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Boeing CEO faces shareholders frustrated by 737 Max response
Business
Boeing CEO faces shareholders frustrated by 737 Max response
Muilenburg sticks to script that company ‘owns’ some responsibility, but doesn’t acknowledge any design flaws
By Douglas MacMillan
April 29 at 1:41 PM
At Boeing’s annual meeting for shareholders, one investor challenged CEO Dennis Muilenburg to explain why the company built the 737 Max with a single sensor that was vulnerable to failure. ... “That should have gone through some sort of internal review or something,” the Boeing shareholder said at the meeting. His name could not be confirmed. ... “We don’t have to have 300-plus people die every time to find out that something isn’t reliable,” he said.
Boeing’s CEO and board of directors confronted difficult questions from investors and the media on Monday, the first time since two crashes of the 737 Max jet threw the company into chaos. Speaking to a half-empty auditorium in Chicago’s’ Field Museum, Muilenburg tried to reassure investors that the company takes safety concerns seriously and is working with regulators to update the technical features of the plane that contributed to both accidents. ... “When it comes to safety, there are no competing priorities,” Muilenburg said at the meeting.
In defending Boeing, the CEO stuck to a script that the company “owns” some responsibility for improving the safety of the 737 Max. But, to the frustration of some shareholders in attendance, he stopped short of accepting that the plane was built with any flaw in its design. He repeatedly said the crashes were caused by a “chain of events,” of which Boeing’s software and its sensors were only one part.
[Boeing suffers rare drop in earnings amid uncertain timeline for return of Max]
That explanation is being challenged by family members of the victims in the two crashes, some of whom stood in the rain outside the Field Museum, holding umbrellas and placards with photos of people who died. ... “Their response has been a farce,” said Tarek Milleron, the uncle of a 24-year-old American woman who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March. “It’s a hollow denial. They talk about chains of events in accidents, but we need to know the chain of events inside Boeing that led to these crashes.”
....
After the hour-long shareholder meeting, Muilenburg fielded questions from the media for about 16 minutes before walking out of the room.
Doug MacMillan is a corporate accountability reporter for The Washington Post, investigating questionable practices and abuses of power by large businesses. He previously covered technology for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and Businessweek. Follow https://twitter.com/dmac1
Boeing CEO faces shareholders frustrated by 737 Max response
Muilenburg sticks to script that company ‘owns’ some responsibility, but doesn’t acknowledge any design flaws
By Douglas MacMillan
April 29 at 1:41 PM
At Boeing’s annual meeting for shareholders, one investor challenged CEO Dennis Muilenburg to explain why the company built the 737 Max with a single sensor that was vulnerable to failure. ... “That should have gone through some sort of internal review or something,” the Boeing shareholder said at the meeting. His name could not be confirmed. ... “We don’t have to have 300-plus people die every time to find out that something isn’t reliable,” he said.
Boeing’s CEO and board of directors confronted difficult questions from investors and the media on Monday, the first time since two crashes of the 737 Max jet threw the company into chaos. Speaking to a half-empty auditorium in Chicago’s’ Field Museum, Muilenburg tried to reassure investors that the company takes safety concerns seriously and is working with regulators to update the technical features of the plane that contributed to both accidents. ... “When it comes to safety, there are no competing priorities,” Muilenburg said at the meeting.
In defending Boeing, the CEO stuck to a script that the company “owns” some responsibility for improving the safety of the 737 Max. But, to the frustration of some shareholders in attendance, he stopped short of accepting that the plane was built with any flaw in its design. He repeatedly said the crashes were caused by a “chain of events,” of which Boeing’s software and its sensors were only one part.
[Boeing suffers rare drop in earnings amid uncertain timeline for return of Max]
That explanation is being challenged by family members of the victims in the two crashes, some of whom stood in the rain outside the Field Museum, holding umbrellas and placards with photos of people who died. ... “Their response has been a farce,” said Tarek Milleron, the uncle of a 24-year-old American woman who died in the Ethiopian Airlines crash in March. “It’s a hollow denial. They talk about chains of events in accidents, but we need to know the chain of events inside Boeing that led to these crashes.”
....
After the hour-long shareholder meeting, Muilenburg fielded questions from the media for about 16 minutes before walking out of the room.
Doug MacMillan is a corporate accountability reporter for The Washington Post, investigating questionable practices and abuses of power by large businesses. He previously covered technology for the Wall Street Journal, Bloomberg News and Businessweek. Follow https://twitter.com/dmac1
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