The top internal candidate to become Boeing Co.’s next chief executive officer made the rounds at the Farnborough International Airshow this week, raising her profile at the embattled planemaker as its board weighs a pivotal leadership decision.
Stephanie Pope, who runs Boeing’s commercial airplane unit, was the company’s senior-most official in attendance at the trade expo, meeting with customers as she builds the case that she belongs on aviation’s biggest stage. Outgoing CEO Dave Calhoun, who has said he’ll step down by year-end as Boeing reels from crisis, wasn’t present, making Pope the standard bearer and public face of the company.
Little is known of Boeing’s selection process, which is heating up and is overseen by Chairman Steve Mollenknopf — also a newcomer to his post. The job comes with significant challenges: whoever takes over must stem the financial bleeding, rebuild trust with the flying public and with regulators, and rally a dispirited workforce after Boeing lurched from one crisis to the next in recent years.
At the same time, a successful turnaround would help any CEO burnish their credentials by pulling one of the most iconic US manufacturers from the brink and restoring Boeing’s standing alongside Airbus SE in the global plane making duopoly.
Pope, 52, has spent months in Seattle, working to stabilize the planemaker’s factory operations. A mid-flight blowout of a fuselage panel in January threw the company into crisis and triggered a cascade of scrutiny by customers and regulators over manufacturing quality.
She was tapped to lead the planemaking unit in March, the same time when Boeing announced Calhoun’s eventual departure and installed Mollenkopf as chairman. Even before then, her star had been on the rise. Pope was promoted to chief operating officer late last year, making her the heir apparent, and Calhoun has publicly endorsed her as his natural successor.
But the unfolding crisis raised questions about whether Pope, whose background is in finance, has the manufacturing chops to take the reins. Before her rapid ascent up the ranks, Pope had run only the smallest of Boeing’s three major divisions for less than two years.
In her new role, Pope has immersed herself in the factory turnaround. She has moved from Dallas to Seattle, where the bulk of the company’s manufacturing operations are housed. She mostly works from an office in the 737 plant in nearby Renton, where she walks the floors.
“I was pleased to see that the Boeing management have moved their offices in the factories so that they’re actually looking at the planes,” said Emirates President Tim Clark.
That’s a possible swipe at Calhoun, who preferred to work on the go from a corporate jet or his homes in New Hampshire or South Carolina. Unlike her boss, Pope has met with Clark, an important customer who doesn’t shy away from frank assessments.
At Farnborough, the year’s biggest aviation event, Pope was prominent at Boeing’s order announcements and other gatherings, either joining the customers on stage or sitting in the front row and then posing for photos after signing aircraft deals. She took out time to meet with customers to hear their grievances about delayed aircraft deliveries.
Those sessions were typically booked in 30-minute bursts, from Sunday afternoon through Wednesday. Her evenings were the usual air show whirl of receptions and dinners, with multiple meals sometimes in the same night.
Boeing declined to make Pope available for an interview.
“I’m impressed with her, I think she’s a quick learner,” said John Plueger, the CEO of Air Lease Corp., who met with Pope several weeks ago and was swayed by her grasp of Boeing’s production system.
One airline executive who sat down with Pope at the show said she came across as apologetic about aircraft delays, but that she ultimately had little more to offer than a mea culpa about tardy deliveries.
Despite Boeing’s current challenges, Pope didn’t leave the air show empty-handed. All told, the company booked orders and commitments for almost 100 aircraft valued at about $13.7 billion, based on market estimates by consulting firm Ishka.
Clark, the biggest buyer of Boeing widebody aircraft, said he visited the Renton facility last week, one of many airline customers who have traveled to the manufacturing hub to inspect production and meet with management.
“Certainly Stephanie and the team are there,” said Clark. “They’ve got it in terms of understanding the root causes of why they were delivering aircraft as they were, what they need to do now to sort that out.”
The next few weeks could determine whether Pope takes on a far bigger role. Mollenkopf and search firm Russell Reynolds have cast a wide net as they hunt for the planemaker’s next leader.
Pat Shanahan, the CEO of Spirit AeroSystems Holdings Inc. and a former Boeing executive, is another leading candidate as the planemaker moves to consolidate its former aerostructures division. People close to the process say directors have been intently reviewing other external candidates as well.
The search appears to be moving closer to its conclusion as the planemaker starts to get beyond several key milestones lingering from scandals surrounding its 737 Max jetliner. Boeing has agreed to plead guilty to a single felony charge stemming from two earlier Max crashes, and the company plans to buy back Spirit, its biggest supplier, in order to gain greater control over its manufacturing.
Asked at the Sunday press briefing if she had the requisite skills to lead an engineering company, Pope demurred, making clear that her focus was on the turnaround she says will lead to “transformational change.”
“I’ll restate that 24/7 I’m focused on the BCA recovery,” Pope said, referring to Boeing’s commercial airplane business by its acronym. “That is my priority and that is my focus.”
--With assistance from Brad Skillman.
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