Associated Press

Boeing CEO Loses $7M Bonus, Keeps $22.5 Million Compensation

AP Photo/Richard Drew, File
Nielsen Company CEO David Calhoun, center, watches progress as he waits for the company’s IPO to begin trading on Jan. 26, 2011, on the floor of the New York Stock Exchange. Boeing said Friday, March 3, 2023

ASSOCIATED PRESS

10:58 JST, March 4, 2023

ARLINGTON, Va. (AP) — Boeing rewarded CEO David Calhoun with compensation valued at $22.5 million for 2022 but won’t pay him a $7 million bonus because the company will fail to get its new 777X jetliner in service by the end of this year.

The company said in a regulatory filing Friday that the 777X will be behind schedule “for reasons largely beyond Mr. Calhoun’s control.” But it did say some of his decisions regarding the plane contributed to the miss.

Boeing announced last spring that the large, twin-aisle plane would not be delivered to airlines until 2025, five years after the original target. The company said directors decided last August that Calhoun’s $7 million bonus would not vest.

The company based in Arlington, Virginia, lost $5 billion in 2022, including write-downs, as it dealt with setbacks to defense projects and ongoing problems with its 787 Dreamliner passenger jet.

Most of Calhoun’s 2022 compensation was in the form of estimated value of stock and option awards. He received the same $1.4 million salary as in 2021.

Calhoun became CEO in January 2020 after Dennis Muilenburg was ousted in fallout from two crashes of Boeing 737 Max jets that killed 346 people.

The Boeing board heaped praise on Calhoun, saying he had taken steps to position the company for the future without regard for goals set before the pandemic and “the changed regulatory environment” – stricter standards for certifying new planes since the Max crashes.