Boeing’s board of directors has taken the title of chairman of the board away from CEO Dennis Muilenburg, the company announced Friday after the close of trading, diminishing his power as the company struggles to bring its flagship plane back to service following two deadly crashes, APA reports citing Forbes.
The board has appointed David L. Calhoun, its longtime independent lead director, to serve as non-executive chairman.
"The board has full confidence in Dennis as CEO and believes this division of labor will enable maximum focus on running the business with the board playing an active oversight role,” Calhoun said in a statement.
A Boeing spokesman was unable to comment on whether Muilenburg’s pay would be reduced. His compensation totaled $23.39 million in the last fiscal year, including the value of stock grants.
The move comes six months after Boeing’s board had opposed a proposal at its April shareholder meeting to separate the roles of chairman and CEO. The measure was voted down by a margin of 66% to 34%.
Muilenburg stated, "I am fully supportive of the board's action. Our entire team is laser-focused on returning the 737 MAX safely to service and delivering on the full breadth of our company's commitments."
Muilenburg has taken the brunt of public criticism for Boeing’s failures with the 737 MAX, an updated version of its bestselling plane. The MAX has been grounded worldwide since early March in the wake of the second of two crashes that killed a total of 346 people. Muilenburg has made few public appearances since, and drew criticism for being slow to acknowledge that design flaws with a new automated flight control feature called MCAS were a key contributor to the accidents.
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