Boeing Co on Tuesday named company veteran Scott Carson as chief executive of its commercial airplane unit, filling the hole left by Alan Mulally's unexpected appointment as chief executive of Ford Motor Co.
The loss of Mulally, who worked for Boeing for 37 years, is a blow for Boeing, analysts said, but comes at a relatively good time for the planemaker. "Boeing losing Alan Mulally is a blow," said Peter Jacobs, an analyst at investment firm Ragen MacKenzie. "But industry fundamentals are going in the right direction, which will let the new management team evolve and get to know each other."
Mulally, who takes up his new job at Ford immediately, was widely credited with helping turn around Boeing's commercial plane unit, which is on track to beat rival Airbus in terms of orders this year, for the first time since 2000.
Wall Street paid tribute to Mulally's talents, but broadly agreed that the planemaker would not suffer a setback. "Our positive view on Boeing is not altered by this management change," said Robert Stallard at Bank of America, in a research note. "Although Boing Commercial Airplanes has performed well in recent years, we would say that the largest contributors to this have been the industry recovery, Carson's sales effort and issues at Airbus."
Carson, 60, has worked at Boeing for 34 years. He was most recently head of sales at the commercial airplane unit, which represents about half of Boeing's revenue. Boeing chief executive Jim McNerney said in a conference call that the company would soon appoint a new head of sales for the unit.
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