to find a new chief executive quickly, Platt says.
One presumed finalist, Boeing Commercial Airplanes President Alan Mulally, says he isn't speculating and deflected a question of whether he might leave the company should he not be chosen. "I love Boeing, I love serving Boeing . . . it's not a decision I make," he said.
Senior officials such as Platt, Senior Vice President for International Relations Thomas R. Pickering and Mulally spent much of their time at the air show explaining the company's position on the airline litigation between the U.S. and European Union that's now before the World Trade Organization.
Airbus officials offered a five-point plan for a compromise in which they would give up government loans in exchange for: Congress dropping language linking the subsidy matter to access to U.S. programs; a cessation of third-party support (mainly Japanese aid to its manufacturers); an immediate end to a foreign sales tax benefit the WTO has already ruled illegal; grandfathering in of all aircraft including the A380 for the disputed development loans; and an end to so-called indirect support, including from the Pentagon.
Boeing officials scoff at those demands, in particular any link between military programs and the commercial world. "There is nothing to put on the table, particularly with regard to launch aid," Platt said. "We don't have this quid pro quo that they keep talking about. If you take launch aid off the table, we will sit down and talk to them."
Still, Boeing officials say they'd prefer a negotiated settlement because it will be less costly and time consuming than waiting an estimated two years for the WTO to act. They insist there's little risk of the WTO ruling against them.
ONE CULTURAL DIFFERENCE between Boeing and Airbus is the visibility given their respective sales teams. Airbus' chief commercial officer, John Leahy, has always been among the most prominent senior executives at any Airbus event. Indeed, he has seen Airbus chief executives come and go.
In contrast, Boeing's chief salesman has traditionally stayed in the background. But at this year's show, the new man in that job, long-time senior executive Scott Carson, was far more visible.
Since coming to the job in January, he has set up seven distinct sales teams, including six for the world's major geographical groupings and one dedicated to leasing companies and sales of trade-in aircraft. "We used to look at them as competitors," Carson said of leasing companies. "We now look at them as partners."
Although he has no memorandums of intended orders, Carson says several dozen airlines are interested in the 747 Advanced, a stretched 747-400 that would seat 450. "It's a low-risk opportunity for us," he says of the aircraft, which Boeing figures could capture half of the 900 sales it anticipates for aircraft larger than 400 seats over the next 20 years. Airbus counts the market much differently, expecting 1,250 sales.
While a lot of interest in 747As revolves around a freighter version, Carson says British Airways and Lufthansa are among the carriers seeking a passenger variant.
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