…As Condit Steps Down

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The Pentagon’s action followed Monday’s news that CEO Phil Condit would step down, after 38 years at the company. And just last week, Boeing fired CFO Mike Sears and Darleen Druyun, a vice president in the missile unit, for alleged ethical misconduct. Druyun and Sears improperly discussed Druyun’s future at Boeing while she was still employed by the Air Force and in a position to influence decisions about the tanker contract, Boeing said. Harry Stonecipher, the former CEO of McDonnell Douglas who led the merger with Boeing in 1997 and retired as Boeing’s president last year, was named the new CEO. The Chicago Sun-Times was quick to list the “low-lights” of Condit’s career at Boeing: He slashed 30,000 jobs at the company, while his own pay package almost doubled to $4.5 million; he neglected the “old Boeing” commercial aircraft business and lost ground to Airbus, while concentrating too much on diversification efforts; and he seriously lapsed in oversight on ethical issues, resulting in being banned from bidding on some government contracts. Analysts quoted in The Seattle Times praised the elevation of Stonecipher, who is expected to reassure those who question the company’s integrity, but some in the rank and file said his ascendancy signals the final takeover of Boeing by the forces of McDonnell Douglas.

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