The American aeronautics group Boeing announced on Wednesday July 31 the appointment of Kelly Ortberg as its new boss, starting August 8. He will replace Dave Calhoun, who had declared in the spring that he would leave his post before the end of the year, while the group was in turmoil following the accident of the Boeing 737 MAX 9 of Alaska Airlines, which lost a door in flight in January.
“The Board of Directors conducted a broad and thorough search process over the past several months to select Boeing’s new CEO, and Kelly has the right skills and experience to lead Boeing into its next chapter.”commented Steven Mollenkopf, Chairman of the Board, in a message addressed to the group’s employees as well as in the press release announcing this choice.
Robert Ortberg, known as Kelly Ortberg, worked for thirty-five years in the aeronautics field; he began his career in 1983 as an engineer at Texas Instruments. He then joined Rockwell Collins, which, after multiple mergers and acquisitions, is now called Collins Aerospace and is a subsidiary of the American aeronautics and defense company RTX (formerly Raytheon). Now 64, he retired from RTX in 2021. “I am extremely honored and grateful to be joining this iconic group”Mr. Ortberg commented, quoted in the press release.
Net loss of $1.44 billion in the second quarter
His predecessor, Dave Calhoun, was swept up in the crisis that Boeing has been going through for many months, with production and quality control problems. A member of the board of directors since 2009 and appointed CEO in early 2020 to restore the situation after the crashes of 2018 and 2019, which left 346 dead, he announced his retirement on March 25, as part of a reorganization at the head of the group.
In a separate statement, the planemaker reported second-quarter results that fell well short of analysts’ expectations, with a net loss of $1.44 billion due to lower deliveries in its commercial aircraft business and losses on contracts in its defense business.
FactSet analysts’ consensus had expected a net loss of $913 million (from a net loss of $149 million a year earlier), or a loss per share excluding exceptional items of $1.90, but it came to $2.90.
Revenue reached $16.86 billion between April and June, 15% less than in the same period last year.