Boeing (BA) stockholders decided Friday that CEO Dave Calhoun can stay on the company’s board despite an unfolding crisis that started under his watch.
Calhoun has already announced that he is stepping down as boss at the end of the year.
During the plane maker’s annual shareholder meeting on Friday, shareholders voted for Calhoun to remain as a director, along with 10 independent board nominees.
Shareholders also approved a nearly $33 million executive pay package for Calhoun, covering work done in 2023. The figure exceeded Calhoun’s target compensation of $25.5 million.
The shareholder support comes as Boeing works to assure regulators, lawmakers, investors, and the public that its planes are airworthy following a midair blowout of a fuselage section that detached from an Alaska Airlines 737 Max 9 jet in January.
A preliminary investigation by the National Transportation Safety Bureau showed four bolt fasteners meant to hold the door in place were missing.
There were no fatalities, although passengers and crew on board suffered injuries.
Boeing is currently under criminal investigation by the Justice Department for its role in the blowout.
The Justice Department told a judge this week that Boeing has violated an earlier deferred prosecution agreement that allowed it to avoid criminal prosecution after after two catastrophic crashes of Boeing’s 737 Max aircraft in 2018 and 2019.
It is now up to the Justice Department whether to criminally charge Boeing, and it will decide on that question by July 7.
Calhoun joined the board in 2009 and took on the CEO role in January 2020 following the two 737 Max crashes.
Those crashes, which happened while his predecessor Dennis Muilenburg was CEO, killed all 346 passengers and crew on board.
Boeing’s new board chair, Steven Mollenkopf, acknowledged during Friday’s shareholder meeting that the months and years ahead are “critically important” as the company takes steps to regain lost trust.
“Recent events make it absolutely clear that we have more work to do and must improve every day,” Mollenkopf said.
