Dennis A. Muilenburg was fired as Boeing CEO on Monday, a week after the company announced it planned to suspend production of its troubled 737 Max airplanes.
Muilenburg, who had been CEO since 2015, will be replaced by David Calhoun, who is Boeing’s chairman.
Boeing’s stock jumped more than 3 percent immediately after the announcement.
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“The Board of Directors decided that a change in leadership was necessary to restore confidence in the Company moving forward as it works to repair relationships with regulators, customers, and all other stakeholders,” the company said in a statement.
One week ago, the company announced that it was suspending production of its troubled 737 Max airplanes in January.
Production of the planes, which were grounded after two crashes killed 346 people, will remain on hiatus until regulators determine when they can be certified and returned to service, Boeing said.
A 737 Max, Lion Air Flight 610, crashed off the coast of Indonesia on Oct. 29, 2018, killing 189 people.
Then on March 10 of this year, Ethiopian Airlines Flight 302 crashed en route to Kenya, killing all 157 people on board.
Muilenburg had become a focal point of the 737 Max crisis, especially after documents emerged, showing that pilots and the company’s own test pilots raised red flags about the planes.
By the time Muilenburg was grilled by lawmakers on Capitol Hill at the end of October, the board had already stripped him of his chairmanship.
“You’re no longer an Iowa farm boy,” U.S. Rep Peter DeFazio, D-Ore., told Muilenburg during one pointed exchange. “You are the CEO of the largest aircraft manufacturer in the world. You’re earning a heck of a lot of money, and so far the consequence to you has been, oh, you’re not chairman of the board anymore.”
